Fried Green Beans

After extensive research, Nancy developed a new dish last night. Blackened Green Beans. In reality it was an accident. She was boiling a few green beans and the water all boiled away, smoking the beans some. It set off a smoke alarm.

That reminds me of a time Nancy took Gerrit to a tiger cub scout "go see it" at a local fire station. The fireman asked the group what it means when a smoke alarm goes off and Gerrit said, "Mom is cooking." That's funny as a joke, but Gerrit really meant it. The alarm in our hallway is extremely sensitive and goes off at the first hint of smoke. This is good in case of a real fire, but can get annoying otherwise. We've even had it go off by grilling outside if some smoke blows in with the wind when opening the front door. So, it is not an indication that Nancy is a bad cook. Anyone who has seen me would know that is far from true.

For Samantha's birthday in March we had our good friends, Barb, Jason and their kids, over for supper. We had three Papa Murphy's pizzas and I tried to cook them all at the same time. I've done it before in our oven without problem. This time I forgot to raise the lower rack. Normally it is not a "cooking" rack but can be used for that if needed. Anyway, I ended up with a fire in the oven when the coated paper tray for the bottom pizza lit up because of the proximity to the bottom burner. I quickly pulled it out and put the fire out. I think this time all of the alarms in the house were going off. Again, that is a good thing. I raised the rack and put that pizza back in, but the protective qualities of the paper coating were gone and it started on fire again. Kept the pizza out this time. It was cooked and actually tasted pretty good - just a little black and crispy on the bottom. I salvaged some of it and the kids ate it pretty well.