♪ ♫ Burning Down the House ♫ ♪

Genius Golfer was making fried chicken last night for dinner.  I came home earlier than I had told him I'd be here, so I think I threw off his groove.  His chicken cooking project was just starting, so I went about things as normal while trying to stay out his way in the kitchen.

The frying pan was on the stove top with the lid on it while he was seasoning the flour and prepping the drumsticks. As I sat on the opposite side of the kitchen bar I noticed the smoke coming from the lidded pan and got very worried.  I commented to GG that something wasn't right.

He quickly grabbed an oven mitt and gently pulled the lid off the pan which caused a sudden pop and flash!  The sound and light startled him and he dropped the lid--perfectly--back on to the pan.  Then he gently removed the pan, keeping the lid on, to the bar and the trivet waiting there.

We opened all the windows and tried to air out the smoke before the smoke alarms went off.  But my eyes burned so much!  I couldn't get them to stop watering.

Apparently, when he had lifted the lid to check about the smoke, the oxygen fed the nearly-a-fire inside the pan, it flashed and, luckily, he dropped the lid perfectly on the pan or we'd have had a grease fire on our hands--and all over the kitchen, easily.

Tonight we included a special thank you in our prayers that our house didn't burn down, or GG didn't get singed.  Maybe someday this will be a funny story.

What's the family's mantra?  God protects the stupid.

Things To Do...

It is July.  In some ways I cannot believe this is possible.  In other ways, I wonder what took so long.  However, with the calendar flip today I am suddenly aware that I am running out of time to make sure The Girl is really ready to leave the nest.

I know she is ready academically.  And she is certainly ready in her attitude.  Especially if you ask her about it.  But I realize that I am doing her a disservice when she hasn't really had to cook fro herself and shop for her self.  She will have a meal plan--but she will have to supplement that with some cooking in her apartment.  I just hope she can get along.  It might be on macaroni and cheese cooked in the macrowave, true.

Otherwise, I guess I am ensuring that she will call occasionally to get a recipe or ask me how to make something she is trying to do on her own.  Maybe I won't worry about it and just lock in a weekly phone call or so.

Yeah.  That might be just the ticket.

Payback Until Lesson Learned

Sometimes as a parent you just gotta do things that you never thought you would.  Because your kids just won't learn the lesson they need any other way.  That is called tough love.

It's tough.  But it is because you love them.

The past week or 10 days so far, The Girl is cooking dinner for the family as part of a Young Women's Personal Progress experience.  She had been talking abut doing it all summer.  But procrastination is strong in this one, and consequently she was pinched to get it done now.

Now, however, she has school, college classes, swim practice, mutual activities, friends to hang out with, dates to go on,  and her dad and brother to try and please with some sort of food each evening.  The tough love part comes when she has all that to do and I don't make dinner for her.  It is her project and her goal and her schedule.  Plus, in "real life" you do have to juggle the segments of your life.  That is just how it goes.  And the sooner she learns that the better off she will be as a grown up.

But I have to say, it was very nice to eat dinner last night when it was still warm.  Moms generally are getting everyone else off to their activities and  thereby feeding everyone else first.  They don't usually get to eat when its warm.

A Useful Waste of Time

I think I have written about my newest online hobby--Pinterest.  It is hugely entertaining, and much less messy than if I actually clipped these things and pinned them on my bulletin board.  I also realize that I can spend unhealthy amounts of time getting nothing done when I am sitting there enjoying myself. But recently I have found great success, along with an easy way to blow and hour or two.

Last night I made "new recipe #3" from a Pinterest pin.  It was Cheesy-Veggie Chowder.  Oh man. It was good.  too bad The Boy doesn't care for broccoli, other wise it would have been perfect.  Lucky for me I have lovely friend who are happy (or at least, they are to my face) to receive portions from the crock pot.

Today I rubbed out the scratches on my white stoneware bowls I have had since college.  (And I wonder why they are looking 20+ years old?!)  Another Pinterest tip.  They look brand new!  I love that!

And tonight, I currently have, in the oven, as I type, a Chicken Cordon Bleu casserole.  "New Recipe #4" from Pinterest.  I'll let you know the family's verdict on this one, but it looks yummy too.

This month I set a goal for myself to try two new recipes each week, and introduce an otherwise unloved vegetable to my family.   Last week was asparagus, Disneyland's Loaded-Potato Soup ("new recipe #2") and Baked Fan Potatoes ("new recipe #1").  In my eyes, when the family likes them, that make 'em all good things to add to my cooking repertoire--but I will watch recipes I get on Pinterest better.  The fan potatoes was originally posted in Europe....and I didn't notice the oven temp was given in Celsius.  But that is a minor blip on my new personal cooking challenge.