This is the first time in my new “loose” diary where I’ve not taken a photo for two days so today (day 2), I’m doing a diary entry with an archive shot that has been languishing in my files but has never been processed or used before, even though some shots from the same session have.

It’s an appropriate shot for today because, but for a lucky intervention, I’d have surely burned down the house this evening.

We are both “dieting”, DM to fit into his suit and me to lose a dress size for my wedding dress. I’ve managed to take off five pounds in the last week, doing my usual method of reducing the amount of fat we consume.

Tonight’s dinner was cauliflower and romanescu cheese, with a pearl barley salad. There was, of course, fat in the cheese sauce, though it was more-or-less the only fat we’d consumed all day so that was OK.

I steamed the cauliflower and romanescu, then poured over the sauce, added a little grated cheese and grilled it. Nothing remarkable or interesting in that, it’s the standard way of making cauliflower cheese, although I will claim that steaming the veg isn’t the “standard” but I find it is better in two ways – firstly it’s drier so you don’t get runny sauce and secondly it gives a bit more latitude so you rarely end up with the cauli overcooked.

Anyway, that’s as maybe. We sat down to eat and I could smell something burning, but assumed it was the smell of the hob cooling down. I ate my meal and then went into the kitchen, where I realised I’d left the grill on full-blast, shut the door and walked away. I switched off the grill, then opened the door…….bit mistake! Opening the door gave the fire a whoosh of oxygen and it flared up.

I shut the door, called DM “er, there’s a fire in the kitchen”. He came in, did what I’d done a few mins earlier (opened the door), got the same response from the fire and again shut the door again pronto.

We hatched a plan. I got a load of wet towels, he opened the door and, with an oven glove, pulled the burning grill tray out. I chucked the towels on top and so now the whole house was full of a mix of smoke, steam and general nastiness. We opened all the windows, despite the snow and waited for the smell to dissipate.

Assessing the damage, we think we just about got away with it. DM commented that if I had to do it then better now than in a few weeks when I might have done the same to the new kitchen, which I’m about to start work on, having almost finished the other kitchen I’m doing. (I’ve just got the tiling and snagging to do now.)

By the way, for anyone interested, this shot is “real” in as much as I really did set fire to chess pieces.