Culinary Disasters

So learning to cook vegan, in may ways, is like learning to cook all over again.  Because I have things in my pantry and fridge that I never previously knew existed, let alone cooked with.

One thing I knew existed, but wasn't crazy about, was beets.   But I had them in my fridge, because I'd used some in a recipe, and had about half of a can of beets left over, so I threw them in glad ware, and unfortunately for me, forgot about them.

It gets worse.   Because I forgot about them, I shoved something into the fridge, and it pushed the container back, dislodged the lid and sent sugary beet juice everywhere.  It pooled on the top shelf, pooled under the glass shelves, dripped into crevices, down the walls, and onto the shelves and drawers below.   It looked like the scene of a mass murder.  I felt like I was in an episode of CSI: The Kitchen.  

I didn't discover this until I went to put groceries away and opened the fridge, and went to make room and moved a few tupperware containers and saw this red liquid pooling everywhere.   I thought, whatttt?!! And then discovered the beets container, and realized what had happened.

Probably, the best thing to do is store them in a place like, I don't know.. the trash.  

So instead of putting groceries away, I had an impromptu cleaning of the fridge.  Then again, it needed to be done, so this just forced me to do it.

Then, later on that day, I was following a recipe for mushroom gravy, and the instructions said to blend the hot contents in a "food processor" or blender, so I did indeed, foolishly opt for the food processor.    As soon as I turned it on, I realized it was a mistake, because hot mushroom liquid sprayed everywhere, including all over the recipe book that came from the library.  So now, everything covered in a fine spray of mushroom gravy, and the mushrooms still not chopped, I threw it in the blender to achieve the gravy consistency.   Finally, it worked.

Note to self: Use the blender next time.  It works much better.