What can I say about today? It was... well, it certainly wasn't what I had pictured, that's for sure.
Unfortunately, my mom had other plans. Her plans were basically to get up even earlier than usual so that everyone could get on schedule for sleep since the kids have school tomorrow. What did that mean for me? It meant that I was getting up at 9:00 with the time change, and my body felt like it was getting up at 8:00 instead. Yikes! After I finally looked at the clock, it all became clearer as to why I could barely drag myself out of bed.
There wasn't too much excitement throughout the rest of the day, just your basic Sunday at the Krigsman house. I watched some television, wrote a few paragraphs in my novel, wrote a lot in my children's picture book, and then scrapped just about everything that I had written for that same children's picture book. Not my most productive day, but I did accomplish a bit.
Then it was time for dinner. All week I had been meaning to make dinner for the family. We had already bought chicken, and I was going to make a nice meal for everyone, but I kept forgetting to defrost the chicken each morning. Today, we had finally remembered to take it out early enough, so I thought I'd be able to make it and then we'd all sit down to enjoy it together. I mean, I've made this chicken plenty of times in the past. My college roommate and I even made enough of this dish for it to be one of the options at the big anniversary party I threw for my parents a couple of years ago. Plenty of practice with it, so you'd think that I could make it with no problem by now. Well if you thought that, you'd be thinking wrong.
I don't know if it's just the stove down here, because we have an electric stove for the first time ever after moving down here, or if it was just bad luck, but something went terribly wrong tonight. It started out just fine; the chicken looked golden-brown, crispy, and I couldn't wait to dig in. But after a while, the oil started turning a bit black. Not a problem, or so I thought. That happens sometimes, because the oil has been sitting there for too long and I was sure that it was just because flour had fallen off of the chicken and was overcooking or something. So maybe the chicken looked a bit darker, but it wasn't actually burnt or anything. It was fine. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for our house. The chicken may not have been burnt, but the oil definitely was. Smoke started filling up the kitchen, then the dining room, then the living room... it kept spreading! I had the oven fan going to try to suck it all up, I had the door to the lanai open to get the smoke out of the house, I had a window open, and my sister and I were even trying to fan the smoke away with some place mats (hey, they were the only thing we could find at the time). Nothing worked! Our eyes were burning, everyone was complaining, and it didn't clear out until after dinner was already over. Sheesh! You try to do a nice thing for people, and all you accomplish is making everyone miserable!
While I'm not sure that my parents will be letting me cook unsupervised anytime in the near future, at least I learned a valuable lesson in turning down the heat and removing things from the hot stove before smoke consumes our lives. Man, we can never just have a normal evening around here, can we?
I hope your Sunday ran a little more smoothly than mine did, and here's to a smoke-free rest of the week at my house.
Your continued support means the world to me. From foster care to novels, and family to work experiences, I look forward to sharing more of my life with you each day. Don't hesitate to share your own stories with me or ask me questions about my life. Please don't forget to like and share my Facebook author page as well!
I’d greatly appreciate it if you would share this blog with friends and family through your favorite social media sites. If you’re sharing on Twitter, don’t forget to tag me (@TayTayK02) and use the hashtag #TaylorTalks.
Thanks!
Taylor