Jamie's Corner: There's a Fire in the Kitchen!

What is Jamie’s Corner? 

Jamie's Corner is a humorous look at life, in particular my life. 

In the movies, I am not the elegant lady that walks down the stairs and charms her guests with grace and beauty. I am the one that trips on her gown, spills wine on her new dress and tries to carry on a conversation with spinach stuck in between her teeth. Years ago, it used to affect my sense of self and make my depression worse. But I no longer see it that way. A writer once told me anything that does not go smoothly in life makes for a good story. I agree. And I have lots of stories.

View the full archive of Jamie's Corner here.

My story this week: Jamie; There's a Fire in the Kitchen!

It was a Sunday morning. My daughter and I had already decided to make a homemade pot roast for the family that day. It used to be a favorite of my father-in-law so I was hoping he would enjoy it. We decided to start early in the morning. That way the pot roast would be very tender and easy to eat. His teeth had been bothering him as of late so we knew he could not bite into anything tough. 

But this was not just any old Sunday; it was Superbowl Sunday. A major holiday by American standards; right up there with Christmas, Thanksgiving, and Easter. What a perfect day! The only issue, of course, would be fighting the crowds at the grocery stores. Yes, we could have gone grocery shopping earlier in the week, but we wanted to get the freshest of ingredients. As expected, the grocery store was crowded. Getting through the fruit and vegetable isle was like the Chicago Bears trying to score 10 yards in the first down against the Buffalo Bills. (Or like Slytherin trying to beat Gryffindor if you are more of a Quidditch Fan). 

We finally made it home with all of the ingredients for the pot roast with potatoes, carrots, and celery. We also got baking ingredients to make chocolate brownies with chocolate frosting. (I sort of like chocolate). 

We put the pot roast ingredients in the crock pot and started on the brownies. We decided to melt some marshmallows on top of them. Once the brownies were done baking, we covered the top with the marshmallows and turned the oven setting to broil for 3 minutes. One and a half minutes later, the entire dessert was engulfed in flames! There was a fire in my oven! Never having experienced this, I quickly went through all of my options (calling the fire department, running out into the street screaming fire, throwing water onto the desert, etc.) Eventually, I just decided to turn off the oven and see what happened. Fortunately, this stopped the fire. The top of our dessert was a disaster. If I had been on a cooking show, I would have been "fired." (Pun intended. Lol). It was ruined! Or was it? As I scooped off the charred mess, there was a beautiful layer of smooth, melted marshmallow underneath. We let it cool, added a layer of chocolate frosting on top, and our new dessert was a hit. We called it Decadent Burnt Double Chocolate Brownies. 

As for the pot roast? It turned out alright. It was a little tougher than we had hoped. Perhaps it was our new crock pot? Perhaps the meat we chose? Who knows? It was good but not the earth-shattering tender meat we had hoped for.

But we are not deterred. Neither snow, nor sleet, nor rain.... (Oh wait, that is the post office's slogan).

Neither crowded stores, new cookware nor even oven fires can stop us. We plan to continue to cook and experiment in the kitchen. Why, might you ask? Well, for the simple reason that we are always hungry. Lol.