December 3 , 2003 - page 2



However, the stove in that particular pantry was not working, so we used a stove on the other side of the building. The recipe said that we needed to leave it in there for 35-40 minutes, so Adam set his watch to go off in 25 minutes so we could check on it. We felt pretty secure with our plan, so we headed back to the other side of Wessex.

Eventually Adam’s watch went off so he confidently sauntered back to the other kitchen expecting, no doubt, to find the casserole golden brown and piping hot.





 

This was not the case. What he found was a casserole dish in the sink with what can be described as a black pancake of something quite crispy in it. I guess we forgot to take into account that sugar has a tendency to burn very easily.

A few minutes later we received the whole story from a girl who witnessed what happened. Apparently, smoke started to pour out of the oven, and everyone on the hall came to see what was the matter. Not only that, but people in the bar three floors down also smelled the smoke and came running upstairs. Some brave student then reached into the oven to pull out the “well-done” dish and tossed it in the sink. Strangely, the smoke detector in the kitchen never went off.

Needless to say, Adam was extremely disappointed that his hard work had been reduced to a rather crispy pancake. However, by some strange miracle, the middle of the casserole had not been burned! In fact, Alanna (a fellow American) declared it to be quite good. The only logical conclusion to this, then, is that Adam has created a new dish — sweet potato flambé. Really, you should try it . . . or not, considering you might burn down your home. All in all, it was an interesting Thanksgiving.