Burn, Baby, Burn

 I've used and enjoyed my Instant Pot for years now. I'd read all the horror stories of pressure cookers gone wrong, but I was always careful and it ended up being a great kitchen appliance for our family. Still, I'd always been a smidge wary of it and was always extra careful when using it. Who would of thought the Instant Pot had to fear me instead of the other way around?

Chels and Nate dropped off the girls for me to watch while they got their ultrasound. I'd promised the girls I'd bake homemade bread and cook up some of the chicken soup they like. The bread was just finished baking and I was ladling the soup into bowls when I noticed a terrible smell and saw dark smoke billowing from under the Instant Pot. The stove burner it was sitting on was blazing red. I yelled out to Ben and he came racing in from the other room. 

I tried my best to get it out of the house, but by the time I got to the back door I realized my hands were too full to OPEN the door so I had to wait for Ben to do it. Then I got to the deck and I realized I didn't want to set that nasty melted plastic on our deck and ruin it so I was scrambling trying to find a way to set it down without damaging anything else. Whew!

Once it was out of my hands I noticed just how horribly the smoke was! It was suffocating. I'd been breathing it in since I picked it up and it was so incredibly toxic! That's when I realized the house was filled with dark smoke that was billowing out the door. 

I raced around scooping up and herding the girls out to the deck only to discover that the still-melting Instant Pot was too smelly to be near. So we had to run back through the house from the back door to the front door. 

The littlest one was screaming in terror. The girls were scrambling to get their shoes while I'm hollering at them to FORGET SHOES we just need to get out now!! Gabe came out with us, too, while Ben ran around desperately trying to open each and every single window in the house. 

The toxic smoke was still spilling out the windows so we couldn't stay up front, either. I took the girls down around the house to the back. The little one screaming in terror the entire way, poor thing. She was so upset I finally called my sister and told her what had happened and said that if she didn't calm down they might want to get her. I could keep her, but I didn't know if they would want her to stay if she was hysterical. 

Ben came out to grab a respirator from his shop so he could resume opening windows and placing fans. Gabe borrowed one, too, so he could make sure the cats were all accounted for. I ducked in the not-so-smelly basement to grab a box of chips and some juice boxes to tide the girls over. Then I remembered the bread in the oven! Luckily Ben had rescued that, too, and so we brought out that and some butter. And that was dinner. LOL. 

Finally, all the windows were opened and the fans were placed and cats were all accounted for. Gabe sat with us and played some games with the girls and Ben did, too. We made the best of it and were outside for about 2 hours while we waited for the smoke to completely clear. 

The only shade in the backyard.

Uncle Ben teaching Rock, Paper, Scissors

The smoke did finally clear and the house was aired out. We were all glad to get back inside. Ben was able to scratch all of the melted plastic off of the stove which really surprised me. I was so afraid I'd ruined that, too. 

So what happened? I'm still not sure, exactly. I used the Instant Pot on the stove top because any time I use it on the counter (which is on a different wall) it's inevitable that someone uses the air fryer, too and that trips the breaker. The stove is on a different breaker so I used the Instant Pot over there. I guess when I took the lid off of the IP, I accidentally pushed and turned the back burner knob to HI. 

Lesson Learned.