Meal Prep Failure, Kitchen Fire and the Lessons I Learned From This Experience
In this episode I share how I, with the help of my daughter started a kitchen fire this summer.
Fortunately, the only damage was a ruined area rug; charred kitchen pot; residue from the fire extinguisher; and smoke. A lot of SMOKE.
We did learn a few lessons from this experience:
1) All of us need to exercise caution in the kitchen. Especially with new cooks; we would benefit from some gentle safety reminders in the kitchen And it was a good reminder for me to be more contentious, and less careless in the kitchen.
2) This scared my daughter. She was a little reluctant to get back in the kitchen to make anything independently. And she didn’t want to use the stove after that for a bit. So I had to help her prepare something so that her confidence returned. She needs to know that events like this don’t happen every time you cook but do happen to all of us.
3) Mistakes happen in the kitchen to everyone. I make them and I’m sure the greatest chefs make them. But that is part of the process. We can think of cooking as a safe place to make mistakes, experiment and try again. I know I want my kids to approach failure as part of life's process and even if they make a mistake when they’re out in the world they can learn from that, change their approach and try again.
4) Messes happen.This is similar to number three but I think it’s so important that I will sort of reiterate here. Messes happen in life and in the kitchen. We’re sort of in this constant cycle of creating something, making a mess, cleaning up and enjoying the rewards of our effort. The important part is to realize if we don’t make messes then we can never grow from our experiences. If we’re always playing it safe and not making messes then we never really learn and evolve. Of course I want my kids to make messes so they can grow and evolve and I'm sure you want that for your kids too.
5) Laugh. Let me be clear, in the height of the moment when there was smoke filling my kitchen- that was not funny. But we can laugh about it after the fact, not to totally blow off the situation or minimize it but to appreciate the humor in everyday life and all the things that happen around us. We had a laugh while we rehashed the events. My son made fun of me and laughed at me that I couldn’t get the fire extinguisher going on my own.
So that is the story how I, with my daughter’s help started a kitchen fire and the lessons we can learn from it.
Transcript of this Episode
Andrea Heyman 00:00 Hi there, this is Andrea Heyman, and you are listening to another episode of adventures in feeding my fam. Today I'm going to share with you how i with the help of my daughter started a kitchen fire this summer. And more importantly, what we learned from this experience. First, I want to share a little bit about something that happened yesterday, it was a regular Good day. And I had plans to meet with a few women to work collectively on our websites. So we go on to a zoom call. And we're all working on our websites. And this keeps us accountable and moving forward and getting the job done. So one of the women came late to the session, and she was so lit up on fire, had so much energy and enthusiasm. And then she proceeded to tell us about her previous couple of days. And it was it ended up being the most motivational speech ever. Although it wasn't intended to be that it just was so amazing. It was exactly the message I needed to hear. So motivating, so inspiring that I have gone ahead and finished my website or finished as much as I'm going to do right now, so that you have resources on there that I have been adding. So I've got reviews of recipes, with tips of how to make those recipes eat easier. I've also got links to all of my podcast episodes. And then I've got information on how you can work with me. So right now, I am offering a free one on one. Family nutrition and meal prep discovery calls. So this is 30 minutes where we can sit down together and identify what your nutrition and wellness goals are for yourself and also for your family. There are a few spots left in the next week. So I'll I'll put that in. I'll put that link in the show notes. So you guys can access that if you are interested. So the website is adventuresinfeedingmyfam.com. Now on to the story of how we started a kitchen fire
First of all you guys, I want you to know that one of my most proud parenting successes is that my kids love to be in the kitchen. They love to cook, they love to cook good food and appreciate homemade foods. So this has been a long process of half of this happening. But I would say my middle child Gabe, he was kind of a fourth for leader in this effort. So he used to cook a lot when he was younger. And then I think when my daughter saw him sort of as a role model in that sense. And so she started cooking at an earlier age than he did. And we are all for this. And I will say normally it is very successful. Now I tend to be a little bit more lenient about kitchen safety as it relates to knife use or appliance use. And the reality is that most of the time, we have not had any major incidents, maybe a mild cut here or there, but nothing really major. But we are definitely the household where my kids will be making something in the kitchen. And I've had friends come in the house and they're like, Oh my gosh, are you supposed to be using that knife? And and Yes, they are. And we are comfortable with that. So this summer, my daughter was making homemade mozzarella sticks. She's made them before she takes a fresh block of mozzarella then you coat it with an egg wash, and then with a bread crumbing and then of course you're right. She's made these before with no problem, right? Wrong. Today, there was a problem. So while she was prepping the mozzarella and coating it she turned on the stove to full blast, mind you so that that burner was red hot and very warm. She had the pot on the burner, and she put oil in it to heat while she was doing all her prep work. So all of a sudden she yelled for me. And I came into the kitchen to find that the oil on the stovetop was smoking pretty significantly. So I quickly turned off the the heat source, but then I needed to get it off of that burner. So I moved the pot over to the burner next to it and mind you all the time. There's smoke coming out here. When I jostled the pan I guess in the movement, a little bit of flame erupted. So I took not too bad though, however, the smoke was worse. So I tried to take a lid and put the lid on, but I couldn't get that close to it because it was pretty hot and smoky. So the lid was sort of a jar on top of the pot. And that quite didn't quite do the trick at all, the smoke was still coming pretty significantly from from the pan and from the oil. So then, in my brilliance, I thought, Okay, well, I'll just take it outside. So I grabbed the pot, I'm walking toward the front door, so that I can take it and put it on the sidewalk. And in the process, the flames kind of come out of nowhere, totally was not expecting this, I did not know what to do. Because now obviously, I'm holding basically holding a pot that's filled with oil, and it is smoking like crazy. And there are flames. So I drop it, I drop it in the foyer, on an area rug. Fortunately, it was on an area rug. And then I proceeded to tell my daughter to go take the dog outside of the backyard. And I went for the fire extinguisher. Now at this point, I feel like I need help. So I yell for my son. And what happens when you yell? Will you use up all all of that oxygen that was in your system. And so I in voluntarily inhaled a deep breath to refill my lungs obviously. Well, that was not good, because when I inhaled, I got a big breath of smoke in me. So now I'm trying to I'm kind of fumbling with a fire extinguisher. I'm trying not to look straight at the at the smoke because it's burning my eyes. Now I'm coughing fire because I've got a lung full of smoke. Fortunately, my son heard me and came right at that point, I basically shoved the fire extinguisher into his arms, and ran outside coughing to the backyard, thank goodness, he was able to successfully put out that fire. And you know, with that fire extinguisher, he came outside and joined us now our house is very smoky. Fortunately, the only permanent damage was to the area rug that was in the entryway, and then the pot that we used for cooking. But as I said, there was a lot of smoke, and we spent the afternoon outside in the yard, while all of our windows and all of our back door side door, our front door were open. So that was quite an experience. And we are very lucky we didn't have any significant damage to our house. But what did we learn from this experience? So first of all, it's important we need to exercise caution in the kitchen, there is heat, there is fire, there is oil, there are splatters, there are knives, all kinds of things like that that can be potentially dangerous. So especially with new cooks, we need to guide them gently and give them gentle safety reminders. And also, this is a reminder to ourselves, not to get careless. When we are in the gadget. The second lesson was that risks really scared my daughter, she was a little reluctant to get back into the kitchen. And to cook anything independently after this experience. She didn't want to use the stove after after that for a bit. So I had to help her prepare something so that she could gain some confidence. So obviously, she needs to have the lesson that even though something like this doesn't happen every time it's very rare, and she can feel safe and comfortable again in the kitchen. The next lesson is that mistakes happen in the kitchen to everyone. I make them. Anyone who's ever been working in the kitchen makes errors. And I'm sure the greatest chefs in the world make mistakes. But this is part of the process. We can kind of think of cooking as a safe place to make mistakes, experiment and try again. It's sort of like how we want to teach our kids about failure, and how to approach failure in life. We don't really think of it as failure like it's just another learning experience. And what we learned from that is that we change our approach and then try again, the next lesson is pretty similar to the previous lesson. But I think it's so important that all kind of reiterated here. messes happen. messes happen in life messes happen in the kitchen, we're sort of in this constant cycle of creating something, making a mess, cleaning it up and enjoying the rewards of our effort. The important part is to realize if we don't make messes, then we can never grow from our experiences. If we're always playing it safe, then we never really learn and evolve. And of course, that's something I want for my kids and we all want for our kids. fifth and final lesson. Is to laugh. Let me be clear in the height of the moment when there was smoke filled filling in my kitchen, and I was coughing, that was not funny. But we can laugh about it now. Not to totally blow off the situation or minimize it, but so that we can appreciate the humor and everyday life, and all the things that happen around us. We had a laugh while we rehash the events, my son made fun of me and laughed at me that I couldn't get the fire extinguisher going on my own.
So that's really the story of how I with my daughter's help started a kitchen fire. And those five really helpful lessons that we learned from it. If you liked this episode, it would mean a lot if you took a minute to leave me a review and share this podcast with a friend. That so other busy moms can be encouraged by the episodes that I have to share. I would love to connect with you on social media. You can find me at Instagram at adventures in PT my fam Facebook group adventures in PT my fam. And as I mentioned before, if you're interested in getting in on a free call for 30 minutes so that we can talk about one on one family nutrition and meal prep, quote, coaching, sign up for one of my sessions to my website, or I will leave a link here so that you can check out my availability. As always, I'm always here to help you. Meet your family's healthy eating goal. It's always an adventure and I appreciate you listening. Until next time, take care
Transcript of this Episode
Andrea Heyman 00:00 Hi there, this is Andrea Heyman, and you are listening to another episode of adventures in feeding my fam. Today I'm going to share with you how i with the help of my daughter started a kitchen fire this summer. And more importantly, what we learned from this experience. First, I want to share a little bit about something that happened yesterday, it was a regular Good day. And I had plans to meet with a few women to work collectively on our websites. So we go on to a zoom call. And we're all working on our websites. And this keeps us accountable and moving forward and getting the job done. So one of the women came late to the session, and she was so lit up on fire, had so much energy and enthusiasm. And then she proceeded to tell us about her previous couple of days. And it was it ended up being the most motivational speech ever. Although it wasn't intended to be that it just was so amazing. It was exactly the message I needed to hear. So motivating, so inspiring that I have gone ahead and finished my website or finished as much as I'm going to do right now, so that you have resources on there that I have been adding. So I've got reviews of recipes, with tips of how to make those recipes eat easier. I've also got links to all of my podcast episodes. And then I've got information on how you can work with me. So right now, I am offering a free one on one. Family nutrition and meal prep discovery calls. So this is 30 minutes where we can sit down together and identify what your nutrition and wellness goals are for yourself and also for your family. There are a few spots left in the next week. So I'll I'll put that in. I'll put that link in the show notes. So you guys can access that if you are interested. So the website is adventuresinfeedingmyfam.com. Now on to the story of how we started a kitchen fire
First of all you guys, I want you to know that one of my most proud parenting successes is that my kids love to be in the kitchen. They love to cook, they love to cook good food and appreciate homemade foods. So this has been a long process of half of this happening. But I would say my middle child Gabe, he was kind of a fourth for leader in this effort. So he used to cook a lot when he was younger. And then I think when my daughter saw him sort of as a role model in that sense. And so she started cooking at an earlier age than he did. And we are all for this. And I will say normally it is very successful. Now I tend to be a little bit more lenient about kitchen safety as it relates to knife use or appliance use. And the reality is that most of the time, we have not had any major incidents, maybe a mild cut here or there, but nothing really major. But we are definitely the household where my kids will be making something in the kitchen. And I've had friends come in the house and they're like, Oh my gosh, are you supposed to be using that knife? And and Yes, they are. And we are comfortable with that. So this summer, my daughter was making homemade mozzarella sticks. She's made them before she takes a fresh block of mozzarella then you coat it with an egg wash, and then with a bread crumbing and then of course you're right. She's made these before with no problem, right? Wrong. Today, there was a problem. So while she was prepping the mozzarella and coating it she turned on the stove to full blast, mind you so that that burner was red hot and very warm. She had the pot on the burner, and she put oil in it to heat while she was doing all her prep work. So all of a sudden she yelled for me. And I came into the kitchen to find that the oil on the stovetop was smoking pretty significantly. So I quickly turned off the the heat source, but then I needed to get it off of that burner. So I moved the pot over to the burner next to it and mind you all the time. There's smoke coming out here. When I jostled the pan I guess in the movement, a little bit of flame erupted. So I took not too bad though, however, the smoke was worse. So I tried to take a lid and put the lid on, but I couldn't get that close to it because it was pretty hot and smoky. So the lid was sort of a jar on top of the pot. And that quite didn't quite do the trick at all, the smoke was still coming pretty significantly from from the pan and from the oil. So then, in my brilliance, I thought, Okay, well, I'll just take it outside. So I grabbed the pot, I'm walking toward the front door, so that I can take it and put it on the sidewalk. And in the process, the flames kind of come out of nowhere, totally was not expecting this, I did not know what to do. Because now obviously, I'm holding basically holding a pot that's filled with oil, and it is smoking like crazy. And there are flames. So I drop it, I drop it in the foyer, on an area rug. Fortunately, it was on an area rug. And then I proceeded to tell my daughter to go take the dog outside of the backyard. And I went for the fire extinguisher. Now at this point, I feel like I need help. So I yell for my son. And what happens when you yell? Will you use up all all of that oxygen that was in your system. And so I in voluntarily inhaled a deep breath to refill my lungs obviously. Well, that was not good, because when I inhaled, I got a big breath of smoke in me. So now I'm trying to I'm kind of fumbling with a fire extinguisher. I'm trying not to look straight at the at the smoke because it's burning my eyes. Now I'm coughing fire because I've got a lung full of smoke. Fortunately, my son heard me and came right at that point, I basically shoved the fire extinguisher into his arms, and ran outside coughing to the backyard, thank goodness, he was able to successfully put out that fire. And you know, with that fire extinguisher, he came outside and joined us now our house is very smoky. Fortunately, the only permanent damage was to the area rug that was in the entryway, and then the pot that we used for cooking. But as I said, there was a lot of smoke, and we spent the afternoon outside in the yard, while all of our windows and all of our back door side door, our front door were open. So that was quite an experience. And we are very lucky we didn't have any significant damage to our house. But what did we learn from this experience? So first of all, it's important we need to exercise caution in the kitchen, there is heat, there is fire, there is oil, there are splatters, there are knives, all kinds of things like that that can be potentially dangerous. So especially with new cooks, we need to guide them gently and give them gentle safety reminders. And also, this is a reminder to ourselves, not to get careless. When we are in the gadget. The second lesson was that risks really scared my daughter, she was a little reluctant to get back into the kitchen. And to cook anything independently after this experience. She didn't want to use the stove after after that for a bit. So I had to help her prepare something so that she could gain some confidence. So obviously, she needs to have the lesson that even though something like this doesn't happen every time it's very rare, and she can feel safe and comfortable again in the kitchen. The next lesson is that mistakes happen in the kitchen to everyone. I make them. Anyone who's ever been working in the kitchen makes errors. And I'm sure the greatest chefs in the world make mistakes. But this is part of the process. We can kind of think of cooking as a safe place to make mistakes, experiment and try again. It's sort of like how we want to teach our kids about failure, and how to approach failure in life. We don't really think of it as failure like it's just another learning experience. And what we learned from that is that we change our approach and then try again, the next lesson is pretty similar to the previous lesson. But I think it's so important that all kind of reiterated here. messes happen. messes happen in life messes happen in the kitchen, we're sort of in this constant cycle of creating something, making a mess, cleaning it up and enjoying the rewards of our effort. The important part is to realize if we don't make messes, then we can never grow from our experiences. If we're always playing it safe, then we never really learn and evolve. And of course, that's something I want for my kids and we all want for our kids. fifth and final lesson. Is to laugh. Let me be clear in the height of the moment when there was smoke filled filling in my kitchen, and I was coughing, that was not funny. But we can laugh about it now. Not to totally blow off the situation or minimize it, but so that we can appreciate the humor and everyday life, and all the things that happen around us. We had a laugh while we rehash the events, my son made fun of me and laughed at me that I couldn't get the fire extinguisher going on my own.
So that's really the story of how I with my daughter's help started a kitchen fire. And those five really helpful lessons that we learned from it. If you liked this episode, it would mean a lot if you took a minute to leave me a review and share this podcast with a friend. That so other busy moms can be encouraged by the episodes that I have to share. I would love to connect with you on social media. You can find me at Instagram at adventures in PT my fam Facebook group adventures in PT my fam. And as I mentioned before, if you're interested in getting in on a free call for 30 minutes so that we can talk about one on one family nutrition and meal prep, quote, coaching, sign up for one of my sessions to my website, or I will leave a link here so that you can check out my availability. As always, I'm always here to help you. Meet your family's healthy eating goal. It's always an adventure and I appreciate you listening. Until next time, take care