The Adventures of a House Slave

Yesterday I had the house to clean and 4 racks of PORK ribs to cook.  (I HATE the smell of cooking pork!!)

The first set of ribs went in a 250degree oven for 4 hours.  I had my second cup of coffee then pulled out the dusters and mops and vacuum to get the house cleaned.

About 10 am I could smell the pork and gagged.  I just kept picturing how good they would taste slathered in barbeque sauce and grilled at the campsite.  

At 12 I pulled the first set of ribs out of the oven and put the second set in...... the cooked ribs were dripping pork fat ..... and making me gag even more.

It was right about this point that I wondered WHY I was cleaning the house while cooking pork.... the house was gonna smell like pork and not sweet and clean.... but I cleaned on.

Around 3:30 (house cleaned and the ribs almost ready to come out of the oven) I left the lil one watching her after school TV show and went to make scalloped potatoes to go with the ham that was going in the oven when the ribs came out (OH JOY -- great menu planning there -- more pork being roasted!)

I am (admittedly) mindlessly slicing potatoes when something distracted me even more than I was and the knife slid nicely through the tip of my thumb -- all the way through the nail......... blood spurted.  (OK maybe not spurted but spilled all over the counter) I grabbed a big wad of paper towels and wrapped it up ...... put some of my "magic medicine" on it to stop the bleeding and went outside to sit on the deck for a bit.

Came back in -- started slicing more potatoes but without the proper use of said thumb and managed to slice my ring finger............. (I think I should have stopped there)

I managed to get dinner on the table -- Sir Steve thought the house smelled 'divine' (He LOVES the smell of cooking pork!)

When I had pulled the ham out of the oven -- I saw all the rib fat congealing on the bottom of the oven.......... that would NOT do!  So after dinner I hit the self clean button and we all went out on the deck to do homework and chat.

When Sir Steve opened the door to go in - the smoke POURED out of the house -- along with the stench of burning pork fat!! We dashed around opening all the doors and windows and turning on fans.  The lil one wanted to know WHY S would make the house all smokey......and the dog kept sneezing and glaring at me ... (le sigh)  The worst was over after about an hour -- but the house stunk -- S T U N K -- of burned pork fat.

We left some of the windows open in the hopes that this morning things would smell better........ 

No such luck 

SO after everyone left for work and school ... the house slave had a brilliant idea!!  I'd put a big container of water and cinnamon in the microwave and simmer it until the house smelled of cinnamon instead of burned pork.  I went to work on wiping out the inside of the oven -- and cleaning up the brown stains from all the smoke off the nice white stove........ 

I was starting to smell the cinnamon -- ahhhhhhh relief!!  When the microwave stopped I thought I would run it again for another 20 minutes.  I popped open the microwave door to discover the cinnamon had spilled over the top of the container and the inside was awash with cinnamon water............ 

I am wondering if house slaves can get fired......................