Dinner’s Not Ready Until The Smoke Detector Goes Off

I’ve been in a cooking rut lately, making the same few things for dinner week in and week out, and hoping my family will want to order pizza or get take-out so I don’t have to come up with another menu. My husband must have gotten tired of tacos/spaghetti-and-meatballs/chicken-quesidillas/hamburgers, because he finally ponied up some menu ideas, including stuffed green peppers.  

Stuffed Peppers

I found an old Cooking Light recipe on MyRecipes.com which I used for inspirtation, made a shopping list on my Tap Grocer App, scrounged the produce aisle for four decent green peppers, and got to work in the kitchen. I was almost done browning the onions and diced peppers when the smoke detector went off–I swear nothing was burning!

When my kids were younger, the insistent BEEEEEEEP!!!! of the smoke detector was a usual signal that dinner was ready. We must have hade a very sensitive smoke detector back then, because I rarely charred anything. But, with my husband’s fear of undercooked chicken and my distaste for undercooked beef, I did tend to err on the side of well-done.

There was one time when the smoke detector saved us. I had started a pot of water for macaroni and cheese, when I got distracted my by daughter and her friend. There had been a lice breakout at their school, and they were feeling “itchy,” so I took them outside with the specially designed, fine-toothed, nit-picking comb and went through their hair to reassure them that they were fine. Well, two girls have a lot of hair, and before I was done the smoke detector was blaring–not only had the water boiled, it had boiled dry and the empty pot was smoking on the stove. Now that’s a toxic smell!

I opened the windows, set the pot outside to cool by the trash can, and ordered pizza.

Do you set off the smoke detector when you cook?

Have you ever had a kitchen disaster when you had company?

(By the way, the stuffed peppers were excellent so I guess I’ll be adding this recipe to my rotation.)

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3 Responses to Dinner’s Not Ready Until The Smoke Detector Goes Off

  1. SuperBabe says:

    Ours goes off ALL THE TIME while cooking! We don't have an extractor; our hood just "blows" the smoke, and the smoke detector is really close to the kitchen, so any smoke (just from turning the -(dirty) oven on sometimes) is enough to set it off… so we just take it off and put it back on when we're done cooking! 😉

  2. FindingMyHappyPace says:

    You are one talented cook! ha. Yes, the smoke detector has gone off in my home, but, not that often.

  3. Just over a week ago we had family for dinner and the smoke detector went off when I was, of all things, preheating a pan to make roasted asparagus. I make them all the time, just last night actually, with no incident. So, they all stood around while I had my hands full and I’m like ” someone go fan that thing to make it shut up!”

    So many years ago we had a very long lasting lice outbreak at my boys’ elementary school. I was sooo glad not to have daughters; I buzzed their hair ultra-short. I get itchy just thinking about it now!

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