Making Tacos is Hard

To save a few bucks, Mike and I have been buying 5lbs of hamburger and separating it into one 1lb bag and two 2lb bags to freeze for about a month now. The other night we decided on tacos for dinner, so I took out the bag of hamburger from the fridge and dumped it in the frying pan. Mike was trying to get Caliber to take his pill, which wasn't going well for him. I started to think, "Geez, this is a lot of hamburger for this pan... Maybe it's just because it's still in big chunks." Then Mike goes, "HONEY! That's TWO pounds!"

Darnit.

After Michael and I bickered about, "Didn't that look like a lot of meat for the pan?!" "Yes, I was just thinking that..." I removed the pan from the hot burner to prevent any more cooking, and grab a new Ziploc Freezer Bag. I was just about to scoop some hamburger back in the bag when I realized I set it on top of the hot burner I just moved the pan from.

Good Lord.

And now Michael thinks I'll never get that off. Really? You're challenging my cleaning skills? Please.

Before I began scouring it, I simply peeled it off. Yup--that easy! No damage done! There were a few smaller pieces I couldn't get off, so I just used my dish sponge. Voila! So if you ever melt plastic on your stove top, there's an easy cleaning solution!

Do Not Broil: How to Not Cook Porkchops

Mike was super excited for some stuffed porkchops we bought at Festival. I'm not a big fan of pork, and have never cooked it before, so when I asked Michael what to bake it on, he told me to use our glass dish.

After 30 minutes of baking at 350 degrees, they were almost done. He just wanted to brown them a bit, so he bumped up the temperature. After about five or 10 minutes he announced that they were "browning up real nice" and he turned the oven off. Not one minute later do we hear a shattering crash from the oven. Mike opened the oven door slightly to find the pork chops resting on a cushion of broken glass. He was right--they were browned up real nice.

Turns out he cranked the eat up to BROIL. While I wouldn't have suggested broil, I also wouldn't have known that my glass baking dish cannot survive that kind of heat. I'm just glad it happened in the oven, not in Mike's hands. It seemed like it broke downard, rather than a full-blown explosion, but we didn't risk eating the porkchops just in case there were some shards jammed in there.

Mike felt horrible about it, saying it was the stupidest thing he's ever done. I'm just glad I wasn't on cleanup duty. We don't have a broom/dustpan, our handheld vacuum doesn't have good suction, and we weren't really comfortable using our actual vacuum for glass. So, Mike used tongs, a spatula, a serving spoon and a damp rag to get all the glass out. There may or may not be some undetected sandy pieces still at the bottom.