March 15th

Wallflowers, candles, carpet odor eliminator, freshly baked pizza from scratch...
What do these items have in common? This is what it took to de-stankify the house from a horrible smell that seeped into the walls/carpet and made me want to pull my hair out.

Why does our house smell so bad?

First let me start by saying that I absolutely hate smelling like food...especially fried food. The first thing I want to do after eating out at a restaurant is take a shower. I can't stand to smell myself. I think it goes back to college when my roommate worked at the Cracker Barrel. She would come home smelling something awful of chicken fried steak and other country fixins. Barf. She would have to take a shower before we did anything...even if it was just watch tv. We had to quarantine her apron. Sarah, you know I love ya :) Thank you for keeping me fed in college. The smell was worth all the free food.

Now back to why the house stinks...

I got a little adventurous cooking dinner last night. I tried to replicate Bonefish's bang bang shrimp. Food Network Magazine told me to do it. And they made it sound so easy. What they didn't add was a disclaimer saying...if you have never worked with deep frying before, (me) you probably shouldn't try this recipe. Or...if you have lots of critters running around at your feet, (me) you probably shouldn't try this recipe or else you'll be a nervous wreck. Or...if you don't want your house to smell like burnt oil for the next week/month/year, (me) you probably shouldn't try this recipe. We all survived though. I even had David put the oil on the porch while we ate because the hot oil popping on the stove made me anxious. (which is still out there by the way...I'm not quite sure what to do with it) The shrimp was...good...I guess. I mean we all ate it. Even Emery ate two or three of them. It definitely did NOT taste like Bonefish bang bang shrimp. David absolutely loved it. But David would eat a big pile of dookie if it had shrimp in it...and cheese...and eggs. But that is beside the point because afterward, we were all forced to face the stench of burnt oil that was taking over the house! The smell was in our clothes and everything. Here is my mind in yoga this morning. "In through the nose..." (burnt oil burnt oil) "And out through the nose..." (ew) "In through the nose...(burnt oil burnt oil) "And out through the nose..." (barf) Even when I picked up Em from the child care room, I could smell it on her jacket. Poor thing was the smelly kid in class. When we got home, I was on a mission to rid our house of this odor that was taking over our lives. The picture above is of my reek fighting army...used carefully in timed increments of course. I didn't want to create a new smelly problem. So far...I think it is a success. The real test will be when I leave the house and come back.

After this whole ordeal, I have come to the realization that I am a sauteing baker broiler sometimes griller but not a fryer. We're probably better off anyway. As for the oil on the back porch... does anyone know where I can get some bio hazard bags?