When we went to a food giveaway, I was helping Tommy bring things in because he had too much to carry. I had an orange plastic bag with 12 tiny cartons of orange juice and two one-pound blocks of cheese. I stood at the freezer door of the refrigerator, stuffing little 4-ounce cartons of frozen juice into crevices of the over-stuffed space.
I put in all I could was ready to put the cheese and the rest of the cartons of oj into the refrigerator. As I tried to close the freezer door, it was stopped by some barrier. In order to figure it out, I turned and sort of swung the bag to the stove which is right next to the refrigerator.
Within 5 seconds, I heard popping and sputtering. I immediately turned to see flames and smoke from the bag. Obviously, the eye had been on for several hours. I snatched the bag off, scattering the remaining oj all over the kitchen along with the bag with a burned hole.
As I snatched the bag off the burner, I could see the two one-pound chunks of cheese were on the burner still! I quickly pushed them off the burner and onto the counter. Some of the plastic cover on the cheese and a layer of cheese continued to sizzle and bubble on the hot stove eye. I turned off the stove at some point, but the electric eye still was too hot to get anything off the eye, so it continued to melt cheese and the heavy package of cheese stuck to it.
All this took less than ten seconds, much longer than the telling. I watched our house fully engulfed when I was four, and fire scares me. It took an hour for my elevated pulse to calm down to normal.
Tommy wondered what the smell was as he came in the door. He said he could not imagine it was a smell from scrambling three eggs before we left. When Tommy went into the kitchen to see what happened, he said the stove was still on but at an extremely low temp.
The kitchen has little light and this stove has the knobs on the front of the stove on a little ledge just below the top of the stove in front. The stove has been here since 1980 when he bought the house.
My solution--I will paint a dab of nail polish on the "off" mark on each knob. I should be able to see that. Usually, I have to bend to see the writing on the knobs.
We also were given two butternut squash and two acorn squash and two cabbages. So, you know what is on the menu this week.
There is food we won't eat, so a trip to the parking lot at Piggly Wiggly will get rid of that.
Monday night, I slept three hours, so I was tired on Tuesday, exhausted, I sat reading on the laptop until 5 pm instead of taking a nap. Finally, at 5 pm, I staggered off to bed. I asked Tommy if there was anything he could eat for dinner. He asked me what was in the refrigerator...lol. I remembered I had put baked tenders in the freezer. I found them and put them on the counter and told him to leave me half. When I came in at 7:30, he was eating a huge salad and tenders.
Saved by overcooking, intentional leftovers.
Days of 80F temperatures are over for a bit. It seems it may snow some this weekend. I was enjoying not wearing even a light sweater.
Have you ever caused a near-catastrophe? Go ahead. Tell me and make me feel better.
I have one of those flat surface cooktops and it and the little bit of counter space on the end tend to be where I set grocery bags down. I have to be careful it's still not warm! I've been trying to just not set stuff on it, just in case.
ReplyDeleteOne,
DeleteI imagine that would be difficult. Hopefully, you will not set cheese in a plastic bag on a warm surface like I did.
Well that was the worse sentence structure I've ever done! LOL. I think the cat was walking back and forth in front of me while I was trying to type!
DeleteOne,
DeleteI wish I ha and excuse for some of my sentences. I did not even notice the sentence structure.
I know that scenario well! I put a plastic tub on the stove top as I was packing up Christmas linens years ago and one of the burners under it was just barely on. I didn't know it until it had melted all the way through the bottom and was starting to burn the fabrics in the tub. Those knobs were easily bumped to a barely on position. I am thankful that my replacement stove has a positive click into off position and it has to be pushed in to turn it back on.
ReplyDeleteLana,
DeleteThat was scarier than my burner being on. I have not seen or owned a stove with burners on the front of the stove in 50 years! My child, 2, turned on a burner and laid his whole hand on the burner. I was taking care of a baby--2 weeks old. I think this stove will last forever since he has never used it except for frying a hamburger.
Is it an electric cooktop? I have a dual fuel--gas cooktop, electric oven. I detest electric cooktops because you can never tell when the burner is cool. With gas, once the flame is off, the burner cools almost immediately.
ReplyDeleteAs for near-catastrophes? Oh, my, too many to list.
Meg,
DeleteElectric. Give us just one!
A scented jar candle which a kid had lit around Christmas one year--the candle was really too low to have been lit. The bottom cracked, and the flame was on the wax which had oozed out to the buffet. I caught it right away, and was able to blow it out and scrape the wax off the buffet before it even made so much as a burn mark.
DeleteMeg,
DeleteThat was a lucky save! Thankfully, you caught it before damage was done or fire spread.
Scary, for sure. I bet you moved quicker than you have in a few years my friend.
ReplyDeleteKim,
DeleteOh, you better believe I moved and fast. I actually hurt myself moving so quickly and snatching up the plastic bag.
Hm, I don't have any rip-roarin', call-the-fire-department stories. I mean, sure--I've melted my fair share of plastic cooking utensils.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid I put a Pyrex casserole in the oven before it finished preheating and the glass lid exploded. I didn't get punished for ruining supper for 7 (and a baking dish besides!) because I lied my head off about the oven being ready.
Once I burned the crap out of a pot of cauliflower. That smell is unforgettable. Luckily the pot could be saved. I have a set of vintage Farberware pots and would have been devastated to lose one.
It happens to all of us at some point, so don't be so hard on yourself. One thing I have tried to teach my family is to hover your hand over the burners before you set ANY COOKWARE on the cooktop. And I scream my head off if they try to set anything besides cookware on it! I think it's the screaming that gets through... ;^)
Sue,
DeleteLuckily, I have never had any casserole break in the oven, but that may have been luck not my good habits. Ruining dinner for seven was serious.
I hate burning foods that smell to high heaven. I usually do feel to see if the eye is warm, but this was a hurry thing. Of course, the fright will keep me careful for a long time.
It all goes back to my Mom. As a child I was taught to never leave or put anything on the stove top. It was not allowed. Yes, I have burned food, set kitchen towels on fire but I was right there cooking so there was not a catastrophe.
ReplyDeleteI have electric cooktop and stove. I would prefer a gas for cooking It is what I grew up with, they make the best roasted meats. I have gas to the house but it would be expensive to run it to the kitchen. I would also have to replace the appliances. If I ever win the lottery that would be done. I am telling you your baked chicken etc. would not be as good in an electric oven.
Texas,
DeleteI never use the stove to store items even for a second, but I was right there and it was closest. I was not going away.
Tommy's gas runs right under the house, so it would be easy to get gas to the stove, but that is not happening.
Okay now I have a catastrophe, cooking tonight and one of the burners would not turn off. I worked on that knob for a couple of hours and still could not get it to turn off. I finally threw in the towel and turned off the stove top at the breaker box. Now I will have to shop for a new one, this one is 20 years old so I am not shocked
DeleteTexs,
DeleteAck! I have never heard of that happening! At least it is off now and not a danger. It seems like a stove should last longer than 20 years.
What a story! Glad things turned out okay.
ReplyDeleteMy story has to do with a gas grill. My daughter asked if she could put the steaks on. I said no, because they were too expensive if she dropped them. I put them on, closed the lid and went inside to make the salad. I step out to turn the steaks and see the grill incased in flames! After a moment of panic I reached down and turned off the gas. Daughter went for the fire extinguisher and I thankfully had a squirt bottle with water available. After the gas was turned off I was able to put out the flames with the water. The steaks were charred so much they looked like charcoal! Hubby was able to scrub and scrub the grill and save it. Now it's a running joke about who ruined the expensive steaks. I'm super lucky the I didn't blow the grill up and burn the house down!
Wendi,
DeleteOh my! That was even more scary. I am glad you are all okay, and the house, too. Never mind the steaks, the house is okay.
Wow, glad everything is OK!
ReplyDeleteMany years ago, my first husband had made a pitcher of tea. It wasn't cold enough for him, so he put it in the freezer. It was a glass pitcher. Of course, then he forgot it. The whole thing froze solid. So he put it on a burner on the gas stove over the flame. That did not end well. It burst and glass went EVERYWHERE.
Alice,
DeleteIt is incomprehensible an adult did not know that a frozen, glass pitcher could not withstand flames. How did he not know? I can imagine that was a mess and scary. Thanks for that.
Gee. I guess that's why he was your FIRST husband...
DeleteReally!
Delete