WARNING !!!

bethk wrote:OK, so sometimes I'm NOT the brightest bulb in the chandelier, the sharpest knife in the drawer.....

I had something happen just now that I never considered, never gave any thought to.

I usually repurpose clean Miracle Whip or Hellmann's plastic quart jars to freeze homemade stock.  I like that they are lightweight (are NOT glass) and the lid screws on securely.

Well, it seems the jar I used for my ham stock still had a tiny bit of the plastic/foil on the very edge of the top of the jar.  Not noticing it, I put the frozen stock into the microwave and pushed 2 to get the stock started on thawing so I could pour it out into my soup pot.

Suddenly, FIREWORKS were popping and the odor of burned plastic hit my nostrils!

Yuck.

Thank goodness I was standing right there and could stop it before it set the microwave on fire.

Great warning micro-memo Beth!....
I did a defrost once in the micro, and like you said...pop pow hiss pop...I shut it down, saw nothing, but I took the beef out of the tray it came in, and when I rinsed the plastic container before throwing it away, they had a foil stcker the shape of a blue ribbon. THATS what was sparking. Geesh!

bethk wrote:Different subject, but somehow related, so I'm just going to continue on.....

I had two quarts of chicken soup in the refrigerator (without noodles) that I made the other day.  Two quarts got gifted to the sickie neighbors to help them get over their colds.  

So, before it got old and I had to serve it for 3 meals in a row, I decided to get it stashed in a couple clean Miracle Whip quart jars to go into the freezer.  But it had "chunks" (aka: chicken and vegetables).  How was I going to get it distributed into the jars without it pouring down the outside of the jars?  I use to have a nice metal funnel, used for canning, but I gave that to DD#1 with the rest of the canning supplies.

I looked in the cabinet and saw a package of thin plastic 9 oz. drinking glasses....you know the ones I'm talking about.  Styrofoam cups would work the same.  They are both thin enough to be easily cut with kitchen shears.

I cut the bottom off the cup and it fit perfectly in the top of the quart jar.  Violia! A handy-dandy filling funnel.

Neat.