The Good, The Bad, & The Really Bad
By Monica on February 8th, 2008
I don’t know about you, but I enjoy giggling at other bloggers’ kitchen mishaps, botched recipes, and outright baking disasters. We all have them, so please, chuckle at my expense this time and enjoy my recent food misfortunes.
But first, as the title would indicate, there is The Good:Â ’s Butternut Squash Lasagna with bechamel sauce. And by good, I mean really freaking good.
I made a few minor changes, keeping it a traditional layered lasagna with pureed squash and fresh spinach instead of an open lasagna with squash chunks, but the flavors remained unchanged.
And now, time for The Bad. I found this little nightmare on Allrecipes and should have listened to my better judgment when I first thought this sounded ridiculous. But oh how the reviewers swore it was like heaven, a pairing of unusual ingredients to die for! Well folks, some ingredients sound unusual paired together because they are disgusting when combined. In this instance, BBQ Baked Bean Stuffed Acorn Squash. Horrid. Simply horrid. Fortunately, I was able to salvage both beans and squash and recreate them both into something separate, but edible.
And for the REALLY BAD… “Jelly Donut Cupcakes” from Veganomicon. I don’t know what the problem was, I followed the recipe exactly but still we had a cupcake catastrophe.
Now I wouldn’t mind if they were just a little fugly but still tasted good. On the contrary, they were so bad Ray wouldn’t even eat them (that’s bad!). To be exact, “they look like a facial sore and taste like acoustical foam.” I could swear that I saw someone else blog about these before with fair results, so maybe the Cupcake Goddess simply was not shining upon me last night? In any case, here’s where bad cupcakes go to die at my house:
Romina says:
Aww I hate it so much when stuff like that happens! That was very strange for those cupcakes to do that… maybe they bubbled from the inside?
On the positive side, that lasagna looks like a real success!
February 8th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Teddy says:
The GODDESS of cupcakes…
I’m reading kiss my tiara right now so that really makes me smile. We ALL haver mishaps- at least i know when i have one that i’m making you happy! LOL
February 8th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
Monica says:
I did a little Googling on the cupcakes and it seems they can be a bit, err temperamental. Good to know I’m not just a baking buffoon!
February 8th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
melody polakow says:
the lasagna looks sooo good.. I mkae a mean pumpkin sage lasagna that reminds me of this..
Thanks for sharing your disasters.. I’ve definitely had my fair share of them too. I’m glad you were able to salvage the beans/squash and turn it into something else.
February 8th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Mel says:
Doesn’t it feel good knowing you are not alone???
My grandmother always used to say that if you work/cook/etc you will have disasters - the only way to avoid them is not to work/cook/etc.
February 9th, 2008 at 9:24 am
Chocolatecoveredvegan says:
Hahahahhaha I can’t stop laughing at the chicken picture!
And I copied that lasagna recipe down when Ashasarala posted it, but I’ve been intimidated by its complexity :o/. It looks divine, though.
February 9th, 2008 at 10:45 am
VeggieGirl says:
I’d say that Ashasarala’s butternut squash lasagna MORE than makes up for the kitchen mishaps you had; and hey, it looks like the chickens enjoyed the cupcakes, so they weren’t a lost-cause!! :0)
February 9th, 2008 at 10:48 am
This weeks food - Recap « Snoogiewoogie’s Weblog says:
[...] Of course there were mishaps, I had to laugh when I read in Monica’s blog  about kitchen mishaps, I had one this week as well due to the wrong ingredient. I wanted to make phishburgers, but I had only silken soft tofu - - so I decided to make it anyways but slightly different. The result was - let’s say slightly on the inedible side. Oh well, I know where I went wrong, so next time it will be better. [...]
February 9th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
lori- the pleasantly plump vegan says:
you crack me up!
February 9th, 2008 at 7:42 pm
Liz² says:
“they look like a facial sore and they taste like acoustical foam” is like the funniest thing i’ve ever heard anyone say about cupcakes, EVER. :DDD and the chicken picture, ha ha ha!
the lasagna looks amazing, though!
February 10th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Jess says:
That facial sore comment is TOO funny! And your birds are adorable. At least they benefited from your disaster–that’s always so disappointing. But to echo everyone else, that lasagna looks AMAZING!!
February 10th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Jenny says:
First, the lasagna sounds AWESOME! I *love* butternut squash… never would have thought to use it in lasagna though. Second, I feel your pain with the baking disasters… I just posted about my “ugly” cake I made this past weekend. It’s a pity about the jelly donut cupcakes though… I just got Veganomicon and that was one of the recipes that piqued my interest. Now I’m even more curious and must try them soon!
February 11th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Suzie says:
I’m so glad the lasagna worked out for you! Yeah, we actually had the squash pureed as well. It tastes much better that way!
That’s too funny about the cupcakes! Baking is finicky. One wrong turn and the whole thing botches up. My cousin made them before and it was a success, so I hope you give them another go. They really are incredible.
I’ve had so many baking disasters, I can’t even begin to count! But that is fun in the kitchen, right? At least the chickens enjoyed them.
February 11th, 2008 at 3:26 pm
vegetalion says:
ha ha ha I LOVE the way chickens will eat anything (except cabbage! my family’s chickens don’t like cabbage). I was just looking at those cupcakes on another blog and thinking, well, they don’t sound too hard at all - and now… I might wait a while before I try them ^_^;
February 12th, 2008 at 4:20 pm
bazu says:
sorry for the cupcake failure, but man, it might have been worth it for that ultra-cute chickens eating cupcakes photo!
February 14th, 2008 at 11:57 am
amey says:
chickens eating cupcakes=
makes my day
sorry about the cooking mishap, though. that always blows.
February 22nd, 2008 at 7:39 pm