Cooking Disasters. :) Some sound familiar.

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A cooking disaster of my own involved (there's a story just like it on the page) popping popcorn on the stovetop, using a bit of oil in the pan. These were the good old days before air poppers and microwave popcorn. My sister actually heated up the oil to make popcorn, then got on the telephone. I walked into the kitchen and lifted the lid as I noticed smoke coming out and that's when the flames shot out of the pan.

Not having the presence of mind to replace the cover, I turned off the heat and hollered for Barb, who came in, trailing the phone cord and looking appropriately alarmed and panicked. Did she hang up the phone? No. She started to shriek, "The kitchen's on fire!" Meanwhile, to be heard above her shrieking, I yelled, "Where's the salt? Put some on the pan to put it out!" I couldn't find the salt (which for some reason, this firefighting tip had stuck in my mind after I'd read it someplace), but I did find a tub of flour, which we figured would have the same oxygen removing properties as salt, and so we dumped in a large quantity of it.

The fire went out, she eventually hung up the phone, and we cleaned the kitchen so our mom wouldn't know what had happened. In fact, my mom never did learn about our adventure, although to this day, the cabinet handles above that burner are blackened from the flames.