Let’s face, I don’t want to cook. On occasion I love to get a big pot of soup, spaghetti sauce, gumbo simmering on the stove. And it’s not that I hate cooking or shirking my duty as a wife and mother. But I have done my time. When we had two teenagers and two infants (only a year apart in age) at home, I worked full time, my house was spotless and organized, and I had home cooked meals on the table every night.
Now that the teenagers are grown and gone from the nest and the next two are trying out their wings, I don’t want to do it any longer. There are so many other things in my life I want to do. Like write and blog and email and read and enjoy my friends.
But, I honestly, truly, really, really did not mean to try to burn the kitchen down the other night!
I was making some cheese dip in my double boiler (I have convinced my husband that cheese dip constitutes as a meal – it is dairy, right? One of the major food groups, correct?) on my gas stove and I removed the top of the double boiler with a potholder. After pouring the melted cheese into a bowl, I looked at the pot holder to make sure there were no food stuck on it and declaring it clean, I threw it back into the top drawer of my cabinet.
After a while, my husband kept saying he smelled something burning. Busy on the computer, I just told him I probably got some food on the burner and that’s what was making the awful smell. Soon after, he complained again and this time I even detected a slight odor. But after nagging at me again, I stormed back into the kitchen and thought that if I cleaned off the burner then the smell would dissapate and he would leave me alone.
Lo and behold, when I opened the drawer with my kitchen rags were in, smoke came pouring out! No flames, thank God, but smoke everywhere!
Evidently, a string or something on the old potholder had caught an ember and sat a smoldering in the drawer finally catching four (count’em four!) other rags on fire.
We threw it all out the back door and doused it. Checking the cabinets and wood around where the drawer sits was hot to the touch with some black spots. We were on the verge of a major fire, especially if we had gone to bed and not caught it.
My husband slept on the couch that night, paranoid that it would flare up again. It really scared me as a published author, Marianne Mancusi arrived home from nationals and her home was burnt down. My thoughts and prayers to Marianne BTW.
A lesson learned. Now all my kids have to listen to me of what not to do in the kitchen. My DH says that maybe since my mind is on other matters, I should consider letting him do the cooking. YES! :banana:
I really did not try to burn the kitchen down. Really.
