Where There’s Smoke……
This year I bought something that I’ve been needing for an awfully long time: a stove with all 5 burners that work, plus one kick-butt oven! I mean, this oven is just gorgeous. The door is wide enough to allow me to put something in the oven larger than a breadbox, which is a novelty for me. Also, it works as promised. 350 degrees means 350 degrees and not somewhere between 250 and 450. There is even a handy window so that I can see what is going on inside. Martha Stewart, move over! There’s a new Kitchen Diva in town and she’s been cooking and baking up a storm! I’ve made some mighty fine stuff in my new oven and thought, “Swell! I am now all set for the holidays.” My daughter and her family are coming down for Thanksgiving this year, much to my delight. In the spirit of things, I decided to give this oven a test run. Really, since I won two free turkeys at our local super market and only had room in my freezer for one of them, I thought I’d cook one up yesterday. That sure would make a great test run – and looking back on it now, I thank God that I did.
I stuffed the 19 pound bird, tented it with foil, turned the oven on to 250 degrees and placed old Butterball in the oven. The game plan was that I would be spending a few hours up at the farm with my horse, Roxy, and the turkey would slow cook all day long and be ready to enjoy upon my return.
My horse pal, Cindi, and I go up and spend time with our horses every single weekend barring natural catastrophe or severe illness. This weekend was just spectacular in every sense of the word, so we set out to enjoy our day at the stables with our horses. As the day wore on, Cindi decided she wanted to stop at our local BJ’s Super Center
When I got home about 1 hour later and opened up my front door, I was in for a bit of a surprise. Instead of the heavenly aroma of turkey gently roasting in the oven, there was this peculiar, almost acrid smell. It reminded me of the time when a pan of oil I once over-heated on the stove top nearly burst into flame. Then, I noticed the smoke! Like a light haze at first, the farther I went into my house, the thicker it became. Finally, in my kitchen I could see wafts of smoke passing in front of the kitchen window and thought, “Oh, Crap!” Sure enough, my oven was full of smoke, and I did the dumbest thing ever. I opened up the door.
God must have been with me because I totally forgot Kitchen Fire Safety 101. If the oven is full of smoke, you should just turn it off and run for the fire extinguisher, just in case. To open the door could allow a flood of oxygen to ignite the interior into a ball of flame. I was very, very lucky. Apparently, the interior temperature was low enough that fire wasn’t imminent, but there was another problem. I don’t know how or why I did it, but I used the wrong roasting pan! It was far too small for the huge turkey, and so the juices spilled out over the edge of the pan. Fortunately, my oven is designed to have a hidden bottom element. It is below the floor of the oven, out of harm’s way. The juices had all collected in the well at the bottom of the oven and were just getting all smoky.
It took me a good hour and a half to clean up the mess. Another bonus is that my new oven steam cleans itself, which helped me a lot. The turkey was done to perfection, believe it or not, and my husband and I went on to enjoy a lovely meal.
But, I want to share this with everyone, so please listen up! Make sure you use the correct size pan for whatever you are cooking. And, if you are going to cook something while you are out….please don’t do it. I’ve never been a fan of that, but thought that with my new stove’s capabilities everything would go along just fine. You just never know what can happen, and if you are not there to take care of a little problem, it can develop into a huge one.
Whatever you do, please enjoy this holiday time. Cook, bake, eat and be merry. And remember to use the greatest of caution in the kitchen first, last, and always!
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