Epic Fails: Thanksgiving Edition

stoneycakes

Any Turkey day fails to share?

Mandmeesh

We were trying a vegetarian stuffed "turkey" breast (also a real turkey, and I didn't need a substitute, I love all the sides) and it was so disgusting. It was like someone dumped their whole jar of oregano into the batch. Ugh. Whole thing went into the trash

stoneycakes

Yesterday, I made a sweet potato pie.  I normally top it with broiled mini marshmallows.  I put it under the broiler and went to clean a couple of dishes.  Then, like two minutes later, I smelled burning and I was like "OMG, the pie!"  I opened the oven door and the pie was literally on fire! Instead of marshmallows, it looked like a pile of charcoal on top.  Luckily, I had more marshmallows and I was able to salvage it, but it was pretty hilarious.

CLLDLL

Our big dinner with my family is tomorrow, but we ate with DHs side yesterday. She told us to come over at 1. We were running a little late, but showed up at 1:20 or so. She was just getting the turkey out of the oven. She still had to cook the sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and stuffing. And make the gravy and cream cheese topping for a jello salad. We didn't eat until 3:30. My boys were wreck with hunger. The food I brought had sat out on the counter for 2 hours at that point and was cold not to mention likely full of food poisoning causing bacteria. G and D ate turkey and rolls, then we hit a drive through on the way home.

TJ1979

@clldll We had a similar situation. Got there at 11 as requested, ate at 2. Yuck.

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TJ1979

Oh no @secretagentkate! Are they cotton? They should be fairly resistant. I'd use blue dawn and a toothbrush. Are you sure it wasn't yeasty? If you have any doubt I would bleach and/or tto and GSE before you use it again.

CLLDLL

TJ1979 said:

Oh no @secretagentkate! Are they cotton? They should be fairly resistant. I'd use blue dawn and a toothbrush. Are you sure it wasn't yeasty? If you have any doubt I would bleach and/or tto and GSE before you use it again.

Ugh @secretagentkate  Sorry to hear about that.  I agree with all TJ suggested.  

Danie007

@secretagentkate that sucks. I agree toothbrush/dawn to the rescue. I would also soak in hot water with lots of rinses afterwards.

freezorburn

I screwed up the pumpkin pie. Second time baking a pie in this house, using a British pie dish so the sides are more straight up-and-down, and it's actually quite a deep dish. The crust worked out okay (I ruined a pie a couple of weeks ago with this dish, the crust totally ballooned and caved in and it was a disaster), but I didn't make enough filling. And I was in too much of a hurry to get back to the baby to realize it. The plan was I was going to pop the pie in the oven and leave it for my husband to check. But everything was taking longer because DH had spilled some grease in the oven earlier, and I didn't realize it until we smoked up the whole house, so I had to stop and clean that before I could bake my crust. And by the time I got around to filling the pie, the baby was having a melt-down, so I just decided to bake a half-filled pie. Shoot.

TJ1979

@freezorburn You prebake your crust for a pumpkin pie???

stoneycakes

TJ1979 said:

@freezorburn You prebake your crust for a pumpkin pie???

I always partially bake the crusts on one crust pies.  I didn't on Thanksgiving because the recipe specifically said to use an unbaked pie shell and I didn't think it came out as nice.

TJ1979

stoneycakes said:

TJ1979 said:

@freezorburn You prebake your crust for a pumpkin pie???

I always partially bake the crusts on one crust pies.  I didn't on Thanksgiving because the recipe specifically said to use an unbaked pie shell and I didn't think it came out as nice.

I have never done that, how do you keep the edges from burning? I already use crust shields and they are still close to too brown for my taste.

stoneycakes

TJ1979 said:

TJ1979 said:

@freezorburn You prebake your crust for a pumpkin pie???

I always partially bake the crusts on one crust pies.  I didn't on Thanksgiving because the recipe specifically said to use an unbaked pie shell and I didn't think it came out as nice.

I have never done that, how do you keep the edges from burning? I already use crust shields and they are still close to too brown for my taste.

I don't usually have a problem with that, but I would try baking it on a lower rack.  I was reading you're supposed to do that anyway with pies because it helps the bottom crust cook.

Mandmeesh

stoneycakes said:

TJ1979 said:

TJ1979 said:

@freezorburn You prebake your crust for a pumpkin pie???

I always partially bake the crusts on one crust pies.  I didn't on Thanksgiving because the recipe specifically said to use an unbaked pie shell and I didn't think it came out as nice.

I have never done that, how do you keep the edges from burning? I already use crust shields and they are still close to too brown for my taste.

I don't usually have a problem with that, but I would try baking it on a lower rack.  I was reading you're supposed to do that anyway with pies because it helps the bottom crust cook.

mmmmm, pie

TJ1979

@stoneycakes I do. My oven sucks.

stoneycakes

TJ1979 said:

@stoneycakes I do. My oven sucks.

Have you tried using tinfoil on the edges instead of a pie shield?  I know the shields are specifically intended to protect the crusts, but I feel like foil might actually do a better job because it doesn't conduct heat at all and is more reflective.  That what I've always used in the past once the crust starts looking brown.

TJ1979

I'll try that at Christmas Stoney, thanks.

sarenu1

I always pre-bake my pumpkin pie shell.

I don't make many pies, so I couldn't make a guess if it's just single crusts.

My recipe for pumpkin pie has me precook the filling similar to a custard, so it has less oven time.

sarenu1

I burned the pecans for my stuffing.

I needed to roast them and I turned around to do something and they were black.

I really should know better.

KLXVI

@stoneycakes I tried a bite of stuffing and it was disgusting!  We have another thanksgiving dinner on Sunday night so I'll try it again then.

My fail was that I thought about making pecan pie, but decided against it because I was busy with DS and because my pecans were really old.  When I got to my grandma's house she was really sad that I didn't bring pecan pie .  

stoneycakes

LOL @littkek! I'm glad I at least inspired you to try it.  It seriously shouldn't be disgusting.  I think trying it again on Sunday is a good idea.  Maybe you just had some really bad stuffing!

Mandmeesh

@stoneycakes, @tj1979 didn't use tin foil on her pies because that shiz is covered in chemicals! Remember???!

TJ1979

@mandmeesh YES! Exactly! Thanks for reminding me.

TJ1979

TJ1979 said:

@mandmeesh YES! Exactly! Thanks for reminding me.

That in addition to my daily microwaved coffee will probably kill me.

So the keurig doesn't make my coffee hot enough. If I don't microwave, what am I supposed to do to warm it up?

stoneycakes

Mandmeesh said:

@stoneycakes, @tj1979 didn't use tin foil on her pies because that shiz is covered in chemicals! Remember???!

LOL! But it's for a pie, guys! C'mon. Once a year is okay, right? I'm cool with it on occasion.

unaveragejane

I was watching my mom make something for Thanksgiving, and a random no-poo tidbit popped into my head. "Did you know you can use corn squash as dry shampoo?" She gave me a funny look and said, "Acorn squash?" Then I said it again, "No, corn squash." Finally I heard what I was saying. "No!! Corn starch."

freezorburn

TJ1979 said:

@freezorburn You prebake your crust for a pumpkin pie???

In the past I have not (I actually like the slightly raw crust on the bottom), but for some reason this year as I was reading the instruction on the can of Libby's, it said to pre-bake the crust. So I did.

TJ1979

freezorburn said:

TJ1979 said:

@freezorburn You prebake your crust for a pumpkin pie???

In the past I have not (I actually like the slightly raw crust on the bottom), but for some reason this year as I was reading the instruction on the can of Libby's, it said to pre-bake the crust. So I did.

Hmm. My crust isn't slightly raw on the bottom. Perhaps I shouldn't try to fix what isn't broken.

freezorburn

Mapleme said:

TJ1979 said:

@freezorburn You prebake your crust for a pumpkin pie???

In the past I have not (I actually like the slightly raw crust on the bottom), but for some reason this year as I was reading the instruction on the can of Libby's, it said to pre-bake the crust. So I did.

Really? I haven't baked a Libby's pumpkin pie in a long time, but my pie recipe is loosely based on that one and I don't blind-bake. I just looked it up and all online Libby's recipes say to pour filling into a unbanked crust. They must have changed it. I like the crust on the bottom of a pumpkin pie, but now I'm curious. Maybe I'll test it out.

I'm in the UK, and this is my first time baking pumpkin pie here. And, I've never seen anything about pre-baking the crust while I was in the US. So it could be something that is exclusively on the UK labels. Apparently it was pretty hard to even get pumpkin puree here until very recently.