Don't tell Mom, but while she is away, I've been getting into some trouble. I've smoked her good pot, on Christmas morning, no less!
No, it's not that, but it does sound more naughty and less risky than what really happened.
I put her huge stock pot -- the really nice one with the thick aluminum base, the one which holds 12 or more quarts -- on the stove last night, filled with the stripped carcass of a small turkey, plus all the other basic ingredients required for making a good, hearty turkey broth. When it was time for me to head home, I thought I was turning off the heat, but apparently I missed the mark & left the burner on high heat all night. I'd like to use the excuse that I was tired, but I'm always a little tired or a little too wired... Last evening, I'd had to dope myself up with antihistamines and stuff to jump-start my lungs, to quell an allergic reaction to some scent left in a package delivered here by mistake, so I was goofy, to say the least. I'm thinking you could probably have figured that out, just by reading the depth of my blogs from yesterday... hmmmph.
But I digress.
When I came over this morning to pick up the gear I'd left here (I didn't want Peanut to stick her nosy little feline paws into the Christmas ribbons or shred the wrapping paper, since she finds the sound of paper tearing endlessly pleasing), and my folks' house reeked of the peculiar aroma of melted plastic (the little tub of nibbly bits on the center of the rangetop)and overheated metal, not to mention the charming and delightful scent of charred turkey bones and carbonized onions, I was amazed and horrified. I might have stayed all day, just cleaning up the mess, but it was too hot to deal with, then, and I was expected at the extended family's for Christmas breakfast & the opening of packages, and when there are small children involved, one does not come late to Christmas.
I left everything for tonight. I'm still not finished with the clean-up, but I have it under control, at least. For the night. And, I've turned off ALL the burners.
Mom's stove is fairly effective at boiling away fluids and melting perfectly good cookware into interesting ingots. Well, it's not as though the entire stock pot is melted into a nasty, bubbling mess, but there's no getting around the fact that I'll be replacing the drip pan under the burner, and I'll be doing KP duty for a few months, for this. And, I have to figure out some way to get the burnt smells out of the house, in the dead of winter, before the old bat and the geezer get home on Saturday. Without using perfumes which will set off my allergies again. I'm open to (clean) cleaning suggestions.
It's going to be a fun lead-up to the New Year.
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