Smoke .... LOTS of Smoke!!!

I try not to get too excited about most things, but when your smoke alarms go off, it kind of sends you into a panic!!

It was a normal Monday ... I brought in the trash cans, let the dogs out, fed the bird and tried to find something for breakfast.  In scrounging around the kitchen, I found a big decorative pot full of little one-serving bags of oatmeal.  Gee, I wonder when I put these in HERE??  I tried one, but it immediately went in the trash, along with all ten other bags.  Next time I'll put a sticky note on the outside so I remember they are there!!

Since chicken rice casserole was all I had left, so that became breakfast.  I was looking forward to dinner, as I made some of Miss Terry's WONDERFUL pizza dough two days before!  In the meantime, when I tripped over this bag of material, I figured it was a sign to begin this quilt!!  Not quite as easy to cut out as I hoped, and a little difficult to figure out what color to put with what, but I LOVED the results.

In the meantime, I began to prepare the pizza.  I should have written down every single step when Nick and Miss Terry were here.  I did remember the parchment paper, plopped the dough on top and tried to spread it out.  That was a LOT more difficult than I remember, mostly because Miss Terry did that part.  

I dumped on the cheese, then scraped it all off when I remembered the sauce goes on first.  Now piled high with sauce, provolone and grated mozzarella, I layered turkey pepperoni (less fat), olives, thin sliced onions and a little more cheese.   I turned on the oven (my big one, convection/bake and all that fancy stuff) to a scorching 500 degrees.  

I used the parchment paper to lift the pizza into the oven on the now very hot pizza stone and closed the door.  I can't wait!!  I set the timer for six minutes and was off to the sewing room for another quick square.  Isn't it pretty?  About mid way, I heard the alarms go off!!!

I RAN to the kitchen through billowing clouds of smoke!!!  Some real special words came out of my mouth as I hit the exhaust fan switch.  There's no turning those alarms off, they are up on a 14 foot high ceiling.  The puppies were cowering in the corner.

Not the smartest move, but I opened the oven door and even MORE smoke poured out.  No fire however, so in spite of the screeching alarms, I was pretty happy.  Here's the deal .... always ALWAYS leave at least an inch and a half around the outside crust with NO cheese or sauce.  Cheese was dripping down on the bottom of the oven, then rising up in clouds of smoke.

Once everything settled down, I used my pizza peel to take it out of the oven, whereupon I removed the parchment paper, pushed all the cheese back on the pizza and replaced it in the oven for another six minutes to finish cooking the crust to a perfect crispy brown.

I'm pretty sure you know what happened ... everything I pushed up immediately ran back down and off the pizza stone releasing another round of glorious smoke, which luckily the exhaust fan was able to keep up with.  I finally gave up and removed it from the oven a tad under done.  What I wouldn't have given to have Miss Terry back in my kitchen!!

The final result, removed from the pizza stone and placed back on the parchment paper, didn't look too bad.  I cut it up and took a bite.  All I can say is YUM YUM!!!  This is such a great recipe, you've GOT to try it ... just keep everything AWAY from the edge of the crust!!

I'm going to do a little more sewing today, before attempting to clean the oven.  Later, I have to get ready for BINGO!!  That's right, it's MAGIC KINGDOM time and I've missed all my friends there!!!

The good news is that my house now smells of a combination of skillet fried steak -- burnt cheese -- and Fabreeze!!  Back to normal!!