Who’s in the kitchen:Some accidents are actually good

At some point over lunch on Shabbat, the story of my husband Jerry’s first car accident came up. My sister-in-law, Shirley, while trying to catch her breath, because she was laughing so hard, turned to me and said “this is you’re article for next week’s paper.” And so it is....

As soon as Jerry got his license, he and his friends jumped into his dad’s car to take it for a spin. Before even making it fully out of the driveway he was smashed by a car driving down the street.

He wasn’t sure he could pull out in enough time to clear the car, but at the last second his friends said he had plenty of time….not! His first time officially driving and he was in an accident with two wheels still in the driveway.

Fast forward two years. Jerry’s dad surprised him and his brother by agreeing to buy them a red souped-up Camaro, complete with mag wheels.

One night, his friend Benjy, who had borrowed his car, called him and said “I have good news and bad news; I’m ok, but your car is totaled.” Jerry shouted back kiddingly, “Why is that the good news?” At the body shop the mechanic said the only part intact was the battery. So there was Jerry carrying the battery back to his dorm, a small memento. Now you and I would probably put it on a shelf and tell our kids about it one day, but that wasn’t the case. He and his roommate Normie set their alarm each morning, woke up and actually moved the battery from one side of the room to the other based on “alternate side parking,” usually arguing over whose turn it was to move it.

Seems like interesting accidents run in his family. His daughter smashed into a parked car on a quiet street in Teaneck. “How did you manage that?” the police officer asked her. “Well,” she said, “It was hard to drive with my coffee in one hand and cell phone in the other.” Sigh.

And my very favorite: Jerry’s parents were in a terrible accident on the highway. A huge truck hit an overpass and toppled onto their car, crushing it, the bulk on Jerry’s dad’s side. He was unconscious, and his mom thought the worst. Then his eyes fluttered and, in a whisper, he said, “Mottel, please pick the truck up off my head, the truck is sitting on my head.” Thankfully, he was only 5’4”, luckily emerging with just a bad concussion.

You must be thinking, how am I going to tie in accidents with this week’s recipe? Simple....Some of the best recipes around today are the product of accidental discoveries.

In the 1850s, George Crum was a grouchy cook known for sabotaging dishes that were returned to the kitchen. When a customer complained that his fried potatoes were not sufficiently crisp, he is said to have sliced potatoes thinner and thinner and salted them so thoroughly as to make them inedible. But the customer loved them, and the potato chip was born.

John Harvey and Will Keith Kellogg weren’t about to waste the stale, boiled wheat Will had left sitting out at their Battle Creek Sanitarium. They attempted to make long sheets of dough, but the process resulted in flakes, which they then toasted. Patients loved the new dish, and they experimented with various grains, including corn. The Kellogg’s company was formed in 1906, but John refused to take part, as he felt the addition of sugar to the corn flakes decreased their health benefit.

Thousands of years ago, Mesopotamians abandoned their nomadic ways and became the world’s first agrarian society. Stored grains for bread became wet, and began to naturally ferment. Some hardy soul dared to drink the frothing mess, thus knocking back the world’s very first brewski.

The truth of this one is a bit murky, but the Legend of Kaldi maintains that an Abyssinian or Ethiopian goat herder noticed that his flock was acting especially frisky after eating some bright red berries. After sampling some for himself and verifying the mood shift, he brought the berries to a local imam who studied them, eventually roasting and boiling a batch in water, thus brewing up the original cup o’ Joe.

A Johns Hopkins University researcher spilled a chemical on his hands, but neglected to wash it off before sitting down to lunch. The chemical transferred an incredibly sweet taste to the bread he was eating, and in 1884, he obtained a patent for saccharin.

In the 1930s, baker Ruth Wakefield was trying to make a favorite chocolate cookie recipe but was out of baking chocolate.

She had a bar of bittersweet chocolate, which she cut into bits and incorporated into the dough. Wakefield expected the chocolate to melt while baking, but the morsels kept their shape and tasted great...and the first chocolate chip cookie was devoured.

The First Ever Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Ingredients

•2 ¼ cups flour

•1 teaspoon salt

•1 cup unsalted butter

•¾ cup brown sugar

•¾ cup white sugar

•2 eggs, beaten

•1 teaspoon baking soda

•1 teaspoon hot water

•1 teaspoon vanilla

•18 ounces semi sweet chocolate chips

Sift flour together with salt and set aside.

Cream together butter and sugars. Add the eggs, mixing until combined. Dissolve baking soda in hot water and add alternately with flour mixture. Add vanilla and mix until thoroughly combined. Stir in chocolate chips. Cover and refrigerate for 36 to 48 hours.

Preheat oven to 375°F. Scoop out rounded tablespoonfuls of dough and roll into a ball. Place onto a parchment lined baking sheet and press ball down to flatten. Bake for 7 to 9 minutes or until golden brown. Cool cookies on the pan for two minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.