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December 30, 2008

Why Cooking Ham For Christmas Is Hazardous...



So be careful as to not snarl your nose at my disgusting oven, this could happen to you. Friday, we had our Christmas dinner, I suppose a day late would still count as Christmas dinner? I put a beautiful ham in the oven as I usually do, baked it for a full three hours and oh the smell was simply scrumptious. Yum.

What I did not realize was that behind this delicously scrumptious smell was hiding a bizarre picture to the future. I had not put my ham in a pan big enough for the juices. So the bottom of my oven sizzled with ham grease. Not so yummy anymore? So in the mad rush to eat the delicous food and then clean the kitchen before midnight, I COMPLETELY forgot about the grease in the bottom of the oven. I never use my oven unless I can't fit things into my convection oven on the counter. Well, last night for dinner I decided to make home made pizzas and was just going to pop them all in the oven so I could cook more at once and the kids could stop gnawing on my ankles because they were hungry. Ooops. By the time I smelled the smoke from the burning grease I had a grease fire in my oven, oh not a pretty site. I ruined a whole pizza throwing salt in my oven. It took two big things of salt to put the fire out. Amazingly I stayed calm. I did burn my hand, but I saved my kitchen and my oven.

Now, I don't even know where to begin on how to clean it up. I've opened the oven door several times in an attempt to rid the salt from the bottom of my oven, but it just looks so scary I close the door back. I've thought about doing the self cleaning action, but I'm sure that would result in another fire.

One lesson I did learn was that my fire alarms must not work, not one in the whole house went off and the smoke was so thick you couldn't see downstairs. LOL, actually it was quite funny, I had all the kids at an outside door swinging it back and forth trying to get the smoke out. We looked like a bunch of redneck rejects, LOL! Now that I think about it I can't help but to giggle at the look on their faces. Oh dear, scarred for life.

12 comments:

jolincountry said...

Oh my! How scary! I probably would have done the same thing (forgetting the grease was in there). I'm so thankful that the fire was contained to just your oven.
How's your hand? Is it a bad burn?

Leslee P said...

Hope you are okay... I use the vacuum on everything, i would use the hose on the salt after taking all of the racks out. Bless you heart, Pregnancy makes people forgetful... Good luck

The Foley 5 said...

Oh my goodness Angie .. that's so scarey! So glad it wasn't worse! As for the clean up, I would use Easy Off Oven Cleaner, it works wonders! Let it sit a while and then use an SOS pad to scrub it. As for the salt ... could you maybe use the vaccum cleaner hose to suck it up b4 applying the oven cleaner? I probebly wouldn't use the oven's self cleaner because it smells horrible and with all that grease the smell would live in your house for months! Is your hand OK?

Amber said...

I clean our oven with vinegar and baking soda. I spray the vinegar in the oven then sprinkle the baking soda on top. The reaction will loosen up and burnt crud in the oven. I let it sit for about 30 minutes. Then I use warm water to clean it up. After it dries you may have some dried baking soda in the oven. Just rewipe it with a warm cloth.

The Todd's said...

Oh wow! I've totally done that, only I did it w/ sausage balls. Hope you get it cleaned up pretty easily!

Jodi said...

I am so glad you are okay!

I would use damp paper towels to pick up the salt and then a pancake turner to scrape the grease into a paper towel. After I cleaned up the grease I would use the spray cleaner. I wouldn't brave the self-cleaning cycle either.

McAngie said...

Thankfully it was only my knuckles where I had to stick my hand in to sprinkle the salt. I will never do that again.

Julie said...

i say give the clean up to your oldest kids as a science project!! let them figure out what cleans it up the best!!!
have fun!!!

Tina said...

oh no mate that is scary! :(

hope you have a great new year mate

Steve Orris said...

Ok, at least you didn't microwave a toothbrush to kill the germs. Who would have thought that could be bad? More on that here: http://tinyurl.com/7vtz29

Julie said...

Oh no! I did this last year and burned up Christmas dinner. We had to throw baking soda in the oven to put out the huge fire. Not only was dinner ruined but I had to buy a new oven. Your's doesn't look ruined like mine did. I defintely would have the kids work on it. Might take some elbow grease but I bet they could clean it up. I'm so sorry that happened.

Happy New Year,
Julie

Joy said...

I have a funny similar story, I tried to clean my oven the night before Christmas since we have a big thing here I wanted a clean oven.

well the hubs had made sausage balls a week before and the grease in the bottom of the oven started a fire! and the oven was locked since it was in clean mode! I just turned it off and prayed the fire went out! it did and the oven stayed dirty for the next day