OK, so I'll tell on myself... again. I get along with fire about as well as I get along with electricity... we have an agreement now, I don't mess with it, and it don't mess with me. Well, most of the time anyway.

I was cooking "freedom fries" one day, just me and my boy vegin out in front of the TV, we decided we wanted a snack, so I started the oil heating up in a pan on the stove. Anyway, I got lost in the TV for a little "too" long and realized that the house was kinda SmOkEy ... I ran into the kitchen to find a fire in the pan of oil about 2' high.

I immediately went to the cabinet to find some "baking soda" and I spotted... of all things... "baking powder". NOT THE SAME THING!!! I discovered this only after I had dumped the whole can into the flaming pot of oil. It then commenced to "ERUPTING"... boiling over onto the stove, running down the front of the stove onto the floor and out into the kitchen... burning the whole time. It looked like lava coming out of a volcano. I ran outside to get the fire extinguisher out of my boat and remembered there was a huge potted plant on the front porch. I grabbed it and dumped the soil onto the stove which immediately smothered out the fire. Fortunately I was in the process of installing new cabinets, (which is why there was no extinguisher in the kitchen at the moment) and there were no cabinets or vent hood above the stove. I managed to clean up all the e v i d e n c e before the wife returned home that afternoon... (she didn't even notice the plant was gone ) But one day a few weeks later, while she was cleaning the stove, she found me out. I had completely forgotten to clean under the stove top... ooops It was a brand new electric range, so it was very obvious something had happened when she lifted the top... burnt oil, baking soda, and potting soil made a thick black greasy fudge about 1/4" thick that covered everthing under the top . I came clean, and had to clean the stove. Atleast the house didn't burn down.