My Minor Midafternoon Misadventure

I know I promised everyone a new blog theme for the next few weeks, but alas, I've hit a set-back. Not the normal type of set-back either. You see I've actually been working on some of my big projects and have been nailing down those last minute wedding details that always seem to creep up on you. So in the midst of all this busy-ness, I decided to have one calm afternoon. I had received The Duchess on Netflix, it was pretty good too!, and my good friend MaryAlice was going to come over and watch it with me and we were going to make spaghetti and meatballs, an all American classic, for the boys (i.e. her husband, and Scott) for dinner.

The afternoon started out calm and collected, we got the sauce on the stove and the meatballs in the oven. However, this pivotal moment would change the course of the next few hours.

The meatballs, while delicious and juicy, were not put on a rimmed cookie sheet before they were placed in the oven. My folly. The oil and juices from the meat oozed onto the bottom of the oven, creating some smoke in the kitchen and living room. Luckily, we were able to rescue the meatballs and put them in the sauce before the situation, at least at that point, got too far out of hand.

By this time, MaryAlice and I are contently relaxing in the living room, watching our film. The sauce is simmering, and with what I perceived as a stroke of genuis at the time, decided to turn the oven onto the cleaning cycle since the bottom was dirty from meatball juice. ***Preface*** I have never owned or lived in a place that has a self cleaning oven. If I have, I have never used it, and I wasn't really familiar with how the whole process worked. Armed with my less that brilliant knowledge, I kicked the oven onto the clean cycle and locked it up tight and it was back to the movie and relaxing on the couch. Not 30 minutes later, a funny smell and smoke alarms beeping prompted MaryAlice and I to investigate the situation in the kitchen. Low and behold, to what do our eyes we see, but FLAMES! Big, gigantic flames, gleefully dancing behind the glass in the oven. I think I must've gasped in dis-belief and sent up several quick and fervent prayers to God, but quickly I sprang into action. "We have a fire extinguisher, I'll grab that!" I said, while running sightly manic towards the laundry room, the residence of the extinguisher. I pulled the pin with gusto and was prepared to throw open the door and spray the fire to death! Did I forget to mention that black smoke was beginning to billow out of my oven at this time? Yeah, SCARY!

As I found out, the oven would not open, and I couldn't pull/press the handle on the fire extinguisher. At this point at a loss, and receiving silent support from MaryAlice, who was prepared to run in the event of an emergency, I decided to call 911. This meant fire trucks, and lots of noise and commotion on our quite, silent street. I grabbed Apollo and the phone, and MaryAlice grabbed her purse, flute and dinner. Armed with the essentials we walked out to the front porch to await the arrival of the firemen. By this time it was rounding 5 o'clock and I had to make the phone call to Scott telling him that he shouldn't be alarmed to see a fire truck in the driveway because I only set the oven on fire and everything else was ok. To this statement Scott simply replied "Mmm.....ok."

Needless to say, my midafternoon misadventure wound up with a burnt oven, that still needs to be cleaned, but sustained no other damage, thank goodness!, and a friendly visit from the local firemen, and an adrenaline rush and crazy adventure that I'm not likely to forget soon. On the plus side, MaryAlice saved the dinner and we cooked up some spaghetti and enjoyed our dinner like we would on any other "normal" evening. What I learned from this event, be very very very careful when using the cleaning cycle on your oven, and always use a rimmed cookie sheet when cooking meat!

Our house and kitchen are still standing as well.