Fire!

If you ever step into our house and it smells like something - like plastic for instance - has burnt, well, it probably has. Like, this weekend for instance. If our house smells like marshmallows - sadly, it is not because we have been enjoying them. I'll get to why at the end. But first, in the six years that Stranger and I have been married, we have gone through - not one - but two fire extinguishers. That's right. Two. Most people never get the chance to use theirs, but we are on our third.

Our familiarity with kitchen fires stems from items being left in the oven - pans of brownies covered in plastic wrap, tupperware filled with cookies. Isn't that where everyone stores their treats? It keeps them handy for when you *need* them, but out of site so that you aren't tempted by seeing them. It's genius! In my house growing up - treats were stored in the oven (or microwave). I have been trained to always check the oven before turning it on. It's just in my genes. You don't want to burn perfectly good baked goods! Apparently, Stranger's mom did not know about this wonderful hiding spot, because he never checks the oven before turning it on - even if HE was the one that stored something there! This has led to countless batches of baked goods being forever lost. After about five years, we decided that we would have to find another spot to hide our treats.

I bring this up today, because apparently TinyDancer has inherited the "fire in the kitchen" gene. TinyDancer is my little helper in the kitchen. She loves to help measure and stir. She can't wait for the day when she can chop and use the mixer by herself. She has her own little apron and for Christmas this year, she received her own little baking set with a mixing spoon, a whisk, and measuring cups and spoons. Lately, she has asked to help take things out of the toaster oven and off of cookie sheets. Side note - We *LOVE* our toaster oven. We reheat almost everything in there. It heats things so much better than the mircowave - everything gets hot, but not soggy like the microwave makes things. All of this is, of course, done under parental supervision. Perhaps I am not the right parent, because today she almost caught her pot holder on fire! Since she did so great getting cookies off of the cookie sheet last time, when she asked if she could take her sandwich out of the toaster oven today at lunch, I thought, "Why not". She put on my giant green pot holder and got her stool and I helped her up. I was holding her free hand so that she didn't forget that she was handling hot stuff and accidentially use her free had. She tried to reach in to pull the tray out, but since the mitt was soo big, the tip of the mitt touched the heating element on the bottom and Whoosh! She didn't even notice, but I started shouting "Get your hand out! Get your hand out!". Luckily, the mitt didn't catch fire. There is just a nice black mark where it touched the heating element. And the smell. After I got TinyDancer down from her stool and recovered from almost allowing my child to set herself on fire, I took out her sandwich. And I hear "What is that beautiful smell? It smells like marshmallows!". No sweetie, that is just the burnt oven mitt.

Perhaps we'll wait another year before attempting that again! 8 )