My house smells like a bar-b-q. This is because I made Pioneer Woman's Chicken Pot Pie and it overflowed in the oven BIG TIME. Smoke was POURING out of the oven. The house was a perfect den of smoke. My stepson was over for dinner. Last night he and his dad went to the Rays opening game where they (the Rays) set off smoke machines before the game started. The point of that? Everyone wants to know, but when I watched the game on TV, I was thinking, Is it raining in the dome (impossible)? Or is my TV set getting grainy (please, no)? This is because, I learned later, the haze of smoke never left the dome, it had nowhere to go. The players' eyes were stinging and everything. Hmm, next idea for celebrating opening game?

So, last night was good practice for Nick and Mike because, whoa, we had thick gray haze of smoke everywhere, and to think I've been wondering how my house could get any dirtier. Also, our smoke detector is OBVIOUSLY not working.

The pot pie was good. It better be. It was also a lot easier than my other pot pie recipe and almost as good. PW says her crust is the ultimate, but really, my crust from the newspaper is better, it has butter and sour cream. PW'S recipe called for shortening. Of course, I ruined my solid shortening. How do you do that, you may ask? Well, years ago I learned the tip from a great cook in our church. You all know it, put water in a measuring cup and then add your Crisco, much easier to measure that way. Fine. Except my organic palm shortening is non-hydrogenated. Whatever hydrogenated does to Crisco, well, it must keep it from MELTING in water. My mechanically pressed organic palm oil kind of gave up the ghost in the water. So, my pie dough texture ended up all freaky. Therefore, I must give PW'S crust recipe another chance before I pass my final judgment.

My other set back was Chop Wizard didn't want to chop up the carrots on the fine grate. About threw my back out of whack slamming down the Chop W lid. You know what, maybe calling this a day is the way to go.

It hit me today that I am a Marjorie Stonicker kind of housekeeper. Maybe I should start a house cleaning service -- Marjorie Stonicker Cleans Up Your Act. Maybe then I would be forced to clean up my own act.

Oh, please say a prayer for Mike's friend, he had a sore throat for a month that turned out to be a throat tumor (cancer). Had surgery today, bless his heart. He asked us to take 30 seconds a day to pray for him, I thought that was very touching. He and his wife introduced Mike and me, so they are special to us, really really nice friends.

5 Alarm Fire KEM