Thirteen days ago I blogged about a middle of the night
wake up call at our house. A week or so ago as I was browsing my blog reader I came across
this post over at YoungHouseLove and I thought, how timely. I cannot stress how ill-prepared we were before our wake up call. We didn't even have a fire extinguisher for the kitchen! Thank goodness we rectified that situation before yesterday...
So, duh, it was Superbowl Sunday yesterday and we were keeping it low key. Jim wanted to enjoy the game at home in front of his own TV. My mom had to work until right before game time, so we invited my parents over to have some grub and catch the game. Jim was craving chicken wings and because of our money saving efforts we nixed the idea of spending $50 or more on a few buckets of wings from somewhere and decided to make them ourselves. Well, Jim decided to make wings...I was in charge of the "nachos supremos" (and they were delish, by the way). So when Jim got the bright idea to use my big pot with the colander insert to deep fry the wings, he only met mild protests from me. I'm not sure it will work I said, that colander isn't made for deep frying, but I let him go. My husband is usually a master of common sense (compared to me, anyway) and I figured he had everything under control. He's deep fried wings before so I figured he could handle things without me butting in--besides I was too busy jockeying for counter position and the ideal burner to use for my nacho making duties.
There were a few tip-offs that things were not going to go as smoothly as anticipated. First the wings hadn't completely thawed. We had taken them out earlier in the day but they were still slightly frozen. The second tip-off was when Jim asked if we had any more vegetable oil in the house. This was after he had already used the two large bottles that I had in the pantry. Absentmindedly, I pointed out an almost full bottle in the lazy susan. My dad stepped in with a cautionary comment about too much oil...but I think Jim was preoccupied with the idea of cooking boat loads of wings at once El fry cook style to heed the warning. The next tip-off was Christina Aguilera botching the words to the national anthem...come on girl you are a professional! I was too busy critiquing, to notice Jim stuffing the basket with too many wings. He was getting nervous as pre-game festivities were winding down and the game was about to begin and the wings were not yet frying. His master plan had him plopping in front of the TV with a plate of hot crispy wings before kickoff.
I think you all can see where this is going...but if not, let me paint the picture further. Wings with stray ice crystals clinging in a colander not made for frying. Gallons of bubbling oil. Too many cooks in the kitchen. Game clock about to start ticking. Wing cravings messing with the calibration of the common sense meter. Down goes the wing pot. Ice and hot oil react. Pot bubbles over. Three foot flames come shooting out of my kitchen! Jim tries to blow out flames with slightly more force than blowing out candles on a birthday cake. The flames do go out for a second but then reignite! Exhaust fan is on fire. Hot oil is on the floor. Someone grabs the fire extinguisher (I think it was Jim but he doesn't remember doing it). And the fire is out! But not before a three foot layer of smoke clings to our ceiling. Jim spent the entire first quarter cleaning and airing out the kitchen and living room. I suggested we try baking the wings, but he was so disgusted with his temporary lack of common sense that he tossed the whole bag. I didn't give him much grief, just sent up a silent Thank You that it wasn't me and that the only damage to be seen was a small singe mark on the stove. The floor is still a little greasy this morning but at least my kitchen is in tact and we didn't have to evacuate the house. The girls had been watching TV in the office and didn't have any idea what had happened...The smoke detectors work though. I urge you once again to get prepared for a fire if you are not. You never know. I am so relieved that we had the fire extinguisher on hand...two weeks ago we would have been not so lucky I think.
So I had to share that story, much to my husband's chagrin. But I also want to share my menu plan for the week.
Thanks for visiting from
I'm an Organizing Junkie! And head on over there if you would like to check out more weekly menus!
Here's mine:
Monday: Chicken Teriyaki and Fried Rice (since we had Superbowl food minus wings, this meal got pushed)
Tuesday: Meat Pies, Green Beans, and some other side--I haven't decided
Wednesday: Hot Sausage hoagies, Corn, Potatoes
Thursday: Grilled Chicken Salad, Fresh Bread
Friday: Crab Soup, Biscuits, Spinach Salad
Saturday: Date Night--we are going to Atria's...the kids will probably have frozen pizza's
Sunday: Chicken Parmesan, Pasta, and Salad
I realize we are having salad a lot this week...but we've gotta get those veggies in and salad dressings can be so varied that it's hard to get sick of salad.
Have a great week everybody!
