Stop, drop, and salmon roll!

You know, you figure broiling salmon is a pretty unexciting thing. You broil the salmon, eat the salmon, end of story. Not necessarily, as I found out Thursday night.

Gus and I decided to have broiled salmon for dinner. Gus's salmon finished cooking before mine, so I put his on a plate and put mine back under the broiler. Next thing I know, Lulu is pointing at the oven, and there is smoke rolling out of it! Yikes! I opened the door and there was a roaring fire inside. Yeah. Not just a little smoke & smoldering fire. ROARING FIRE.

It was one of those moments that seems like it stretched on forever - like everything and everyone was moving in slow motion. I was trying to think of what to do because I couldn't reach in to pull the broiler pan out. I finally unglued my feet from the floor and grabbed the salt out of the pantry and started throwing that inside the oven. Gus starts yelling at me, asking me what the heck I'm doing - and then I see him throw a wet towel in the oven. (I was thinking "I don't think I've ever heard the 'throw a wet towel on it' advice for putting out an oven fire, but okay".) He tossed a second one in there and managed to douse the flames (and ruin two dish towels). The kids and I were just kind of staring at him like he had lost his mind. And I'd like to point out that the salt was working just fine. And it had the added benefit of seasoning my salmon. So there. Gus said he had never heard of throwing salt on a fire. What rock has he been living under? Not rock salt that's for sure. Mwahahahaha.

Soot inside my oven and also on the front of it where the smoke was rolling...but no permanent damage, thank goodness.

I can see how people panic when there is a fire - even when you know what you're supposed to do, it just doesn't "click" sometimes. Scary. It would take such a brief time for something like that to rage out of control.

When I was reading my favorite blogs today, I saw an entry that made me laugh so hard I almost peed my pants. "Your own personal firefighter"! I had visions of a hunky firedude in his firepants & suspenders (no shirt, just a six-pack) - and I was wondering where I could keep him. But no, they were talking about the Kovenex Rapid Response Blanket.

(picture courtesy of www.thefirestore.com)

I suppose it's pretty nifty. Not as nifty as my own personal firefighter, but it'll do. I think I'm going to buy one of these. It's no fun cleaning soot and salt out of the oven.

Oh, by the way - the salmon was delicious. Apparently the fire just raged around it. Cool. Well, fire's not cool, but you know what I mean. I tried telling Gus that the fire could possibly be a sign that I shouldn't cook, but he gave me a look that I'm pretty sure meant he wasn't falling for that line. Can't blame a girl for trying, right?