Let’s face it - Canadian kitchens are just not equipped to handle onion sautéing, spice laden, Indian cooking.
The smoke detector has a field day, every time I sauté onions on a high flame or while baking, when I open the oven door to check if the food is done.
I appreciate the safety issue, but for crying out loud, the sound is deafening. While the ear piercing monotone on the main level, is enough to alert the neighbourhood, anyone upstairs will hear, ‘fire, fire.’
I still can’t forget the first time that happened and the family came charging downstairs. On hindsight of course it was thoroughly amusing and we could have won first prize in America’s funniest home videos.
“What happened, now what did you do?” yells hubby, looking around frantically and somewhat accusingly too, as he scurried around opening doors.
Seriously? The alarm is having a meltdown and that’s my fault??
“Stupid alarm,” I yelled above the noise, while opening the windows, to let out fumes I can’t even see.
My son in the meantime, not too pleased to be woken up from his slumber, waved his arms towards to smoke detector to seemingly clear the air. Yes, he is 6 feet tall, but the smoke detector is still much higher and waving arms will do nothing.
“Where are the newspapers?’ he yells, looking around.
Of course, you never find something when you need it. At times like this, you also realise that being pro-active is not always ideal, as I run into the garage, pick up some papers from the recycle bin and give it to him.
Meanwhile, he has pulled up a chair and is now waving the newspaper close to the detector, which has a mind of its own and won’t stop screeching - somewhat like a man!
My daughter, the cleverest of us all, heads down to the basement and turns off the main switch. But she did that without letting anyone know so hubby is freaking out now,
“Darn, we have lost the power now!”
“No, dad we haven’t, I just turned off the power to stop the noise.”
We stayed in darkness for a few seconds, savouring the silence and then cautiously turned on the power again.
Sanity returned to our home and with that, cold reality, literally - because we had opened all the doors and windows in the middle of winter and we were now freezing cold, but like they say, all’s well that ends well.
I figured there had to be a better way, so I found the switch that was specifically for the fire alarm and then used a black marker to identify it easily.
Now, whenever I am cooking, I just turn off the switch and turn it back on, when I am done and with that ends another drama in the Menezes household!
