Thursday, April 06, 2006

I am a culinary disgrace

Last night I was making dinner, just like every other night. I made homemade mac 'n' cheese--YUM!--and was trying a new chicken recipe--Ranch Roasted Chicken. It was just like any other night. Well, I put the chicken on my Pampered Chef stoneware baking sheet and popped it into my 425 degree oven, just like the recipe said. Well, Derrick and I were cleaning up the kitchen a bit, taking out trash, putting dishes away, and we heard a sound like something falling. I thought it was just the trash bag settling or something. Didn't really think anything of it. Well, I peek on the chicken to see how it's doing, and the stoneware had a HUGE CRACK right down the middle!!! It was now in 3 pieces, 2 major halves and a little triangle from one of the halves. We just stared at it! In the meantime, chicken juices and oily marinade are dripping onto my oven floor. So I grab a metal cookie sheet and put it on the rack under the other one and close the oven to look for something I can transfer my chicken to. Well, I find something and open the oven only to find FLAMES ON THE BOTTOM OF MY OVEN!!! My oven was on FIRE!!! I freaked out! I had no idea what to do! I didn't know if I could throw water on it, since it was oily. I couldn't pat it out with the racks in the way. I was a complete idiot just standing there and screaming that there's a fire in my oven! And the smoke detector starts going off, which makes things more chaotic. Well, Derrick just grabs a cup of water and nonchalantly tosses it on the fire and it goes out. I have never caught anything in my kitchen on fire before! Well, I guess except for the time I microwaved a Quarter Pounder with Cheese in it's foily package and it sparked and caught fire and made the inside completely black and blistered....but that was in college..that doesn't count, right?? Anyway, it's not really my fault the stone cracked, is it? It's the Pampered Chef's fault! Now if I only knew an active consultant to get a new stone....

I'm so glad it's Thursday--the end of my week! Hooray! I just took a Patho test, which I feel pretty good about. That's always a good feeling.

Tomorrow I think I'm going to start a new Friday Feature. Seeing as how the Friday Quizzes didn't turn out too well, we'll see how long THIS one lasts.

3 comments:

Lara said...

Ha ha ha ha ha...thanks for the mental picture! :-)

I had the exact same thing happen to my rectangle stoneware. It cracked right down the middle in the oven. P.C. replaced it, of course. They said it was caused by putting extremely cold or frozen food on the stone and putting it in a hot oven (I was doing frozen pizza) so that makes sense.

I hope you find a demonstrator!

Unknown said...

I AM a demonstrator!

moderator said...

We keep a small canister of dry powder just for stove and oven fires (you can buy them at hardware stores) for these emergencies. Also, flour will do in a pinch to smother the flames. Hope everything is ok now!