Burning Chocolate and Gilmore Girls

It's no secret that my cooking skills leave something to be desired. If it were up to me, we'd be having Chinese food and Hot Pockets every night for dinner. I have never had a serious affection for cooking; maybe it stems from my need for instant gratification. This is also one of the areas where K and I balance each other out; he is a phenomenal cook and I am great at supervising and taste-testing.

Now the problem comes into play when I am home alone (I work from home full-time) and K is not around to assist me in my kitchen activities. One day, I was working from the couch instead of the kitchen table (I got tired, okay? Also, Gilmore Girls was on.) when I saw the entire room start to fill with smoke. My heart jumped into my throat, and my thoughts instantly went to our 3 kitties and what I would grab before I ran outside to safety. (If you were wondering, these were HP, my childhood pillow I can't sleep without, my MacBook, and purse--after the kitties, of course.)

I ran into the kitchen, and it instantly became clear that this was no spontaneous combustion, but a case of burning chocolate on the stove. See, what had happened was... I was attempting to melt chocolate in a water bath (see, I know some kitchen terms!) with metal cups in a saucepan. It was taking forever to melt, and I heard the sounds of Lorelai and Rory from the living room, so I went to check on what was up in Star's Hollow. I got caught up and COMPLETELY forgot that I had chocolate on the stove. When I reached the stove, I saw that all of the water had evaporated out of the saucepan, leaving the two metal cups soldered to the saucepan, and causing smoke to fill the house. Heart pounding, I turned off the stove and opened every window I could find to air the house out.

The house aired out, the kitties were fine, and Lorelai and Rory made up, so all was well. But I guess the moral of the story is, don't leave me alone in the kitchen, or I will burn the house down. Thank goodness for K and his cooking skills, or we would probably starve, and might even be homeless.