Focus!

I got a package of frozen Italian sausages at the food bank Saturday, remember ?I also received two colors of peppers and a bag full jalapenos nice big green ones. I don't know what inspired me to do some cooking Sunday, today, perhaps it's the fact that I never really put the sausages away, like I should and of course the sausages thawed. I'm not above throwing the room temperature and pieces of thawed meat back in the freezer for a later date, but I thought why not I have everything I need and see what happens? Focus As I was feeling pretty decent, even though I had not slept as long as I'd like, last night, I was functioning pretty decent. I must confess however, I have been binging all weekend with my Amazon prime. I don't know what has gotten into me but I been working on watching a of number cable/TV series. This weekend it was Extant and Humans seasons one and two. It's not like I'm glued to the television/computer screen. This weekend I been washing clothes so I use the time to hang up these items as TV time. The same holds true as I was processing dinner. I don't not know where I got the idea. I possibly had witnessed it on some trendy cable cooking channel or seeing a color picture on the back of food as one or in one of the magazines my previous wife always brought home from trips to the doctor. In all honesty I have lifted a couple of magazines from waiting rooms as well and the kind that deal with homemaking with great images of perfect meals. Meals,I would like to make. So I chopped an onion, I love hand chopping onions special the way chopping onions makes my hands smell after the process next,I chopped the red pepper and yellow pepper given me, part of a birthday gift/basket. The food pantry also gave me a handful of beautiful jalapeno peppers and I had just watched a you tube video on making refried beans for the used jalapeno peppers cleaned, deseeded , and diced. I really wanted slice and dice jalapenos . I also added cabbage into the mix-- I really have atenjoyed developing a relationship with cabbage. One of the reasons I binge while I work to have the noise on in the background which I was definitely enjoying prepping for dinner. I was ready. The vegetables processed and ready, sausages thawed. I put the largest skillet I have on the range turned on the heat. I dumped in the sausages and set the Italian hot tubes of meat to cooking. I like to season the frying pan with the protein's juices then put in the vegetables which I did. I covered the skillet and thought why not take a moment and see what was viewing screen. I swear it was less than three minutes before I smelled something weird. I immediately looked over to the stove and there was a cloud of white smoke hanging strangely in the air looking like fog. Truthfully, the surface of my stove was a mess and when I started this afternoon's cooking project I just push things out of the way of the burners I was going to use. In doing so (because my control knobs are on the front of my cooking range, I noticed one of the knobs to “2” or low. On top of the front left burner was a bamboo trivet a cute coiled artifact from my last marriage. There was also the plastic top cover from my coffee cup, from Thursdays coffee social from here at the complex, collapsing in on itself renderingup up black acrid smoke– – the trivet had a bizarre white cloud of smoke hovering over the stove emanating from the bottom of the trivet. Jolted back into reality I powered by chair over and shoved that the the patio door. I was warned earlier in the week, for some reason, not the open the door to the hallway because it was set off all the alarms. This is okay with me I was totally embarrassed. I have been plagued the entire time I've been at this apartment at any time anything at all generated from the stove/oven my fire alarm would start sounding. Thank goodness not today and there was a lot of smoke in the apartment. Luckily, the smoke did not affect my dinner cooking in the frying pan next burner. Nobody came down, not pounding madly on the door. I was okay, the dinner was okay I dodged another bullet and enjoyed a great dinner in the process. I shudder to think of what could've happened. I put these visions out of my head as soon as they come: neighbors madly pounding on my door, fire engine screaming into the parking lot, spending the night at the shelter because I burnt down the entire complex. From now on I'm going to be more cautious and just listen to whatever on my flatscreen in the other room when I am cooking.