Clearly not my day in the kitchen

That little red fire engine was my friend today.

I was sitting at my computer in my office, smelling what I thought was burnt toast when Ash came in to say, "Uh, mom. There's something wrong."

I hurried with her down the hall to find a smoke-filled kitchen and a fire on my stove.

Quick! What's the number for 911? Ha ha, just quoting Little Rascal's for ya.

I didn't call the fire department just yet.

I was going to make bread, and so I put my honey (it's in a plastic jug; remember this because it will be important later) in a pot of water on the stove to melt it down to liquid form. Then I remembered Tyler had a phone call and I didn't want to bother him with my loud mixer. So I thought I'd wait and check my email and update my playlist for the next time I go running. And I totally forgot about my honey on the stove.

First I tried to smother it with a lid.

No luck.

Then I remembered my fire extinguisher in the pantry. Dummy me didn't know how to use it so I left it on the counter as I tried another tactic.

I thought about smothering with a kitchen towel but decided that would be probably turn out badly.

So I opted for water.

Worse idea yet.

The flames shot clear up and thankfully didn't catch anything else on fire.

Back to the fire extinguisher. I didn't take long to figure it out and finally put that fire out with one snuff.

Then I took a step back to survey the damage. I was just so grateful my house was still standing.

After about three hours of scrubbing and using a screw driver to scratch all the melted on plastic (I told you this would be important), my stove is looking just okay. I really thought I'd be buying another cooktop, but after a little elbow grease I think I'll cut my losses and keep it as a reminder to not be so stupid next time. And speaking of stupid me, after cleaning for about 1/2 hour I realized the GAS WAS STILL ON! Now why didn't I think to turn it off first thing? So much for controlled chaos.

I have to commend Ash for being so cool about the whole thing. BUT next time there's a fire in the house, she's now been given permission to run through the whole house screaming, "FIRE!"

And you know something else, our temperamental fire alarms never made a sound. Hmmmm....