Not Everything Goes As Planned... A.K.A. - A Disaster Area!

I was having a great day on Wednesday.  Dinner was ahead of schedule, the kids were happy, we had some friends over, and the dreaded caterpillars were gone.  Feeling as content as I was, I did something without thinking and created a gigantic mess!

Let me back up...

I was making Cafe Rio Beef (recipe here).  It was looking lovely, and I decided I should really make some beans to go along with it.  I found a recipe for Cafe Rio Beans (recipe here), but I didn't have canned black beans.  I did, however, have dry black beans and a pressure cooker.  I've pressure cooked dried beans many times, and they've always turned out well.

So I go along my merry way making the beans.  The timer went off, and I turned off the heat.  I don't know what I was thinking, but rather than release some of the pressure from the pot or let it cool sufficiently, I decided to press the button the unlocks the pot.  If there's still some built up pressure, it will release it and allow me to open the pan. 

Well, I learned the hard way that this is a VERY BAD THING to do (without releasing some pressure first)!  I didn't have any explosion or anything like that, but as the pressure cooker was releasing the pressure in the pan, liquid came out.  Dark brown liquid. 

A LOT OF IT! 

All over my counters, the tile back splash, the stove, and the tile floor.  And all over me.  No burns or anything, but it made a big, BIG mess!  Actually the word "Big" does not even begin to describe it. 

Michael insisted on taking a picture "for the blog."  I was a little unhappy about it at the time (and I definitely was not planning to blog about it), but I think it is appropriate to capture the "not so fun" moments, so we can laugh about them later.

So here it is.  Please keep in mind that this does not even begin the capture the horror I was feeling in the moment.  The liquid was seeping across the stove and the counters, pouring onto the floor, spewing all over me.  As it seeped across the stove, the liquid was going into the area under the control knobs.  It was not a fun moment. 

A few minutes prior (to this picture), I was begging the kids to help by grabbing some bath towels, while mopping up what I could with paper towels (I went through the rest of the roll and it didn't even make a dent.)  They were AWESOME and ran to the rescue! 

We stopped the spread of the mess and cleaned it up.  (YEAH!  Thanks, boys!)  Then we realized that all the electric ignition (pilot light) for the stove (on every burner) were going off continually.  I googled the problem and read that this can happen when they get wet.  So I dried them off thinking that would help.

No luck...

So I tried turning on all the burners, thinking it would dry out faster if they were on.  No luck.  I read that sometimes it helps to turn off the breaker and then turn it back on.  No luck.

When John arrived home, he found someone who said you need to turn the breaker off for 24 hours, then turn it back on (after it's dried out), and that should fix the problem.  STILL NO LUCK!

I was getting worried.  We have a cooktop range, and it is quite pricey to replace.  Last night, I was so stressed about it when I went to bed, that I prayed about it.  I woke up still stressed. 

Well, the breaker for the cooktop is the same one for the microwave, and one of the boys needed to heat something up in it, so Michael went outside and turned it on. 

Lo and behold, I witnessed a miracle!  My stove was fixed!  No more incessant clicking!  No more guilt about ruining my cooktop!  I gave Michael a huge hug and called John with the good news. 

We are so grateful to our Heavenly Father for helping us and blessing us with a functioning stove!