How not to cook (part 349)

The grill on my oven is rubbish. This is only important in the context of cooking potato waffles (something of a staple diet, at the moment) as instead of cooking in about 10 minutes under the grill they take closer to 30. Consequently, I figured that a toaster is really just a grill on my sideboard so decided to cook one in there.

Unfortunately, the last person who cooked anything in the toaster evidently left quite a lot of bread-y stuff in there (it looked like teacakes) as I turned my back for oh, all of 2 minutes, to turn round again and find flames coming out of the toaster. Damn.

After a moment of indecision, turning the toaster off at the wall seemed a like a good idea. I then had a decision, do I put the toaster outside, douse it in water where it stood or try and smother it. With all our tea-towels costing about 3 for 15p at ASDA, I didn't think they were up to smothering and I was worried that because it's electrical, dumping lots of water on it may be a bad idea.

Went for the putting it outside option (somewhat scary as using oven gloves as my only protection didn't appeal to me too much). Then, of course, realised the key reason one doesn't throw water over electrical items is not that they in themselves can use electricity, but because more often than not they are connected to electricity. It steamed wonderfully when I threw the bucket of water over it.

Delia would be proud.


Things I have learned:
1. 30 mins for a potato waffle can take much longer when using a 'short cut'
2. Check the toaster for bits before use
3. Don't by £3 toasters from Argos.
4. Had I not been so lazy by staying at home, none of this would have happened.

Moral: Going into uni stops you potentially burning down your kitchen.