My Kitchen Meltdown

I have been on a kitchen high for the last couple of weeks.  First, my apartment manager replaced our old school 1950’s style stove that I would have to re-light with a paper towel almost every night  before cooking with an electric one.  Score!  Then, he had our nasty ass, crusty linoleum floors replaced with something that resembles hardwood. I don’t care if its real or not, it looks nice.

But all good things must come to an end; what was once a kitchen high has now turned into a meltdown. Last night after I got home from yoga, Bryan and I decided we would take it easy - no dishes, no muss or fuss - and just heat up a Kashi mushroom pizza, drink a little wine, and get to bed early.  It sounded like such a great plan and really seemed like there was nothing that could spoil it - until smoke and ashes started to fill the kitchen.

At first, I thought it must be the pan on the stove but it really didn’t make much sense - I was SIMMERING rice for lunches today. After a brief moment of confusion, I discovered it was coming from the oven and saw the flames. And all I could think was oh shit and “BRYAN!!!”

Thankfully, he knew exactly what to do.  My instinct would have been to open up the drawer and pour water on the flames.  Instead, he had me turn everything off, open up all the windows and just let the fire burn out. If I had acted on my instinct, it would have been disastrous - our apartment would probably be gone.

It took almost half an hour for the flames to subside and by that time our kitchen was a smoky ashy mess.  It took another hour for Bryan and I to clean some of the mess up - the important parts at least - he was on hands and knees scrubbing the ashes out of our oven and trying to get all the burnt goods out of there.  Our plan for frozen pizza and an early bed time was clearly foiled.  We ordered a pizza and ended up eating close to 11 pm before passing out - probably partly from exhaustion and partly from fumes. Ugh!

Worst part is, we still  have to deal with it when we get home tonight.  Our kitchen is still covered in ashes, we will have to throw out a lot of good food, our dish towels are in ruins and we will likely be up late again.

And the really crazy thing is, it was a silicone baking pan from WILTON BAKEWARE (we purchased it at Bed, Bath & Beyond) that started the fire in the first place. SCARY. If silicone is so easy to ignite and is that flammable, why is it sold as bakeware?

Tagged as: baking, cooking, fires, healthy, Kashi frozen foods, Kashi frozen pizza, kitchen scare, meltdown, oven fire, Pizza Orgasmica, silicon bakeware, stovetop, vegetarian