Friday, December 14, 2007

Chocolate; as inspiration


Sure, some artists work in oils, or pastel, or watercolor but I thought I'd try something a bit different. Chocolate is my new medium and, as you can see, this piece is performance art. It all came about while I was melting chocolate in a glass bowl over water. Like a ninny I lifted the bowl, steam escaped and scalded my hand, and I dropped the bowl on the floor. What did I do? I called my sister Doodles to commiserate while I waited for the chocolate to cool enough to clean up. It was one of my favorite bowls I broke.

Kitchens are dangerous places and though I'm aware of the physics of boiling water producing steam, I was in a hurry. Since the holidays create more activity in the kitchen make sure you take a little extra time do things carefully.

What's been your worst kitchen disaster?

8 comments:

sylvie1950 said...

I probably have a number of disasters in the kitchen that I have erased from memroy except for one of the most recent. I was reducing some apple juice on the stovetop in my favorite saucepan and then I left the room to do something else. I became aware of my mistake when a smoke cloud found me with the smell of burnt apple. I tried deglazing the mess in the saucepan which didn't work. It was a mess. It took a week of soaking and scraping to finally get it removed.

Chris said...

Oh my! I can so relate to your mishap. I hate when I "oops" with chocolate beacuse its so aggrevating to wipe up. Mele Cotte disasters have been many...too many to chronicle here. I have done a couple of disaster posts in the past, though. I am famous for burning my hands though. I cook a lot with the pan that you can bring stove top to oven and there have been many a time, not thinking, that I grab the handle - without a pot holder. The best is when my hands are wet and I hear the sizzle...hmmm smart girl I am!

barb said...

We all have mishaps in the kitchen but chocolate all over everything would just be yucky and a PITA to clean up. My worst was hardboiled eggs gone dry cause the phone rang or I got distracted. The smell of burnt eggs just last in your nasal passages a long time.

So are ya gonna put up a photo of the finished product?

Anonymous said...

Yeouch! Hope that wasn't too painful to clean up!

As for mine - easy. Baked strawberry tart, 2 days prep, out of the oven, all girly and pink and fragrant...alas, I couldn't wait for it to cool properly before trying to remove it from the tart tin.

It covered half the floor of my kitchen, and broke my heart in two :(

Ellie @ Kitchen Wench

Laura Rebecca said...

Happened just yesterday: I'd made a vanilla bundt cake studded with chocolate and pecans for our department's Christmas party but I was in a rush. I had to take the cake out of the oven & head directly to work.

So, when it came out of the oven, I inverted the cake onto a rack and lifted off the bundt pan. The cake immediately split apart along the lines of the bundt, leaving irregular cake chunks and crumbs in its wake. I've taken to calling it "explosion cake."

Needless to say, I wound up bringing a box of Tim Horton's doughnuts to the party.

La Vida Dulce said...

Owww! The eggs were boiling, I left to answer the phone and when I came back they became hard crusted eggs! Took forever to scrub that pot.

Joanna said...

So sad to see your favourite bowl in pieces on the floor like that. And all that chocolate. Did you start again? Or were you too fed up?

Joanna

Deborah Eley De Bono said...

Gad, what disasters! Boiled eggs are the worst.

I've burnt myself so many times it seems it's not a celebration until I have some bandage.

Yes, I did start again and I'll show the finished product after I decorate them. I'm making small personal cakes to give as gifts. The bowl, ah, it's lost forever. I've been thinking of hitting the Thrift stores for a replacement.

Thanks for all the disaster related comments.