Not the greatest way to meet your neighbors......

So, last week I was cooking dinner for Doug for the first time in our new house. Spinach Pasta Casserole courtesy of Cami. I had just gotten the kitchen unpacked that morning, and was very excited to actually cook a meal for my husband. I should preface this by mentioning that we have a gas stove (which I have never used in my life) and apparently the "drawer" under the stove is actually a broiler and not a place to store your pans as I have done in all my other stoves.....including this one. So, I turned the oven on to heat up and left the kitchen because I got a phone call. Thankfully Doug was in the laundry area setting up the washer/dryer, which is basically in the kitchen, and he came down the hall to where I was saying, "Meagan, there is a fire in the stove!!" I was thinking to myself, no there isn't. Gas stoves just have a strange smell when they are on. But, once I got in the kitchen you could see the smoke coming out of the stove and the flame inside!!!! Talk about severe panic attack. We ran out to the backyard and called 911 who told us they couldn't come on base, and that we needed to call the base Fire Dept and proceeded to give us their number.......um, seriously?!?!? Our house is on fire people!! By this point, our kitchen was filled with smoke, and it was billowing out of our open doors. We call the base people and they probably came very quickly, but to Doug and I it seemed like forever. Doug got the garden hose from the backyard and tried to put it out (which we were told later is actually the worst thing you could do.....note to self.) All I could say over and over again was "Doug, I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do!!" Cause that is reallllllly helpful. So, two trucks from Security Forces and 2, yes TWO Fire Trucks came! They had us standing in the front yard asking us questions and such.......I was completely humiliated because I thought the fire was my fault since I had pans in the broiler. Doug later told me that the Firemen told him "your wife looks really upset. Tell her not to worry about it, it wasn't her fault." Um, that's even more embarrassing! After they investigated, the said the fire was actually from a build up of grease in the oven so it really wasn't my fault! Hooray! It took me another two days to clean the kitchen since there was now a layer of ash all over everything, including the things in my cabinets. UGH! And the smell was AWFUL!! We did get a brand new stove out of the deal! I told Doug "I wish I could tell you that this will be the last time I embarrass you on base, but don't count on it......."

It actually doesn't look so bad in the picture, but here's the aftermath.

Thank goodness it didn't spread to the cabinets!!

My beautiful new stove!