I'm Avoiding the Kitchen (again)

I'm still pretty paranoid in the kitchen since the fire in January so I'm not cooking as often as before but getting better. It's not true though, a watched pot DOES still boil. ;)

So we ate dinner tonight and afterwards I loaded the dishwasher, not overly full but not empty either. This dishwasher is 5 years old and it tends to flip my plastic cups upside down and fill them with water if it's too empty, but more often than not it's usually pretty full. When the cycle is complete I usually open it up a bit and let the dishes air dry vs. using the heat dry.

Apparently Kaiden had messed with it and flipped it over to heat dry, which is usually no big deal, but tonight one of my Pampered Chef wooden spoons was knocked off the top rack and fell down below. It came to rest on the hot wire in the bottom and since I didn't know it, it started to burn. Paul and I were sitting in the living room off of the kitchen and I asked him what that smell was. It didn't smell any worse than when you first turn the heat back on after it's been off all summer/fall. Since our appliances are still new they have that smell to them when they're in use but tonight I had used my griddle to cook on so that wasn't it. Paul thought the kids were doing something they shouldn't have been but they were fine. He didn't notice it until I said something and I wouldn't have noticed it when I did if I had been sitting in the other living room.

When I oppened the dishwasher I got a face full of smoky smelling steam but other than a black mark on the wire and branded on my spoon, both should be fine. Pampered Chef stuff is too expensive to be using for kindling though! I can just imagine having to call my rental company and tell them that I caught the dishwasher on fire. They'd probably kick me out and think I did it intentionally. Thankfully there were no flames this time, probably because of the water during the cycle keeping the spoon damp, but seriously I'm convinced that I am not meant to be in this kitchen! I'm going to be scarred for life lol!