Cheating Death Or Burnt Cheese

by derek on June 7, 2007 · 26 comments

Tuesday night I arrived home from work around 8:00pm and spent a little bit of time with my kids before reading them their bedtime stories and wishing them pleasant dreams.
Around 9:30pm I headed downstairs with my stomach growling from not having any dinner yet and I opted to toss a French-bread pizza into the oven for a late dinner. After cooking for about 20 minutes, I pulled the pan out of the oven and there was a little bit of cheese that had melted onto the pan and the pizza was stuck to the pan.
As I scraped the pizza off and began eating my dinner, my wife ventured downstairs and asked if I had burned some cheese or something. I mentioned the mishap with the pan and proceeded to eat my dinner. Once I was done with my dinner, I sat in the family room watching the movie Hoodlum.
Every now and then I would smell that *burnt cheese* and I thought it was a bit odd that the smell was still that strong. As the movie progressed, I suddenly became very sleepy and basically passed out on the floor of the family room from what I thought was just exhaustion of a long day at work.
Around 3:00am I awoke on the couch and dragged myself upstairs to bed. The next morning I came downstairs with my oldest son to get him breakfast and still smelled the *burnt cheese* smell. I had left the pan on the top of the oven and tossed it in the sink to clean off the crusty cheese and then put it in the dishwasher. Yet I was still smelling the odd smell.
I opened the oven door to make sure the oven was off and there wasn’t anything in there and everything seemed okay. So I opened the kitchen window and then lit a candle in the kitchen to try and get a fresh smell in there. At this point, my wife came downstairs and said that it really smelled like gas.
I said that I had smelled inside the oven and didn’t notice anything but she smelled the top range and noticed that one of the burners was turned into the on position but was just shy of the ignition point. Doh!
Apparently, when I was scraping my French-bread pizza off of the pan, I must have nudged the knob on the range just enough to turn it on and have gas leaking out into the house. That *burnt cheese* smell was actually gas leaking from the burner below the pan on top of the range.
Looking back at it now, I think this explains why I suddenly became so tired that night and could not keep my eyes open and fell asleep. In addition, I am feeling very fortunate that we had windows open upstairs as I am sure that helped ventilate the house while we were sleeping all night long. Likewise, I am very lucky that when I lit the candle in the kitchen that it did not send the entire room up in flames with the gas leaking in the air for so long.
After this experience we went out and purchased new CO-detectors as we had no pre-warning that there may have been a problem in the house. We are all feeling very fortunate that the *burnt cheese* did not result in anything more serious as this could have very easily been a tragic situation.
I’ve tried to convince my wife that this scenario is a good reason why I should not be in the kitchen cooking anything but she isn’t buying it!

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{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }

Leo June 8, 2007 at 12:22 am

Glad to hear you and your family are okay Derek.
Who let your wife out of the kitchen anyways? πŸ˜‰

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derek June 8, 2007 at 12:36 am

Thanks Leo. In an effort to be a good husband, I let her out of the kitchen long enough for her to go to work and catch a few hours of sleep each night. πŸ˜‰

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Leo June 8, 2007 at 1:22 am

Well, next time I hope you’ll think twice next time you decide to do the “good husband” thing. It could have gotten you all killed, you fool.
Just get a murphy bed installed somewhere in the kitchen vicinity πŸ˜‰

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Vince Cordic June 8, 2007 at 1:13 am

That’s a close call, glad you’re all ok though. Next time you’ll probably think twice when you smell burnt cheese πŸ˜›

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derek June 8, 2007 at 2:15 am

Thanks Vince! From now on I imagine that I will be checking the oven any time we smell something in the house.

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fedupinpa June 8, 2007 at 5:58 am

Glad to hear that you and your family are ok, this was truly a close call.
Sound like you have it all under control now, coming from a woman, it is nice to hear that your wife has a sense of humor! key to a great relationship!
Did you get your detectors up and running?

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derek June 8, 2007 at 6:41 am

FedUpInPA, thanks for the comments and yes, my wife is a great woman with a good sense of humor – after all, she did marry me. πŸ˜‰
The new detectors are up and running and everything is looking good.

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Chris Gray June 8, 2007 at 2:40 pm

Holy crap…talk about a close call. Good to hear it turned out for the better! Have a good weekend…and if you’re planning on making pizza for the kids…try take out this time!
Also, I wonder what long tails you might get from this post…could be pretty interesting!?

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derek June 8, 2007 at 3:38 pm

Thanks Chris! Initially I had toyed around with the idea of the title being “How I Almost Killed My Family” but I thought that might bring the wrong kind of crowd to my site, lol.

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Melanie June 9, 2007 at 6:55 am

Derek glad everyone was okay! That’s pretty scary. I won’t tell my husband this as he always makes excuses that he shouldn’t be in the kitchen either!!! πŸ™‚

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Daniel McLean June 9, 2007 at 3:48 pm

Excellent post and this is the very reason I don’t cook, I’m printing it off to show my girlfriend πŸ˜€

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derek June 10, 2007 at 10:27 pm

@Melanie :: Thanks! BTW, what is your husband’s email address? I had a completely unrelated question for him. πŸ˜‰
@Daniel :: Lol, my wife is now thinking that I did this on purpose to try and avoid any future cooking responsibilities.

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Kelly Cho June 11, 2007 at 7:06 pm

Hm… it’s odd you didn’t recognize the smell of gas… you mustn’t spend enough time in the kitchen πŸ˜‰
And you lit a candle?! That’s crazy nothing happened! I’m glad!!!

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derek June 11, 2007 at 8:37 pm

Part of the problem was the pan was covering the burners and likely masking the smell to some degree. Also, I don’t think it was leaking out at a very high rate which is why I was likely very lucky when lighting the candle the next morning after opening some windows.
Needless to say I felt very fortunate when we realized what had happened. But I think I should stick with the microwave, lol.

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ms danielle June 12, 2007 at 2:34 am

wow close call… i know i wouldn’t let you back in the kitchen. does that make u feel better? πŸ˜€

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derek June 12, 2007 at 8:55 pm

But would you cook for me? πŸ˜†

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ms danielle June 17, 2007 at 5:17 pm

someone’s gotta make the food and not burn down the house πŸ˜‰
actually last night i came home at 3:30am and guess what i smelled when i opened up the front door? Yup… my roomie had cooked a frozen pizza at 2am and somehow the gas on the range was left on. no bueno… i immediately went to the kitchen to turn it off and opened all the windows and doors. you just never know when it will happen, but most likely it will. luckily i came home only 1 1/2 hours after she used the stove, and that it didn’t end up in a really bad situation. she was already asleep.

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cheating-spouse December 23, 2007 at 2:54 am

Whoa, glad you and your family are safe. Gas leaking is extremely dangerous, all good though, Ive done it a few times and my wife never lets me in the kitchen now. Not because of that, but because I can never do much right and good in there, hehe. Anyways, Im thankful my wife claims the kitchen and takes care of that stuff. Thanks for sharing.

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Andrea June 21, 2008 at 8:22 pm

wow, seriously…talk about a close call! Glad everyone came out ok, as it couldve been alot worse!
*NTS: do not ask derek anymore about cooking* LOL

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cooking tips August 23, 2008 at 6:04 pm

this is so very scary…i am glad everything turned out ok

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conveyor ovens November 12, 2009 at 1:12 pm

really glad you and your family are safe. Gas leaking is extremely dangerous, all good though. Thanks for sharing.

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Anderson December 29, 2009 at 6:22 am

Whoa! That was close…gas leaking is very dangerous. Truly glad your family are safe. This just proved that GOD is good. Be thankful indeed. πŸ™‚

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leather living room furniture March 1, 2010 at 5:40 am

I can never do much right and good in there, hehe. Anyways, Im thankful my wife claims the kitchen and takes care of that stuff. Thanks for sharing.

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Jennyb October 17, 2011 at 5:56 am

Great for me that I found your Blog… I just started with my own Blog, can I reference to this post? I want to write something on similiar topic!

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