But yes, it was a fire. I was cooking dinner for myself and was looking forward to some Pierogies. If you've never had these, they are cheese and potatoes tucked inside a pasta shell. My first college roommate Mary introduced me to these. She made them with some cool sauce - I just cook them and eat. Anyway, I had fed the kids and they were eating and I was boiling water for some mediterranean pasta salad. In case you were wondering, I did not light the water on fire - that's something even I couldn't do. I'll try to blame it on the stove - ours just has a High setting, but I'm not sure that it's entirely the stove's fault.
The way I cook Pierogies is to throw some butter in a pan and basically fry them up. They are frozen and cook in about 10 minutes tops. Very yummy. I had the box pulled out on the counter, and there it sat until it was returned to the freezer. It started out well, the pan was heating up nicely. THen, it all took a turn for the worse - I dropped int he butter. Generally when you drop in butter it might sizzle a bit and slide around the pan. Well, this slid around, then burst into flames. i grabbed the pan so it wouldn't catch the microwave on fire, and stood there for aminute trying to decide what to do. Fortunately these are cool new pans where then handle doesn't get hot,so I was able to stand there for a minute while deciding what to do.
There's always that second of "can I douse this with water, or will it get 10 times worse" question that goes through my head (no, this isn't the first time I've caught something on fire in teh kitchen, but this time it was my fault. Anyway, I waited for about 10 seconds while the flame kept going, then I slowly put it under the water, very slowly as soot was jumping around and I didn't want to make an even bigger mess. So, I got the fire out, all the while having an interesting conversation with the kids, and making sure that the pot with the pasta didn't overflow.
The conversation with this kids was funny. not exactly sure who said what, but one asked
-Is it fire? Yes.
-Do we need to call the fire deparement? No.
-Are you going to set the smoke alarm off again? (Smart alek.) No.
-Wow, the room is filled with smoke. Should we open a door? (Yes, like I said I've done this before and have my kids trained.) Go ahead, and get the other door open too.
-Can you turn it off - I dont like it. No, give me a minute though, and it will be gone.
So, after opening up windows and reassuring the kiddos that I wasn't goign to burn the house down, and after turning off the smoke alarm (yes, it went off again), I was left with chips and cheese dip to go with my mediterranean pasta salad. Bummer - no pierogies, but I didn't burn the house down. Well, not this time, but I might have to reconsider cooking when Tom isn't home. Like I said, this isn't the first time I've set the smoke alarm off, and this isn't the first time that I've caught somehting on fire, but this time it probably was my fault, even though I'd like to blame it on the stove.
Oh, and here's the one casualty of the whole ordeal - but I think it can be saved...
Yeah, it really is burnt...
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