Kitchen surprises . . . !

[testkitchen45]

So I open the microwave to heat a lunch wrap. And I see that the microwave's loaded with rosemary. My 1st thought is, what in the world did DS make that used so much rosemary? My 2nd thought is, since when does rosemary move? :eek: Ants had invaded my microwave! I've been vacuuming them up all day; we caulked the teeny hole where they came in under the countertop--guess they smelled a spill. It's hot here; the calendar says "fall" but the mercury says "so what" even though what I'd love right now is a good freeze to kill off all the extra critters. Of course, I'll take the ants this year over the stealth wasps from last year (the ones that'd be at eye level when I opened my blinds; THAT was loads of fun last summer).

Years ago, a friend told me that when she left the kitchen, her huge dog ate all the raw chicken breasts right off the plate where they sat briefly, awaiting being cooked. Guess they ordered pizza that night. :p

Who's next? What nonculinary surprises have you had in your kitchen? :D (Extra points awarded if it was on a holiday, or if you were expecting company. :) )

[cookieee]

As a matter of fact, I had a surprise last Thursday. I was on the phone with a friend when I heard a loup pop from the kitchen. It was so loud that she asked me what was that. I excused myself for a minute and went in the kitchen to check. I couldn't find a thing out of the ordinary. Later that evening, when I was cleaning the kitchen from the dinner mess, I found out what it was. Seems that the crock pot in which I was cooking Beef Goulash, burped and there was red sauce on the back counter that I didn't see earlier. It has a plastic lid so I guess it was an easy burb. But it didn't say excuse me :D

[Goin' Coastal]

One Thanksgiving Day (extra points :) ) I was cleaning out the microwave. I heated a mug of water and let it create some steam to aid in getting off some stuck on debris. I pulled the mug out, set it on the counter, and began wiping out the microwave. Suddenly I heard this huge explosion - loud enough to bring everyone in the house running into the kitchen to see what happenned. The water in the mug had exploded! It was bone dry and there was a wet circle on the ceiling at least 18" wide. Quite a frightening experience. Thnak goodness it didn't explode in someone's face. Turns out I let the water heat too long and pressure built up in it. I should have stirred it before removing it from the oven.

[HejazSunKat]

Turns out I let the water heat too long and pressure built up in it. I should have stirred it before removing it from the oven.

Oh don't do that! What you had was superheated water:

http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/~jw/superheating.html

As for me, this year's kitchen surprise has been centipedes. :D

[JanetB]

My sons like to use my canned goods for building castles. So, I let them - keeps them busy - in fact I have taken the child lock off of the cabinet in which I keep canned goods. This works for me - as I only put CANNED goods in this cabinet.

Enter Grandma . . . my mother decided to "clean up" for me last week when she babysat. Mom was only here for an hour - I had been baking in the morning with DS1 so the flour was out along with sundry other dry goods including cereal. Didn't occur to me to check where she put the cereal boxes. Yep, you guessed it. Next morning, I was helping the older of the two boys use the facilities - and I heard an odd noise - followed by a loud cackle of laughter from the 15 month old. Yes - there - outside that unchildlocked cabinet were the contents of 2 full boxes of cereal and a box of cornstarch in a pile with the toddler sitting in it eating the cereal. Yippee. Love to start the day with a major clean up!

[leightx]

A few weeks ago we smelled a horrendous stench everytime we walked into the kitchen, but only in this one particular spot. We thought the disposal might be nasty, so threw lemons, then bleach in it. No luck. Cleaned out the fridge. Still funky. Cleaned the trash can out with bleach - still stunk. Checked to see if something had died (seriously - it was THAT bad! :eek: ) in all the cabinets. Nope. It went on like this for at least 3 or 4 days, and got a little worse each day.

DH conveniently went out of town the next day, and the kids and I decided to have a movie night. I went to pop popcorn, and discovered FISH in the microwave. Fish that we had cooked a WEEK earlier. :eek: :eek: :eek: I called DH to figure out WTH was up with the nasty fish in the microwave, and he finally remembered that he had decided to have some for lunch the next day, so he reheated a piece. He was still hungry and microwaved a second piece, but apparently forgot about it. It was in the microwave for 6 days before we found it (of course, we smelled it on day 3...). http://starwarsloser.info/smile/sick/sick0022.gif (http://www.msnsmilies.net)

The most amazing thing about the entire ordeal is not only did we not use the microwave for over a week, we never once thought to look in there!!! :o

[LaraW]

OMG, Leigh, you reminded me of a similar microwave story.

MIL/FIL were on a mission trip to France years ago, and DH and I were at their house b/c DH was mowing their lawn. For some reason we decided to eat dinner at their house b/c we had somewhere to go right after dinner and there wouldn't be time to go home to eat. These mission trips that MIL/FIL used to go on lasted 5-6 weeks because they would also often extend the time to vacation on their own.

Anyway, I was inside making dinner and opened the microwave. I found a tupperware full of macaroni and cheese that had been there for at least 4 weeks :eek: :eek: :eek:. I just about threw up right there, and had to do my remaining prep work outside. I vowed to never eat anything else that came out of that microwave...and never have! :D

[testkitchen45]

It was in the microwave for 6 days before we found it (of course, we smelled it on day 3...). http://starwarsloser.info/smile/sick/sick0022.gif (http://www.msnsmilies.net)

Hey, love the new smilie! Wish we could have it permanently added to our choices--I've had some recipes that prompted that reaction, but I'll settle for :eek: .

(Still. Vacuuming. Ants. :mad: ;) )

I know someone whose teenager caught a little shark or something on a fishing trip. Used his mom's stockpot to boil the head in the kitchen, in the hopes of saving the jaws. :eek: Smelled so bad I think the mom threw out the stockpot, too. http://starwarsloser.info/smile/sick/sick0022.gif (http://www.msnsmilies.net)

[vbak]

earwigs!! I hate those ##$$%%& things with a passion. It's so nice to find one in the dishtowel or the dish cloth!:eek: :eek:

[jellyben]

I was cleaning the high chair and decided I should remove the cover to get to all the cheerios that I just knew had fallen in there. Well, i found more than cheerios, I found maggots!!! I have never been so repulsed-my baby was sitting on maggots! After that I kept the cover off and put baby right on the hard plastic. That way I was sure to see all the crumbs!

[badunnin]

My fav kitchen surprise is posted here (http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?t=92165&highlight=andrew). :)

[lindrusso]

EW to the fish in the microwave. We have had things sit in the micro a day or maybe two - usually a forgotten muffin - but fortunately we use it quite often, so hopefully nothing would be in there too terribly long......

We had an incident similar to the exploding mug of hot water.....

I was sitting in our family room and heard the sound of breaking glass. Could NOT figure out where the sound had come from - nobody was in there. Later on I opened up the dishwasher to find that a glass had simply disintegrated and was in pieces on the bottom.

Turns out DH had used the glass to microwave some water or something and after completely cooling off, the glass simply broke in lots of pieces. Fortunately it came apart much like tempered glass, so no dangerous shards, just crumbled chunks.

Obviously heating water in the microwave is NOT a good idea!