Indoor ice storms

Someone on Prego posted a funny story about problems with her hand mixer that ended up with flour blown all over her and her kitchen. It reminded me of my own mixer story.

My first real job as a teenager was working in the kitchen at a local nursing home. One day we were a little behind and the jello for the evening meal wasn't going to have time to set. So Mary the supervisor told the new cook, Patty, to dissolve the jello in hot water as usual but then pour ice into the mix instead of cold water, making it gel faster.

The mixer was a big machine nearly as tall as me with a mixing bowl you could take a bath in. Patty got the paddle going at top speed mixing gallons of hot water and jello then got a tub with about 10 pounds of ice. As she reached the mixer we all realized at the same moment what Patty was going to do and we started screaming, but no one was close enough to stop her. I personally dove under the stainless steel prep table.

Sure enough, Patty dumped the whole tub of ice into the mixing bowl. Which was churning at top speed, remember. Instantly the kitchen became a war zone, with ice shrapnel flying in all directions, smashing into the walls and ricocheting off the stove hoods and hanging pans. The clamor was unbelievable.

Patty didn't last the night, the residents didn't get their jello, and I still have scary memories of indoor ice storms.