Pyrotechnic Cooking
Sunday dinner was more exciting than most -- first the grill blew up and then the stove caught on fire.
No, seriously. I just had the hubs hook up the new tank of propane to the grill and turned it on to heat up. When I came back outside, one of the knobs had melted to the metal, the other knob had blown off and was half-melted, and fire was coming out the top and bottom of the grill. We shut off the propane and everything was fine -- we were lucky that the grill was away from anything flammable -- but it was only a matter of time, really. We'd had the grill for over five years and it had been lugged around to various scout picnics, in and out of the back of the truck. Bill had even rebuilt it twice. We tend to cook on it all summer because it keeps the house cooler so it's really like an outside stove. After discussion with the boys, we've decided to get new grill as a family gift this Christmas.
But the excitement didn't end there -- after the grill blew up, I got out my cast iron griddle and heated it grill-side up so I could go ahead and cook the steaks. Everything was fine ... until the grease from one of the steaks dribbled down into the burner dish and caught the stove on fire. Fortunately, I kept my head, transfered the griddle over and put out the fire with baking soda. The resident males didn't know anything had happened until all the smoke alarms went off. The stove was fine, the dinner was fine, and the alarms finally went off once we got all the smoke cleared.
Now I have to put up with the guys telling me "Gee, Mom... if you really want to cook with fire, you should really go on more campouts."
Scouts humor, hoo boy.
No, seriously. I just had the hubs hook up the new tank of propane to the grill and turned it on to heat up. When I came back outside, one of the knobs had melted to the metal, the other knob had blown off and was half-melted, and fire was coming out the top and bottom of the grill. We shut off the propane and everything was fine -- we were lucky that the grill was away from anything flammable -- but it was only a matter of time, really. We'd had the grill for over five years and it had been lugged around to various scout picnics, in and out of the back of the truck. Bill had even rebuilt it twice. We tend to cook on it all summer because it keeps the house cooler so it's really like an outside stove. After discussion with the boys, we've decided to get new grill as a family gift this Christmas.
But the excitement didn't end there -- after the grill blew up, I got out my cast iron griddle and heated it grill-side up so I could go ahead and cook the steaks. Everything was fine ... until the grease from one of the steaks dribbled down into the burner dish and caught the stove on fire. Fortunately, I kept my head, transfered the griddle over and put out the fire with baking soda. The resident males didn't know anything had happened until all the smoke alarms went off. The stove was fine, the dinner was fine, and the alarms finally went off once we got all the smoke cleared.
Now I have to put up with the guys telling me "Gee, Mom... if you really want to cook with fire, you should really go on more campouts."
Scouts humor, hoo boy.