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Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Cooking Disaster!

So last night I planned to make a baked beef risotto for dinner. I assembled all the ingredients, chopped onions, fried the beef, threw the other ingredients in, stirred and brought to the boil. The next step would have been to put the lot in a casserole dish and bake in the oven while enjoying a glass of wine and watching the news.


That was until I saw the little black floating things.

At first I thought maybe the stock cubes hadn’t dissolved well enough and I attempt stirring the mixture some more. Then I started to scoop the little black bits out and tried to examine them closer.

Now I’m not sure how many of you might have this problem, but I’m short sighted and have a stigmatism in one eye and I wear contact lenses. The lens in my left eye is for looking at things at a distance and the lens in my right eye is for reading and working on the computer. Together they work in unison and I have no problems, except for focussing now and again, which is simply a matter of aging. However, I can’t see little things close up unless I take my contacts out. So I couldn’t really see what the little black things were.

There were so many of them. I kept scooping and scooping and there were more and more. I eventually thought I had better put the whole lot aside and throw it out when it was cold.

But what to have for dinner? Two days away from pay day and there is not much left in either the fridge or the pantry and very little left in my wallet. And I’m about to throw away what would have been dinner and lunch the next day. I’m not happy!

Luckily I have some frozen bolognaise sauce and some spaghetti in the pantry. Spaghetti bolognaise it is!

When my boys got home I asked them to take a closer look at the floating black things. Sure enough they proclaimed them to be “bugs” and one look into the leftover Arborio rice in the packet showed us where they came from. I knew it had been in the pantry for awhile, I just didn’t realise it had been there long enough to get bugs!!!

15 comments:

  1. EEEWWW!
    EEWWW
    Ick! and Gross.

    I had a package of those rice Sidekicks once -do know if you have that there or not- and when I added it to the milk and butter there was a huge and I mean huge furry caterpillar. Dead of course but had happened in the factory.

    I since then do not keep too many packaged things in the house. I just don't trust it now.

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  2. Hate when that happens..Thats why I banned cooking in my house..sigh..not really but I am very bad at it!!

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  3. Yikes! Just a little extra protein, right?

    Thanks for stopping by my blog today. :)

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  4. it does happen ...and with the heat in auz I'm sure it's common. Best to buy small quantities. Breakfast cereal is the worst! Aren't you glad you didn't serve it! ....baked beef risotto with bugs!

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  5. Yeah. Black floating things are hardly ever good in rice....

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  6. That's enough to spoil your appetite. Glad you had a good back up plan.
    Hang in there.
    xoRobyn

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  7. Eeew, yuck! But it's a good job that you realised before you started eating them!

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  8. My left eye sees close up and my right eye sees the distance. It also works just fine for me. My eye doctor said that when people have vision like that since birth, it doesn't present a problem. But sometimes it develops in adults due to an accident or something else, and then it can cause them some real trouble.

    You can't go wrong keeping pasta and sauce on hand. Also, eggs and potatoes. Grated potatoes and scrambled eggs mixed together - add cut up onions, peppers, mushrooms, etc. if you have them on hand.

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  9. Yuk! Good job you didn't eat them! x

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  10. I'm with Kate. I'm really glad you didn't eat them. lol.

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  11. So your not going on Master Chef then lol

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  12. Thank GOD you noticed them! lol, but if you didn't I agree with one of the comments above, extra protein. :)

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  13. I'm reminded of that scene in National Lampoon's 'Family Vacation'... when its discovered that the dog peed on the picnic basket, Clark and everyone else is having a conniption about the food... Imogene Coco takes a bite... makes a face... and keeps on chewing...

    However...

    I don't eat bugs either... it's gotten to the point that once a package of something like that is opened, it goes in the refrigerator...

    Bugz...

    ~shoes~

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  14. Domestic - definitely ick and gross! But thank goodness I didn't find a caterpillar as well!

    Seductress - if only I had someone to do my cooking for me...

    Kazzy - I think I prefer my protein in some other way! lol

    Susan - its actually been quite cold here, I think I just left the packet for far too long.

    Betty - except for blackeyed peas maybe?

    Robyn - I'm hanging...

    Tuppence - yes, thank goodness for that!

    Brenda - unfortunately my middle son doesn't eat eggs...

    Kate, Summer and Writer - I agree!

    Wendy - not any time soon!

    Martha - ummm not my preferred means of getting protein!

    Red - I might have to do the refrigerator thing - good idea!

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