a little fire, a lotta party

A couple of days ago, Jessie asked if we were going to celebrate her birthday on Sunday.  I said, "of course.   Dinner?  Dessert?"  She said she'd like pot roast with potatoes and carrots and onions and brownies with ice cream for dessert.  And I said, "of course."  And I thought, whatever she wanted, she could have for her birthday.

Yesterday morning, I got up early to start the pot roast cooking all day in the oven.  I poured a little bit of oil in the big pan, tossed in the roast(s) and turned on my gas stove.  I seasoned it and thought I should lift the slightly uneven-bottomed pan to spread the oil around the roast so everything would brown evenly. 

And that is when I learned that hot pan + oil + gas flame = FIRE!!!  Sparkly little flickers that quickly flashed into a ball of flames under my stove hood.  YIKES!

I let go of the pan, took a step back, then reached back to turn off the burners, and by then, the flames were gone, leaving a bit of sooty blackness behind on the cabinets by the stove and the wall behind it.

Again.  YIKES!

After catching my breath and surveying the situation, I relit the burners, finished browning the roast, peeled and cut up the potatoes, onions, and added them, the carrots and a bit of water to the pan, covering it all and setting it carefully into the preheated oven.

At some point before the completion of these tasks, but after the flames were gone, the smoke detectors started beeping so I opened a window and the door even though there really wasn't any smoke to be seen.  And then I scrubbed off the sootiness and then sat down to think about what had just nearly happened.

yikes.

~~~

After such an intense beginning, it seemed only right that the party later in the day would be a little chaotic, but in a much less frightening way.  Almost everyone came over, everyone who came laughed and talked and enjoyed the others and the food.  After the dinner eating was done and cleaned up, and after the singing and cake and ice cream serving was completed, I tried to get a few pictures.  As I said, it was chaotic, which is why these pictures seem totally appropriate.

Sweet Gwen slept through the eating.  Jack had to take a breather and go outside to eat his brownies and ice cream.  But it was all good and so nice to have almost everyone together.


~~~

And tomorrow is my girl's birthday.  I hope she has a great day.