Burning Down the House
This story has already made its rounds though my family, the youth ministry community, our parish, and our circle of friends...so I decided to post it here as well. Here it is in all its glory.
Last Sunday night (Labour Day long weekend), I hosted a certain card game at my house with some of the guys. I was trying to be a good host so I bought some pizzas to satisfy our late night appetites...a far cry from the chips and popcorn we're used to eating. So it was with great anticipation that I preheated the oven at 1am and put the pizzas in at 1:15am.
It was slightly confusing. The instructions on the outside of the box said to remove the pizza from its wrapping, and place it on the tray which was supplied right on the rack. Then, when I opened the boxes, it had a huge sticker saying REVISED INSTRUCTIONS. Remove from wrapping, discard tray, and place right on rack. So I went with these 2nd instructions. After all, they were the closest to the actual pizza!
One of the guys soon noticed the smell of burnt cheese. Sure enough, one of the pizzas had cracked ever-so-slightly with cheese dripping and burning on the bottom of the oven. So they suggested that I put something down on the bottom of the oven to catch the drippings. Made sense. So I pulled out some aluminum foil (after running upstairs to ask Gail where we kept it...haha) when one of the guys quietly suggested that I just put down one of the cardboard trays that the pizzas came on. Without thinking, I obliged. I mean...who was I to question these capable men???
You can probably guess what happened next. Within 15 seconds the cardboard and pizzas inside the oven were on fire. Smoke came blasting out of the oven, filling up our kitchen and great room with a haze. We yanked the oven open and let the fire burn out after I told them I didn't have a fire extinguisher. The guys were remarkably calm, thanks to some quick thinking. But it was certainly a scary sight! We continued playing with all of the doors and windows open, and with fans running for a few hours. And we were all hungry.
The guys were making fun of me, asking why on earth I would put a cardboard piece in the oven. I didn't want to throw anyone under the proverbial bus, so I just agreed that it was a dumb move. Thankfully, the guys who suggested the cardboard admitted it was them...and one of them is a professional chef, the other in culinary school! It didn't matter though...what mattered was that everyone was ok and that the house didn't burn down.
Gail told me the next day that she smelt smoke, but she just thought I burnt the pizza as usual. The guys texted me the next day to make sure everything was ok and they asked if I told Gail. Of course I did: I don't lie. Plus the smell of smoke was hard to cover up.
It was a good lesson though: I need to buy a fire extinguished and install a smoke detector downstairs. We were able to clean the oven of the burnt ashes and run the self-cleaning feature the next day.
And for our next poker night...I'm ordering in.
Last Sunday night (Labour Day long weekend), I hosted a certain card game at my house with some of the guys. I was trying to be a good host so I bought some pizzas to satisfy our late night appetites...a far cry from the chips and popcorn we're used to eating. So it was with great anticipation that I preheated the oven at 1am and put the pizzas in at 1:15am.
It was slightly confusing. The instructions on the outside of the box said to remove the pizza from its wrapping, and place it on the tray which was supplied right on the rack. Then, when I opened the boxes, it had a huge sticker saying REVISED INSTRUCTIONS. Remove from wrapping, discard tray, and place right on rack. So I went with these 2nd instructions. After all, they were the closest to the actual pizza!
One of the guys soon noticed the smell of burnt cheese. Sure enough, one of the pizzas had cracked ever-so-slightly with cheese dripping and burning on the bottom of the oven. So they suggested that I put something down on the bottom of the oven to catch the drippings. Made sense. So I pulled out some aluminum foil (after running upstairs to ask Gail where we kept it...haha) when one of the guys quietly suggested that I just put down one of the cardboard trays that the pizzas came on. Without thinking, I obliged. I mean...who was I to question these capable men???
You can probably guess what happened next. Within 15 seconds the cardboard and pizzas inside the oven were on fire. Smoke came blasting out of the oven, filling up our kitchen and great room with a haze. We yanked the oven open and let the fire burn out after I told them I didn't have a fire extinguisher. The guys were remarkably calm, thanks to some quick thinking. But it was certainly a scary sight! We continued playing with all of the doors and windows open, and with fans running for a few hours. And we were all hungry.
The guys were making fun of me, asking why on earth I would put a cardboard piece in the oven. I didn't want to throw anyone under the proverbial bus, so I just agreed that it was a dumb move. Thankfully, the guys who suggested the cardboard admitted it was them...and one of them is a professional chef, the other in culinary school! It didn't matter though...what mattered was that everyone was ok and that the house didn't burn down.
Gail told me the next day that she smelt smoke, but she just thought I burnt the pizza as usual. The guys texted me the next day to make sure everything was ok and they asked if I told Gail. Of course I did: I don't lie. Plus the smell of smoke was hard to cover up.
It was a good lesson though: I need to buy a fire extinguished and install a smoke detector downstairs. We were able to clean the oven of the burnt ashes and run the self-cleaning feature the next day.
And for our next poker night...I'm ordering in.
posted by Clay at 2:52 AM
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