Reason #9,999 why I hate my electric stove

Those darn drip pans catch fire!!! :-o

Yeah...um, last night while my potato-leek soup simmerd away, I had to get supper going for the kids. Abigail requested Blue's Clues Mac-N-Cheese. Worked for me. I put the pot of water on the burner and walked away. Zander asked to go downstairs to play, and he doesn't like to go down those steps, so I carried him down, made sure he was settled okay, and headed back up. I walked into the kitchen and glanced at the stove and headed for the sink. Wait. What was that? I turn around and under my pot of simmering water were flames! It was almost funny, actually. Realizing kitchen fires can get crazy though, I stepped over and reached over the flames to turn off the burner. Then I walked across the kitchen and grabbed the baking soda. I moved the pot and doused the fire. Then I just stood there for a second. It was just a little fire, but normally in that situation, I think I would have freaked out- but I was almost scary calm about it.

So what did I learn? That I really do hate my electric range. And I really, really want a duel fuel. I have found that I like the electric oven- it does heat correctly, and evenly- which I didn't have with my gas range. But the stove top has got to go. As I write this, my drip pans are soaking in the sink, I just hope I can get those crusties off so this doesn't happen again. Oh, and I also learned that I need to purchase more baking soda to keep in the cupboard immediately over the stove.

Today after I get the stove cleaned up I am going to be baking off Abigail's pumpkin that she planted and picked in Grandma's garden. She wants to make pumpkin pie out of it. I am pretty sure it's not a pie pumpkin though, so we'll see how it works. I do have some canned pumpkin so if the cooked pumpkin is not quite right for the pie, I can use it for something else and give her the canned pumpkin to use. And, before it gets warm again, I am going to try something else with pumpkin. Tune in later to find out what. I promise you won't be disapponted. (providing it works! ;-p)