More broccoli taste testing and a fire!

Last Sunday I wrote about our taste testing experiment and how we started with broccoli.  This past week I made two more broccoli recipes for us to try.  The first, called "party pasta" was from the book which started all this for us, Getting to YUM: The Seven Secrets to Raising Eager Eaters by Karen LeBillon:

Party Pasta

Little bits of broccoli were mixed in with pasta and Parmesan cheese and a few more ingredients.  Tabby loved it.  Of course.  Hunter said "I don't care for it."  No surprise especially since he does not like pasta.  Frank had his straight, serious face and said it was better than the other broccoli recipes because the boring/plain pasta covered up the taste somewhat.  Solomon ate it OK.  I "did not care for it" either.

After last week's post I had a good half dozen people contact me to tell me they liked roasted or sauteed broccoli.  Cooked very crisp - almost blackened.  So yesterday I made roasted broccoli for supper: I tossed broccoli in olive oil and lemon juice and sprinkled it with salt and pepper.  I forgot to take a picture until everyone had been served, so that's why only a few little pieces are showing:

the remains of the roasted broccoli

The verdict?  Tabby "I love it!"  Hunter "I don't care for it."  Frank "The pasta dish was better."  Solomon ate a few pieces.  Me - I can not believe it - I actually really liked it!  I even went back in the kitchen and got those little remaining pieces on the pan.  And ... I am looking forward to eating it again.  What a major triumph - broccoli in a form that I like!

LOL - this must sound ridiculous to so many people.

The biggest excitement of the evening (to Hunter anyway) was when I went to get the food out of the oven.  I saw that the heating element was on fire.  I told Hunter, who was in the kitchen with me, that it was on fire. I turned off the oven.  The fire did not go out.  (Several inches of the heating element was smoldering - no flames. Yet.) I thought about the fire extinguisher, but Hunter knew exactly what to do "Turn off the switch in the fuse box!" he shouted and ran out of the kitchen.

I followed at his heels - he opened the box and I began scanning the labeled fuses.  I threw the switches of everything labeled kitchen and for the rooms around it.  The stove area stayed on.  (When our house was built in 1907, it was before electricity in homes out here.  So it was added later and the groupings in the fuse box are bizarre, in my opinion.)

I again tried turning off some more switches and the oven still remained on.  Hunter kept yelling "Turn off the main power switch!"  I hesitated.  That just sounded scary to turn off ALL the power!  But then Tabby hollared from the kitchen "There are BIG FLAMES now!"

OK - I turned off the main power switch.  We ran back to the kitchen.  The oven was finally off and the fire died down quickly.  Thank goodness it happened inside of a place made to get really hot!

Hunter led the supper prayer shortly after that and thanked God over and over in different ways that the fire did not hurt anyone or come out of the oven and that God helped him know just what to tell me to make it stop.  :)

So - I am afraid a new oven in on the "to buy" list for this week, even though it is not in the budget.  Just the week before, an appliance repair guy came out to see about replacing the thermostat on the oven but he said that it was so old he doubted the parts were still being made.

What I would love is one of these vintage looking, but new ovens:

from Google images

Of course it's way too expensive.  But I think it's really neat how there are a few companies out there that are either refurbishing antique appliances, or making new ones that look like old models.

When our house was built, the original owners had a huge cook stove in the corner of the kitchen.  The fireplace chimney is still on the other side of the wall.  I wonder what it was like to cook on something like that.