Whole30 Day 1. No Jay Robb egg white protein powder spinach shake, sniffle. W30 wants us to eat WHOLE food, excluding meal shakes, although I make "clean" ones and they make my nutritional life easy. Come on, Jen, suck it up - IT'S ONLY 30 DAYS.
We almost always cook with olive oil anyway, so today I "celebrated" the Whole30 kickoff by choosing to use ghee, a.k.a. clarified butter. I cooked the harder veggies in it first, then the eggs and mushrooms, with a fresh dollop of ghee in the pan for each round. A few oil-soaked sun-dried tomatoes at the end to top it off, and... oh dear. It was really OILY (Well, GHEE-EE, technically).
HA! Lesson learned. We don't eat greasy food, so even "healthy" greasy isn't going to please us either. Well, that was fun to figure out!
Next lesson about to be delivered... I wanted to make theW30 compliant "Clothes Make the Girl" blog chili that everyone gushes about (MelJoulwan.com). I realized I needed beef broth, so back out to the stores I went. Got more ghee, some more veggies, and that beef broth. Whole30 learning curve: turns out even most of the "healthy" brands of beef broth have a bunch of extra items in there one wouldn't expect, including sugars. Finally settled for the Whole Foods organic box, at least there was only one little vague reference to "spices" that leaves it unknown, which I'm christening "compliant."
As directed, I turned the big chili pot onto medium-high to let it heat before adding the oil. When I dropped the blob of coconut oil in, it immediately began to smoke heavily. I turned on the stove fan & then - a first in my cooking life - the pan actually burst into 2-foot FLAMES on my stove! I dragged the pot as far away from the microwave above it as possible but the flames were still licking upward, and now were free to reach toward my wooden cabinet door standing open above - I slammed it shut and jumped back. My white microwave was actually getting gray lines on it from upward smoke! I yelled "HELP!" to my husband as loud as possible. Which wasn't loud enough, apparently. When I realized he wasn't going to come rescue me, I decided to risk touching the pot handles to move the flaming cauldron into the middle of the kitchen floor, where there was nothing above it to catch on fire. Good move. Now, THINK!
I remembered the rule that you don't put an oil fire out with water. I knew it was best to spray it with a kitchen-type extinguisher, but ironically, the flaming pot was between me and the kitchen fire extinguisher under the sink. Second thought was to smother the flames, but a kitchen towel would just catch on fire. Setting a plate on it was my next thought, but AGAIN ironically, the flaming pot was between me and the plate cabinet. So I just stood there, watching it burn down, hoping the smoke alarm wouldn't go off, hoping the heat wouldn't crack my kitchen tile, but figuring it won't be too hard to replace a tile or two if need be. I turned the burner off - huh? Why was the burner on "HI"??? I know I put it at about 7.5...
My belated hero (husband) emerged from the back of the house bathroom just as the flames became very low and blue in the pot. "What's all the commotion?" ARGH. I was so shaken I didn't respond well. So I just went outside and watered the plants to calm down. When I came back, he had opened the window, soaked the pot, and wiped off the grey lines on the microwave. Turns out the back of my husband's hand had accidentally bumped my burner knob to "HI" as he turned his burner on to heat water for tea - I know this because I SAW IT HAPPEN another tea round.
QUITE an adventurous Day 1. Sidenote: the chili is absolutely astoundingly delicious!
We almost always cook with olive oil anyway, so today I "celebrated" the Whole30 kickoff by choosing to use ghee, a.k.a. clarified butter. I cooked the harder veggies in it first, then the eggs and mushrooms, with a fresh dollop of ghee in the pan for each round. A few oil-soaked sun-dried tomatoes at the end to top it off, and... oh dear. It was really OILY (Well, GHEE-EE, technically).
HA! Lesson learned. We don't eat greasy food, so even "healthy" greasy isn't going to please us either. Well, that was fun to figure out!
Next lesson about to be delivered... I wanted to make theW30 compliant "Clothes Make the Girl" blog chili that everyone gushes about (MelJoulwan.com). I realized I needed beef broth, so back out to the stores I went. Got more ghee, some more veggies, and that beef broth. Whole30 learning curve: turns out even most of the "healthy" brands of beef broth have a bunch of extra items in there one wouldn't expect, including sugars. Finally settled for the Whole Foods organic box, at least there was only one little vague reference to "spices" that leaves it unknown, which I'm christening "compliant."
As directed, I turned the big chili pot onto medium-high to let it heat before adding the oil. When I dropped the blob of coconut oil in, it immediately began to smoke heavily. I turned on the stove fan & then - a first in my cooking life - the pan actually burst into 2-foot FLAMES on my stove! I dragged the pot as far away from the microwave above it as possible but the flames were still licking upward, and now were free to reach toward my wooden cabinet door standing open above - I slammed it shut and jumped back. My white microwave was actually getting gray lines on it from upward smoke! I yelled "HELP!" to my husband as loud as possible. Which wasn't loud enough, apparently. When I realized he wasn't going to come rescue me, I decided to risk touching the pot handles to move the flaming cauldron into the middle of the kitchen floor, where there was nothing above it to catch on fire. Good move. Now, THINK!
I remembered the rule that you don't put an oil fire out with water. I knew it was best to spray it with a kitchen-type extinguisher, but ironically, the flaming pot was between me and the kitchen fire extinguisher under the sink. Second thought was to smother the flames, but a kitchen towel would just catch on fire. Setting a plate on it was my next thought, but AGAIN ironically, the flaming pot was between me and the plate cabinet. So I just stood there, watching it burn down, hoping the smoke alarm wouldn't go off, hoping the heat wouldn't crack my kitchen tile, but figuring it won't be too hard to replace a tile or two if need be. I turned the burner off - huh? Why was the burner on "HI"??? I know I put it at about 7.5...
My belated hero (husband) emerged from the back of the house bathroom just as the flames became very low and blue in the pot. "What's all the commotion?" ARGH. I was so shaken I didn't respond well. So I just went outside and watered the plants to calm down. When I came back, he had opened the window, soaked the pot, and wiped off the grey lines on the microwave. Turns out the back of my husband's hand had accidentally bumped my burner knob to "HI" as he turned his burner on to heat water for tea - I know this because I SAW IT HAPPEN another tea round.
QUITE an adventurous Day 1. Sidenote: the chili is absolutely astoundingly delicious!
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