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I should have known the day wasn't going to go right when I ran through the front door of Dunkin Donuts - because my sister was at my parents house and I promised to bring her coffee on my way to see them before they all left for my sisters house in PA - and promptly ran head first right into a another glass door that was a good enough smack to the forehead to make Americas funniest home videos.
But later things were looking up. I had bought a precooked dinner for 10 people - I was having 7 guests over, plus me and my GF. I was following a great chart that showed when to put what in the oven at what time to have a 2pm dinner.
Everything was going smoothly, there were 25 minutes left til we were supposed to eat - my ex was making cosmos for everyone -
And suddenly someone said - there's something on fire in the broiler pan.
Black smoke suddenly started billowing out of the oven. I opened the oven door and could see flames down at the bottom of the oven - I didn't know what was on fire.
I didn't know what to do. I yelled for someone to get the fire extingushier. Someone else yelled, no, it will ruin everything in the oven. My GF picked up the phone and started to call the fire department. Someone yelled at her not to.
Ash started to fill the air. We were in total panic mode.
Couldn't get the fire extinguisher to work. The next thing I knew I could hear the town fire alarm going off and knew it was for us. Fortunately my GF didn't listen to whoever told her not to call the fire department.
Finally one of my guests grabbed the pan that was on fire and ran out the back door with pieces of flaming debris falling over the kitchen floor. Someone alertly doused those flames but today I was on my hands and knees sandpapering patches of charged linoleum.
Black smoke filled the entire house. But the fireman had this amazing super charged fan that literally sucked all the smoke out of the house. it's a miracle machine. Except for the back ash that was covering every surface, you'd never know that there had been a fire.
Also miraculously, the turkey was saved because it had been wrapped in foil. But all of the side dishes were ruined. So we cooked up some frozen veggies and had a salad, and I had mashed up some turnips that were already covered, so there was really more than enough to eat, and someone how we were able to pull it together and have a nice dinner.
Of course everyone around the table was thankful that no one had gotten had hurt, and we had in fact avoided any serious damage. And I'm especially thankful for the awesome firemen who came so quickly and made us feel like things were going to be okay.
Next year I'm going out for Chinese!
Oh, the thing that was on fire, one of those rubber muffin pans that was being stored in the broiler. Not blaming the GF, but I know I didn't put it there.
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