Perusing the latest issue of Cook's Country, a publication I quite enjoy, I was astounded when I came to the "When Things Go Wrong in the Kitchen" section at the back of the magazine. It is intended to be funny, but what it really shows is that people need to learn when to throw things away. No matter how thrifty you are or how closely you need to watch your wallet, sometimes it is simply best to throw away your mistake and start over from scratch. A good time to consider this action is when food is burnt, bad or if you have been eating leftovers for more than a couple of days.

Witness the following incidents, all harvested from the kitchen disaster stories in Cook's Country:

• A woman wanted to make homemade noodles the way her grandmother did. The recipe looked like it would not make enough, so she added to it until it was several times the original size. She and her husband ate noodles for more than two weeks and it was years before they wanted to eat them again.

Don't try this at home, kids.

I set out on a mission: to find a Crock Pot or off-brand slow cooker at a thrift store. I had my mental list of Places Most Likely To Carry Slow Cookers. I had a pocket full of cash (in case the negotiating bug bit me). I live in Portland, Oregon, the city of thrift, for goodness' sake, where it's cool to tell your friends that you got your hip jacket at the Bins (the Goodwill outlet - how's that for thrift?).

I started at the fabulous Lounge Lizard (SE 13th and Hawthorne), which had a display of retro dinnerware that made me drool. No Crock Pots ("no one has Crock Pots! Try the Salvation Army," she told me), but I checked out the variety of kitschy cookware before settling on a pot that the owner said was an ice bucket but I thought might work in the oven for a nice insulated casserole. Cost: a too-expensive $24, but I paid because I felt guilty about all the photos I'd snapped.