How not to make dinner!
By ElicBxn
@ElicBxn (63594)
United States
September 16, 2008 8:43am CST
Last Thursday I was sitting at my desk myloting when I heard a siren come into the neighborhood and stop right on the corner. What the...?
I got up thinking maybe the crazy lady across the street had needed an ambulance again (she's also a pretty sick lady.) I looked outside and there was a fire engine. Then another drove up...
I decided that I didn't need to get out in the heat and waited till later.
After the trucks had left I went out and asked my across the street neighbor about it.
It seems that one of his friends came up and smelled smoke. He knocked on the door and my neighbor went with him to check it out.
turned out the lady next door to him had put the meat on to cook for dinner and it was burning, smoke was poaring out the window, so he called the fire department
I tell you want - I'm not much of a cook, but I've never done anything quite like that - tho my former roommate once set fire at a friend's place while she was trying to cook something - twice - I had to get the friend's fire extigisher out and use it.
so, have you ever tried to burn down the house cooking dinner?
8 people like this
24 responses
@Cajunhellcat (2073)
• United States
16 Sep 08
Oh my that is so sad I can't every remember doing it and don't know of anyone that has
3 people like this
@checapricorn (16061)
• United States
16 Sep 08
[i]HI Elic,
This is funny, I mean, I remember when I was also heating some pork in the microwave and instead of setting 2.50 minutes, I messed up and enter 25 minutes and I was enjoying ironing the clothes and the kitchen was smoking so hard due to the tupperware where I placed the posk, hubby was running so fast to open it and I was speechless and motionless in the corner, I was so scared and it was 5 am in the morning! Good thing we were able to notice it so early!
Not good to try doing 2 things simultaneously! LOL![/i]
3 people like this
@GardenGerty (160665)
• United States
16 Sep 08
I have only gone so far as to need the fire extinguisher, and that was only one time. I have also, in the past, set off smoke detectors. I have not done either of those in many years. Let us just say that I put some oil on to heat, covered it, forgot it, and when I uncovered it, it was super heated and I saw first hand what spontaneous combustion looks like. I do not fry now.
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
16 Sep 08
I hope you weren't hurt! I fry, but I don't "deep fat fry" anything for myself and when I do for my client I really don't put too much oil in the pan and don't cover it - I use the water droplet test to see if it is hot enough.
Its quite a surprise to both of us that I can cook chicken livers as well as I can since I won't touch them myself.
2 people like this
@carolscash (9492)
• United States
16 Sep 08
Well, I have never had to have a fire extiguisher for dinner. However, my daughter did burn the cheeseburgers that she cooked on the grill night before last. She caught the inside of the grill on fire so I am sure that we could have used one. LOL!!
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
16 Sep 08
I hope she's alright. I'm afraid of fire myself so I tend to be very carefull around flames and burners.
For some reason the client's range is not heating up the large burner and I've had to "adjust" it and I'm so afraid of being burned I really have to confront this fear.
I'm probably afraid of being burned for the same reason I'm afraid of grills on the ground, because I was burned by falling on a heating grate when I was a kid.
1 person likes this
@raydene (9871)
• United States
16 Sep 08
Hi Doll
I have burned the house while cooking dinner...
but making microwave is another matter.
I once started a friend's new microwave on fire.
I could have sworn I hit the 300 for 3 minutes
but I must have hit an extra 0.
I went to take her dog out to pee and came back to the fire alarms going off.
It had started the thing on fire!red face
xoxoxoxox
3 people like this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
16 Sep 08
I punched in those extra "0" a few times, but I generally catch it when I do - since I'm such a good shot with cooking. The microwave we have now has a "minute" button and when you punch in the number (say you need to heat something for 25 minutes) you punch 25 and then minute and you have it
1 person likes this
@sedel1027 (17846)
• Cupertino, California
16 Sep 08
Can't say that I have ever needed a fire extinguisher while cooking lol
My husband did almost burned down an apartment 5 or so years ago. He was up really late and decided to fry something in a pan. The stove was right across from the fridge (standing in the middle of the kitchen you could touch both, that is how small the kitchen was). So he was watching the oil get hot and turned top pull something out of the fridge. Oil popped up and splashed on the burner and caught fire. He had to use the extinguisher to put the fire out. There was a HUGE mess. Ugh. He should have just let the place burn. Took a long time to get all that stuff cleaned up.
We learned after the fact, that the stave he ruined wasn't even installed properly and a fire barrier that was suppose to be between the cabinets and the vent hood was missing.
2 people like this
@highflyingxangel (9225)
• United States
21 Sep 08
This sounds like several of the college students living in my apartment at this point. They just do not know how to cook and set the fire alarm off for the entire building several times a week. It's actually getting annoying and it makes me want to move out of the dorms. I just can't take living in the same building with people that lack basic cooking skills. I mean, these are the people that put tin foil in a microwave to cook food and then burn things.
1 person likes this
@highflyingxangel (9225)
• United States
21 Sep 08
We're required to buy a meal plan as well but the thing is not everyone is very fond of the food either so sometimes they tend to skip eating there. And, we're kids, we love to eat so even if we do eat in the cafe we do like making snack foods. So since we have a stove and a microwave in every apartment, we have double the chance of fire alarms going off or someone actually starting a fire.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
21 Sep 08
I was lucky that I was in college back in the days before microwaves. Because the campus required that we have the meals - tho the food service tended to make me sick, I didn't eat in the facility very often. I was one of the few that sometimes used the dorm cooking facilities.
I can't say that I did anything much more complicated than heating soup or boil eggs. It was just enough to keep me from having to eat the food that was making me so sick - they used too much grease and "southern" cooking whereas I was from a family that used less grease and no deep fried food.
@twoey68 (13627)
• United States
17 Nov 08
I've never had to call the fire department b/c of my cooking but I did have a grease fire once that almost totaled the kitchen of the place I was living. I was 16 and had no clue what to do. I threw water all over the place and managed to beat it out.
[b]~~MY OWN PEACE WITHIN~~
**STAND STRONG AND BELIEVE IN YOURSELF**[/b]
1 person likes this
@blackbriar (9076)
• United States
1 Oct 08
lol This just happened to me last week. I was cooking a couple steaks in a pan of water on the stove and went to the bathroom. Figured I had some time before turning them so I started reading my book. Next thing you know, my daughter is yelling. I walk out the bathroom to find the whole house in smoke. Water evaporated faster than I thought it would and the steaks were burnt to a crisp on the bottom.
1 person likes this
@BarBaraPrz (47313)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
16 Sep 08
Not me personally, but my mother did have a grease fire when I was a kid. And when I was young and foolish and married, my husband tried to set a kitchen shelf on fire while making popcorn...
2 people like this
@teapotmommommerced (10359)
• United States
21 Sep 08
I have never burned up a kitchen or smoked up a house because of forgetting things on the stove. I am afraid to leave the kitchen when I am cooking because of that reason.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
21 Sep 08
yeah - that sounds like me!
Well, I'll put something in the oven, but I set the timer so I won't forget it. And I only leave if I'm absolutely planning to be back in the time frame that is the time it comes out (for example - putting something on then going to get the roommate from work - that worked out to about an hour.)
1 person likes this
@teapotmommommerced (10359)
• United States
23 Sep 08
That is why I love my slow cooker. I can leave it cook all day when I am gone. I use my slow cooker all year long.
1 person likes this
@newzealtralian (3930)
• Australia
17 Sep 08
Sadly (oh so not!!!!!) I am banned from the kitchen, but not because of the lack of prowess with the stove. I'm banned more because I make a bit of a mess when cooking (like hubby doesn't!) and it takes 10 times longer for dinner to make it to the table.
Back in the days when I have been in charge of the cooking, I was always right there by the stove, even dragging a chair in to sit beside it and read a book. I have heard too many stories about people forgetting they were in the middle of cooking.
I have always been to afraid to cook on a gas powered stove, but a couple of years ago, I had to. You know what? It was the best meal I had ever made, and I didn't have to keep turning the temperature of the elements up and down.
My mother was the ever vigilant cook, but even she made a few mistakes, like using lighter fluid (was meant to be used in the gas wand that lights bbq's and other gas powered devices) in a stir fry instead of peanut oil!!!
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
17 Sep 08
YiKES!!
Guess it was a good thing nobody ATE that!
I didn't grow up with a gas range, but have had one for almost 30 years (both here and at the previous rental.) I agree, you can set the flame at any level and not have to watch it like a hawk.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
20 Sep 08
I don't know if the Indian resturants do take away here. Of course I don't eat Indian food - too spicy for me - don't eat Mexican food much either - because of the corn.
Having said that, I had Mexican food last night and am STILL suffering almost 10 hrs later and it wasn't even that spicy!
This place has all the sopapias you want - how cool is that!
@newzealtralian (3930)
• Australia
20 Sep 08
But what an excuse for getting indian take away! lol.
1 person likes this
@Maggiepie (7816)
• United States
17 Sep 08
"...though my former roommate once set fire at a friend's place while she was trying to cook something -- twice -- I had to get the friend's fire extinguisher out & use it."
LOL! Ah...good times.... LOL!
Maggiepie, the wannabe arsonist
1 person likes this
@Maggiepie (7816)
• United States
17 Sep 08
LOL! Of COURSE I remember that! I've not TOTALLY given in to Gallopin' Geezerhood, y'know!
Maggiepie (Who?) (LOL!)
1 person likes this
@lingli_78 (12822)
• Australia
17 Sep 08
fortunately, i never burnt anything before until causing fire when i am cooking... i try to be very careful and always watch the stove whenever i am cooking... also, i always make sure that i use a medium fire and not the large one... take care and have a nice day...
1 person likes this
@jillmalitz (5131)
• United States
22 Sep 08
First of all, I hope everything is ok and the damage was minimal. I have never done any thing quite that bad. My husband was cooking something in oil one time and it flamed up. He yelled for me and I slid the top onto the pot and the fire went out. Then there was a time when I was a department head at a hospital when during a department head meeting the maintaince head set the paper doilie which held the doughnuts on fire with a lighter. LOL.
1 person likes this
@Rosekitty (19368)
• San Marcos, Texas
17 Sep 08
Nope never had that type of experience..I'm not a bad cook when i do it and us that live in Texas BBQ alot anyway..lol..right Elic?
1 person likes this
@walijo2008 (4644)
• United States
17 Sep 08
That's crazy, I'm not that great of a cook either but so far I haven't set anything on fire. My sister did when she was younger, I don't know what all she had done but she almost caught her apartment on fire, had to call the fire dept. and everything...lol.
1 person likes this
@nite1tiger (55)
• United States
17 Sep 08
funny story if you knew me now compared to then you would swear i was a totally different person back then my idea of cooking was in the microwave or deepfrying hotdogs not i hand cook everything and am very picky how i serve and eat so its very yummy now
@Sovann (20)
• Canada
17 Sep 08
Thats pretty interesting, luckily that hasn't happened to me,luck was on my side because one time I was cooking some meat. I told my brother to turn it off in around 2 minutes because I was running aerons (sp?). But he works the night shift so he fell asleep, as soon as i came back the fire alarm went off and i put it out. Close call for me :P. I'm really scared of fires, when I go camping I can't roast marshmellows it there isn't a good firepit. I really have to face my fear sooner or later and not be afraid of it somehow coming out or ember flying on me and lighting.
1 person likes this
