Fuego!

Betty Crocker I am not.

I was cooking chili tonight and there was near disaster. I had all the ingredients simmering in a pot on our gas stove. The aroma was wonderful - warm, tantalizing chili spices. I was stirring, and had an oven mitt on my left hand as I steadied the pot because the handles get hot.

Suddenly, the smell changed a little. It was just as I started stirring, so I thought the new smell was the direct result of the stirring. It was at first kind of a sweet smell, and an interesting combination with the warm spices. Kind of like marshmallows on a campfire. Pleasant. Then it started to smell a little more like the campfire itself.

In alarm, I let go of the pot to see what it could be, when I noticed my oven mitt was aflame. I'm talking a tongue of fire 5 inches off the tip of the mitt. I screamed, knocked a can off the counter and waved my mitt around and the fire was immediately extinguished.

The whole time, I felt no heat on my hand. That's what I call a quality oven mitt. I guess the end of the mitt dangled into the open flame on our gas burner. Thank goodness for good mitts.