cooking disasters!

So I have a new year's resolution--try one new recipe a week. This week it was Italian chicken. It smelled divine and looked great too. All I had left was to thicken the sauce that went on top. I grabbed the "corn starch" in order to add my 3 Tablespoons to the water. When I added it, strangely, it began to fuzz. Weird I thought. Still no warning bell went off in my head. Then I added that to the tomato mixture and pandemonium ensued! I finally realized as a chemical reaction was taking place that I had added baking soda and not corn starch! Turns out that reacts violently when added to an acidic base--what I had was an Italian tomato volcano! When it was done "erupting" over the side of the pan, I was left with pink froth. Not one to be easily deterred, I decided to add a tomato bullion cube I had around to see if I could make it back into a sauce. It worked! But I didn't really have the heart to taste test it. So I did what any great cook would do. I stuck it on the table ladled it over the chicken and rice and said, "bon appite!" Turns out the bullion did cure the frothy issue but made it unbearably salty! We ended up scrapping it off our food. So week one I would have to chalk up as a disaster...stayed tuned for week two. If it doesn't work I will be back to spaghetti and tacos!