Ooops in the Kitchen

There are times when you make a mistake and its bad. Sometimes its funny the moment it happens, sometimes it is funny later on. And other times...it is never funny. Ever.
Fortunately, the small incident that I am going to relate unto you was not a mistake, it was an accident. (There *is* a difference...) Often I have joked to my family about how I could should host my own TV Cooking show. Naturally, a child is rather easy to impress, but I have also impressed adults with my brilliant hand-and-eye coordination and displays confidence in the kitchen.
But occasionally, an error occurs. Did mention that these happen all over, and come in various packages...big, small, disastrous, hilarious. Many years ago, when I was still a lad in school, the father of one of my friends passed onto me a quote he had made up: "The severity of your mistake is directionally proportionate to the amount of people watching."
Only one of my children saw this little incident...so it couldn't have been bad.
I have been a trainer/instructor in *every* job I've held, and as such; I can generally explain things in a simple and easy fashion as I do them. So, I enjoy explaining things for the 'cooking show' whether I am making a white-cheese garlic pasta sauce from scratch or providing 'kid-food' via a box of Mac-n-Cheese. Example =
Why do you cut the butter into small pieces?
- So it will melt faster.
Why do you rip the box seam on the top, instead of using the [Press Here] area on the side.
- Because the 'press here' area doesn't work (next time I made the dish for them, I showed them the perforation lines and demonstrated what happens - when I press, the upper corner of the box caves in...it doesn't 'separate & open'.
What are you doing with the bag?
- I call it "flapping". I hold on to the edge I'm going to open the bag form, then flap it back and forth to send all the mix to the bottom of the bag, making it easier and cleaner to open and pour in.
etc...etc...

So this skill translates well to my ability to either explain what I am doing as a free-flowing process, or holding a conversations with someone while I prepare a meal. Two day's ago, I was holding a conversation with my son. He wanted Mac-n-Cheese, so the water was approaching a boil, the butter & milk were on the counter, and I was 'flapping' the sauce-mix bag. Suddenly, I heard a tearing sound and I was no longer holding on to the bag. Standing next to the stove-top with a shocked and bemused look on my face, I tried to track its trajectory as it made an arc from my hand to bounce off the clear insulation-film on the window above the sink, then ricochet off the Wustoff block of knives and landed on the counter. (Fortunately, it landed heavy side down - open side up~!)
I did not marvel at my fortune for long - it immediately became clear that a diminutive nuclear fallout was in process. Tiny orange granules were cascading down on me, the coffee pot, the sink, the counter, microwave, and the small rug we have on the floor in-front of the sink.

Cleaning up wasn't difficult...just time consuming. All in all, it a moderatley successful Sunday.

...here endith the blog...