A Cook's Confession

I have a confession. I tend to forget that I have things on the stove. Most of the time I realize before anything goes awry. Other times I end up with a mess. The other day I forgot I was steaming apples in the kitchen. I didn't remember until I had a smelly reminder. E was in her crib sleeping. Then I freaked out! I freaked out because the pan that held the water was Teflon and Teflon should NOT get too hot or it is very dangerous. For one thing, my bird could drop dead from the fumes.


The house smelled terrible. Eliza needed to eat her lunch so I threw open all the windows and took her outside to eat. I was in tears because I was angry with myself. I felt terrible. I called my husband to tell him what I had done. I made him google Teflon to see what he oculd find about health risks. I wan't happy with what he told me but I managed to calm myself down. We went to the park and ran some errands. I didn't go back to the house for three hours. I felt dizzy, had a headache and a nosebleed in the interim. E seemed fine as I don't think the fumes had reached her bedroom upstairs. When we got home Zazu was still alive and chirping so I can only hope it wasn't as terrible as it seemed at the time.



This isn't the first time I have made this mistake. I usually set a kitchen timer to remind myself I am cooking. I threw out the horrible Teflon pan. But now I need to figure out some safer alternatives. This morning I stumbled upon a post a Safe Mama that was very helpful to me. Although I can't afford to replace all of my cookware- it isn't all Teflon anyway- this post gave me some ideas for safer alternatives.

Am I the only absentminded cooker?