Well, I guess even Martha has her days. Here is my most terrible cooking disaster EVER! I was making my own tortilla chips, and they literally turned to ashes. I lightly oiled them and salted them. Put them in the oven to broil. Proceeded to forget about them and soon enough, my oven was on fire (I have a gas range/oven). There were MAJOR flames coming out of my oven. It was the most horrific feeling I've ever had when cooking. I tried to blow on them, but that didn't help. I then reached for my fire extinguisher, but I didn't know how to use it. I guess you're supposed to pull the pin first and then squeeze. I then realized that I should turn off the gas, duh. It was like reaching through a ring of fire to reach the controls on the back of the oven. I had one burner on the stove on and I tried to turn that off as well. However, the fire was coming up out of the oven and engulfing the front panel. All the while, my smoke detectors were beeping loudly in every room. My house was filling up with smoke and smelled worse. My little cut, corn toritillas are burnt to ashes. They are all gray and have no substance to them and my pan is completely ruined. Next time I'll just buy a bag of chips!!
For the first time since arriving in Vegas, I went hiking. It was so wonderful to be out and away from the city. Mount Charleston is beautiful in its own right. The trail ended at the top of this mamoth rock at an elevation of 8600 feet. The wind was blowing and kept us cool while the sun was out warming us. It was perfect hiking conditions. I loved seeing the Aspen trees and they were already changing colors in some parts of the mountain. There were 14 of us from school that went up. I created a little schedule of monthly hikes and invited the school teachers to come. We are called the Bruin Trailblazers. It was so much fun getting to know other teachers outside of school. We met at Brinley, then carpooled up. Some actually met us on the trail. There were cut out little chairs and resting points along the trail - so cute, I had to take a picture.
