Absent-minded In The Kitchen

[SiouzQ.]

This is beginning to be a real issue with me - I have a bad habit of leaving burners and ovens on and then leaving the room. In the past, I'd done it a few times and ruined one or two good Farberware stainless steel pots by leaving them on the burner only to eventually start melting the bottom off. I got better about it for a long time but lately that's all gone to "pot". I did go out and buy a kitchen timer to carry with me and that method had been working but the other day I was making a quesadilla and forgot to turn the burner off after I put it on my plate. I went upstairs with it to eat and do stuff on the computer and about ten or so minutes later I started smelling something a little weird and went back downstairs only discover the burner still on with a Teflon pan on top. Yikes...

Just tonight I was broiling a piece of chicken breast and forgot to turn the broiler off.

I am scared that I'll end up starting a fire! Why am I not paying attention to these things?

[Blackdog Lin]

I feel for ya' Siouz. In my case I blame it on aging - though I don't think you're up there with me yet. :)

I have taken to post-its, and notes of all kinds laying around everywhere. (My personal problem is leaving perfectly normal and usual ingredients out of whatever I'm cooking. I now have to make a point of writing everything down that I'm planning on using, or fixing, to remind me to remember everything.) With your particular problem, I might suggest a large sign or note posted wherever you tend to end up after your cooking: upstairs at your desk, downstairs on the TV, you know. A big sign that is in your way, that you have to move to do whatever it is you do after cooking, that says "DID YOU TURN OFF _____?!!!

Good luck with it. It's annoying and scary.

[ToomuchStuff]

I knew two people that did this. One was drunk (is an alcoholic) and started something on the stove and "fell asleep" when going to check the score of some game, the other, this was their second symptom. The first was losing the ability to read (although known over 20 people to have the same thing, stopped counting at 20 and symptoms vary by location): brain tumor.
Either way, this is serious.

[SiouzQ.]

Well, I'm sure I have nothing more serious than a case of being less than mindful about my actions. I really have to make myself follow the rule of not leaving the kitchen while in the middle of coking, and get in the ritual of asking myself out loud if I have turned off the burner/broiler/oven. When I was the manager of a bead store for many years I had to verbally say to myself as I was leaving for the day, "I am locking the door and the door is locked." Otherwise I'd get halfway home and start questioning myself if I had locked the door for the night!

[Sad Eyed Lady]

Well, I'm sure I have nothing more serious than a case of being less than mindful about my actions. I really have to make myself follow the rule of not leaving the kitchen while in the middle of coking, and get in the ritual of asking myself out loud if I have turned off the burner/broiler/oven. When I was the manager of a bead store for many years I had to verbally say to myself as I was leaving for the day, "I am locking the door and the door is locked." Otherwise I'd get halfway home and start questioning myself if I had locked the door for the night!
You know, I do that sometimes and I feel that it does help - the "talking out loud to yourself". I don't know why it is more effective than silently reminding myself, but it does seem to be. When I met up with a friend for an overnight visit, I was doing this as we locked the door to our hotel room, ("okay, door locked, got the key"..etc.), and she said "I do that too" and went on to say how when she was young her mother did that and she (the daughter) would think, "MOM! You're talking to yourself!" and as she said, now she does it too. Not often do I do it, but at times I do and I guess it is just a more mindful rendering of what I am doing or wanting to remember than just thinking silently to myself.