Nope....not tellin'
But if you pour all that "jelly" back into the pot and cook it some more it will eventually set.
Not telling how I know that.
Glad to see you!
Linda c

Welcome Karen! I am fairly new here - I think I joined about a month ago. Alexa (forum name Caliloo) is someone I know from a gardening forum. She posted another forum member's food photos over at the hosta forum because it had hosta leaves as a garnish. I think that was in April and I finally got around to joining. And Alexa gave me a warm welcome and thanked me for a gift I'd forgotten I'd even sent her!

Like you I hate housework - the sign at the entrance to my yard reads "gardening forever, housework whenever - Welcome to Teresa's garden." Another hosta forum member (McT) gave me that idea! And I am a cat person - although when Wally and Spike leave this world I won't be getting any more pets.

Can't think of any disasters at the moment - I'm running out the door to deliver refrigerator dills to my niece and the fire station in Waconia.

Welcome and I hope you enjoy your time here.

Teresa
Minnetonka, Minnesota

Welcome to the cooking forum, Karen.

Nope, you can't double the recipe on many of the recipes that require commercial pectin, although you can on those that are cooked to jell stage. Pepper jelly, though, has to have vinegar to render it safely acidic and so you need pectin. sorry about the syrup, it also makes a great glaze for chicken on the grill.

Cooking disasters? Too many to list, LOL.

Annie

Hi Karen, welcome aboard!

Welcome to the CF :-)

Alexa

Karen, welcome to the CF.

No recent disasters and the ones from years ago don't count.

Nancy

Welcome Karen, just happen to be in the middle of one now....well actually the crisis is over but the result is with us!

I was in the midst of making Emily's Lemon Bars when the Bell tech decided to "fine tune" the "whatever" box that makes the internet happen here at the cottage.

No internet, no phone and I hadn't made the lemon stuff , just the crust.

I didn't have the ingredients list so I had to wait......the recipe calls for the filling to be poured on the hot crust to finish baking......so now I know cold filling, cold crust.....don't stick even when baked.

Oh well I'm betting by 11 PM that 7 slightly tippsy 23 year olds won't notice !

Welcome Karen. Cooking disasters? Heaven's no. I NEVER have cooking disasters....NOT. LOL. I ain't tellin'!
Sherry

Annie1992... original jelly is in process of cooking down. If it doesn't jell the 2nd time... thanks for the suggestion of using it as a glaze. Thinking would work not only on chicken but pork or even fish like salmon.

Welcome to the CF Karen!

For some reason, the kitchen disaster that comes to mind is very very early in my cooking career. I took Home Economics in 7th grade (circa 1971), one semester of sewing and one semester of cooking. The cooking teacher's policy was that you had to eat what you cooked. No matter how bad it turned out.

Well, we were baking some kind of casserole, I don't remember the details except that it had some cheese in it. Unbeknownst to us, our oven was on the fritz. We followed instructions, put the casserole in the oven, and cooked it for the allotted time.

Well, whatever was going on in that oven, it was bad news. I now suspect that it was cooking at a very low temperature. The casserole came out, not only uncooked, but it was as if the oven had, instead of cooking it, sped up the "go bad" process. I mean it was obviously spoiled.

She didn't make us eat it.

Welcome to the CF, Karen!

I hate to admit it but ever since I made my first Thanksgiving turkey at the tender age of 21 and I did not know enough to remove the bag of giblets before roasting, I have experienced countless other kitchen disasters. Below is a link to my latest.

You will find that we are all human here! LOL

Linda

Here is a link that might be useful: Burned Pan Thread

Welcome, Karen.

Food disasters?

Do two fruit pies in those deep Pyrex glass pie dishes,
freshly baked, and upside down on the kitchen floor when you are 11 years old count?

And whether you end up with pepper jelly or pepper syrup, it is also good spooned over a block of softened cream cheese and served with crackers of your choice.

A really quick appetizer when you want something to serve unexpected quests.

Rusty

A few years back, went to New England with several friend to do some skiing. We'd do one BIG trip to supermarket. For a week, we'd do 3-4 big meals and left-overs were all for picking and sandwiches... chili, meatloaf, turkey. Well, one guy shooed everybody out of the kitchen as he started his whole turkey. Knew we could just put it in oven at lower temp and leave it while we enjoyed the snow. I was the first one back to condo and the place smelled FABULOUS!! I pulled turkey out and it was done, but noticed a "bulge" at neck end!! Yep, the giblets were still in that end. Luckily in a "paper" bag so didn't do anything off to turkey. I cut it out and had on plate for when "chef" got back. Was asked WHAT'S THAT??

And on "burnt" pan thread. Did that a few weeks ago in a decent Calphalon non-stick pan!?! Stuff from ruinmed pork chops was seriously sztuck to pan and thought it was toast. Someone suggested boiling water with a hefty dose of baking soda. The crud started coming up immediately and pan was fine!

Karen, I don't know how long you lurked or looked us over before jumping in with both feet, but from time to time we post a getting to know you thread. I will link to the latest a couple of weeks ago....so the information isn't that old. LOL!
You can read all about many people here and perhaps post a little more about yourself so we may know you better.
Anyhow glad you stopped in.
Linda C

Here is a link that might be useful: getting to know you

Not a lurker. Think I once frequented another site that was big on banishing people with no explaination??

Gonna stick around cuz of responses so far!

Hi Karen, from another Karen in Texas.

Kitchen disasters, yes and too many to count!!

Welcome! I can tell you the ''other'' Karen in Texas is the first cooking forum member I ever met in person, and one of the nicest people too! I have waited far too long to meet people in real life, so my advice to you is if you get a chance to, grab it; you won't be sorry. It has become a personal goal for me this year.

As far as kitchen disasters go...I know I've had them, but I've blocked most of them out. Nothing interesting enough to talk about certainly, that I would confess to in great detail. Without disasters though, the successes wouldn't be as sweet. Not to be a spoil-sport, I simply choose not to focus on them!

Welcome Karen from another Karen. I'm relatively new also. I love all the CFers that are out here. They have great recipes and great advice. I've been busy lately and haven't been on the forum too often. My step-son is getting married today and we have had a lot to do.

I love cats and just lost a 14 year old female about two months ago. Still miss her and even see her run around the corner in the house sometimes (LOL, I'm not sure if it's only after I've been drinking or not!

A food disaster that comes to mind is when I had never used cilantro in cooking before. I put two cups of fresh cilantro in a pasta dish (Yuk.) To this day my husband won't even get near anything made with cilantro. Can't say I like it much either now.

Welcome Karen

Hi Karen,
Belated Welcome!!! I've been out of town for a week so am catching up with the news here on CF. I love the new ideas here and the motivation it gives me to cook (and eat!)
My worst cooking disaster is unquestionably the time that early in our marriage, I baked a big old hen not knowing that hens really shouldn't be baked... it was the toughest thing you can imagine. Picture cutting into a car tire!! I just thought it looked so big and pretty that it would make a wonderful roast chicken.... lesson learned!!

Grace

Hey there Karen and welcome to the nicest forum by far!!

I am Susie and have been here a very long time, however I am new to New Jersey so I an happy to see another garden state foodie here!!

Mt latest disaster was for hubsters birthday. I decided to bake him a cake. That was my first problem because I do not bake well. So I make it easy and buy a box cake. Damg I have no butter in the house so I spay the pan with pam.

The cake did not turn out of the pan....gave it a quick whack and it broke in half and kinda crumbled.
I just stood there and laughed. Yea I could have made another box but instead I drove to Shop Rite and bought a cake...plus I crumbled the lemon cake I made into peices and made a plum sauce and turned in into a dessert for later in the week so it was all good!!

Good to meet ya!!

Cheers!
Susie

Welcome, Karen! I'm Tricia from SE coastal CT.

Kitchen disasters? Well, my first disaster remains my biggest disaster after several decades of cooking.

I never cooked a darn thing growing up. Seriously, I didn't even boil water. Fast forward to a couple months after I was married. (We ate out the first couple months due to my not knowing how to cook plus a death in the family that threw us all for a loop.) Anyway, my first attempt at fixing dinner for then DH was a Swanson's TV Dinner. Yep, no joke. What the heck, I was feeling brave that night. Well, I took that baby out of the oven & there was this gooey clear stuff in little wads all over the dinner. Didn't look right to me so I dug the box out of the trash & re-read the instructions. Oops! I'd not removed the plastic film over the tray! Hmmm, I tried to pick it out but realized there would be nothing left of the dinner so I just stirred that stuff in! DH never said a word...ate it all up. His Mom didn't cook either so he didn't know the difference...geesh, what a team we made. No wonder we ended up divorced! lol

I've come a long ways from that rather dismal culinary beginning. :) Today, I try really hard to fix healthy organic food for my family...maybe, still trying to make amends for feeding ex-DH plastic?!

Again, welcome.

/tricia

Karen - forget about any cooking disasters. Currently there is a "signature dish" thread. Post a comment on what you are really good at making, or a dish that people ask you for. I know there were several interpretations of the term "signature dish", however just post whatever your interpretation is.

Nice to meet you Karen!

I go into semi-lurk mode because of working every day... out the door in about 20 minutes today. I post as either michael or Lyra depending on my dominant personality that day... no I'm not really sane.

Only seven cats - Yoko, Luna Looski, Star Trek, Chrissy, Favorite, Jessy, and Annie. Two blacks, a tabby, and the rest calico kitties. Dolly my faithful friendly mutt has worked hard for the last three years to make friends with those hissing fur balls with fishy breath. My rescue rabbit does not have a name other then bunny. I really need to adopt the bunny (mini-Rex) out. She loves people and being petted but I don't have time and she can't be loose around Annie cat... Annie knows fresh tender meat when she sees it.

: )
lyra

Welcome aboard, Karen! You'll find most CFers to be friendly and have spirited discussions, with lots of opinions but very few flames or trolls. There are a few taboo topics which can never be resolved, such as the presence of flour and sugar in cornbread, but even such discussions are generally pleasant...which leads me, indirectly, to my story of a huge culinary disaster.

Christmas dinner some years ago...had a dozen or so guests, gonna make a nice rib roast. As a side dish, some cornbread dressing... so I'm making a big batch of cornbread to make the dressing. A quadruple batch, in fact, in a big 14x17 pan, batter filling it nearly to the rim. Oven preheated to a sizzling 450. I open the oven and pull out the oven rack, and place the heavy batter-filled pan on the oven rack. Unfortunately, the oven rack had not been placed properly before I pulled it out, and the little hook on the far end of the rack was not engaged, so when the heavy pan was placed on one end of the rack, the other end reacted to the laws of physics, turning the whole setup into a see-saw. The batter pan not only fell, but it flipped open side down onto the interior of the HOT oven door. Batter sizzled then scorched in place. Wet batter oozed off the sides of the door and onto the floor.

So about an hour and a half before I'm to serve dinner to my guests, I have no cornbread to make dressing with, and a humongous mess to clean up on the floor and in my oven.

One of my favorite lines from National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation:
Clark:"Dad, how did you make it through all these Christmases?"
Dad: "I had a lot of help from a pal named Jack Daniels."

Just so.