You can always salvage something from a mistake!
By dragon54u
@dragon54u (31636)
United States
February 8, 2009 8:04pm CST
I was visiting my Dad today and he and my stepmom always cook dinner for the 3 of us. I love Mary's cooking and Dad's is even better! Well, he was making au gratin potatoes from a box and chose what he thought was milk--it was lemonade! He stopped at about 1/4 cup and we told him not to worry, go ahead and fix them. Dad was a bit upset, because that color jug usually held the milk but he'd accidentally mixed lemonade in it a couple days ago.
Well, he went ahead and made the potatoes. I know that you can substitute lemon juice and milk for buttermilk so I knew they'd be just fine. It was very surprising, very good! Just a hint of tartness that lent the potatoes a very nice, fresh flavor! We were all pleased with the potatoes and left very little for leftovers!
Have you ever made a mistake that turned out good like that?
1 person likes this
4 responses
@kellyjeanne (1576)
• United States
9 Feb 09
I'm so glad those potatoes came out alright. It does sound like quite a different taste! Bravo to your dad for continuing on with the recipe!
Purrs,
Catwoman=^..^= & Mija
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
9 Feb 09
My dad is very adaptive, my whole family is. If something goes wrong, we adapt and deal with it. The taste was a bit different but it was very subtle. Oh boy, now all of a sudden I crave some au gratin potatoes with ham bits in it and peas! 
@GreenMoo (11834)
•
12 Feb 09
Most of my cooking disasters are catastrophic, but if something isn't too badly burnt I'll normally try to salvage it somehow. Rice that's soggy can be fried, over cooked veg can return as soup, and bread and cakes can normally be turned into a bread and butter pudding and served as desert.
The one exception is my bread that won't rise. Occassionally I produce a loaf so heavy that even the birds look at it in horror! If they ate at, they'd never get back off the ground :-)
1 person likes this
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
12 Feb 09
I have had that happen a couple of times with bread. Then my husband got me a bread machine and it was perfect every time! I wish I hadn't given it away during the divorce, I would love to have another one.
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
9 Feb 09
Chocolate corn bread?! I would have had to try that! Strange that as much as I love chocolate, that doesn't sound appetizing--it wouldn't really go with the navy bean and ham I always have it with!
@coffeegurl (1467)
• United States
9 Feb 09
WOW! Good2 KNow Dragon. I have just started using buttermilk for baking quiches and noticed they come out fluffier, but thank you for the tip of how to substitute for buttermilk. Very helpful. I remember making a dish that was too spicy before, and my bf telling me to add tomatoes because they help to "water down" a dish. It surprisingly worked and was edible after that,Lol. On the subject of potatoes, I bought a 5lb bag of Yukon Gold tater from SuperTarget just now, for $.99! A savings of $3.50! And the cashier mentioned that the 10lb bag was only $1.50! I was already at the checkout, and I thought that was a very good deal, indeed, but it's just us 2 and I have no clue what I would do with 10Lbs of potatoes! I'll leave that deal to a large family. Hahaha.
@dragon54u (31636)
• United States
9 Feb 09
That's a great price on taters!! 
Our Target here doesn't have groceries, too bad because I would love to get a bag like that. I learned the buttermilk substitute from a 1950's Better Crocker cookbook, it had a whole section of substitutions. I've got to find a book like that, it was accidentally thrown away during one of my moves.
Our Target here doesn't have groceries, too bad because I would love to get a bag like that. I learned the buttermilk substitute from a 1950's Better Crocker cookbook, it had a whole section of substitutions. I've got to find a book like that, it was accidentally thrown away during one of my moves.