Inward Renewal

The other evening I was preparing to make Jobetso Chicken – a great recipe from a South African friend of ours.  In the process, I learned an obvious lesson the hard way.  That was, never leave oil heating unattended.

I needed to borrow tomatoes and went to the Singletons to ask if they had any I could borrow.  As I was over there, I completely forgot that I was heating the oil and began talking with Karen.  Not too long after I was there, Ireen came running over and said, “Mama, you need to come home right away.  The oil is getting too hot.”  Never having experienced an oil fire before, I wasn’t too concerned but did head home.

When I got home I found my favorite pot sitting on our patio with flames billowing out of it.  It was spitting rain, and whenever one of those rain droplettes hit the fire…it created a sort of fire works display.  Inside the house Tim was busy positioning fans at the windows to try and direct the abundant smoke out of the house.  When he did come back outside he sat down and was visibly having trouble breathing.  I went inside to get his inhaler and came out gasping for breath and coughing because of the smoke.

Karen was kind enough to let me cook supper at her place.  When I got home with the supper we ate mostly in silence. Tim shared with me that he had smelled the oil getting hot and went in to check on the pot.  Instinctively he carefully removed the lid and stood back.  Praise the Lord he did, because flames exploded reaching the ceiling.  He threw the lid back on the pot and carefully carried it outside.  I apologized profusely for being careless and putting him in such danger.  All has been forgiven, but I will forever be more careful and attentive with cooking.