Breaking news: We are boycotting Amazon, Target and Home Depot – just through Monday. The goal is to send a message that we, the consumer, have power. If you, as I do, want to get a head start on your Christmas or Hanukkah shopping, there are so many small businesses with sales right now! I recommend Colleen Rothschild’s Radiant Cleansing Balm, 30% off. Great for makeup removal; smells glorious.
How was your Thanksgiving? Hope it was either peaceful and restorative, or celebratory and exhausting. Here’s our table, halfway set. I forget what interrupted me, but I’m sure it was whatever I was supposed to be doing Thursday morning according to my very detailed plan.
So, if you have a login for the social network, Bluesky, I highly recommend this thread of holiday emergencies. Made me laugh so hard. And then we narrowly averted one of our own.
As my sister says, the singular goal of family holidays is avoiding ER visits. We made it. But I will say that standing in my Haviana flip-flops, on a wood floor covered with super-heated glass shards, burning olive oil, and very hot cubes of butternut squash, briefly I wondered “Am I bleeding?” I had not expected the bottom of my old Pyrex roasting pan to explode down from the sides when I pulled the squash out of the oven. Luckily my sister shouted at me, “Don’t move,” and then my brother-in-law, who was behind me in the kitchen wearing Blundstone boots, came forward, picked me up around my ribcage, and carried me to a glass-free zone.
We saw later that the glass had melted the soles of his shoes here and there.
So this year I am grateful to still have both my feet and all my blood. I use them both, rather a lot. I also think that moment added something to our gathering, like vinegar in spaghetti sauce. A pang, but welcome. I sat at one end of our table, and watched the little stream of lit tea lights waver as the night grew dark. That image will stay with me. Then we moved to the sofas, as no amount of sentiment can compensate for numb seats, and FaceTimed the people we loved in Los Angeles and New Jersey.
That night will sustain me. Also, my kitchen floor is now cleaner than it has ever been. I am thankful from the top of the sky to my toes.
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone.
26 Responses
Oh wow… Lisa, I’m so glad you’re okay! What could have made the pan explode? I know Pyrex glass can crack with a sudden temperature change (like putting cold water in one straight out of the oven), but this may frighten me away from buying any more.
I once had a glass mug full of hot coffee crack fully in two down the middle as I lifted it by the handle — and, most spectacularly, a glass butter dish once somehow exploded into billions of tiny shards in the dishwasher (an very dishwasher-safe piece that had been through the machine many times, and this time after sitting out for several hours at room temperature), which resulted in the dishwasher having to be replaced. That mystery has never been solved. When shopping for a new butter dish, I saw many reviews with photos showing that others’ glass dishes had exploded right on the dinner table or in the fridge. I’m no fan of plastic, but I have a plastic Oxo butter dish now out of fright alone. A new stick of butter will be placed in a fancy dish should I ever need to be fancy. ;)
Your table looks so lovely and welcoming, and your china and your mom’s napkins make it meaningful and special. I’m so relieved no one was hurt and that you got to enjoy a relaxing holiday with dear ones. Hope your weekend is very safe and full of love. ❤
If your piece has a tiny tiny defect it can lead to shattering at high temps. I was once taking a duralex tumbler out of the dishwasher still warm and it shattered into hundreds of pieces in my hand. It had been washed many, many times before that in the dishwasher, but that was its moment to let me know it wasn’t quite right!
I learned all this by googling what could have caused it, while cleaning shards of glass from the bottom of the dishwasher.
How scary! I hope you weren’t hurt when the glass shattered. The Duralex tumblers are always highly-recommended… I think I’ll tune out those recommendations. Thank you so much for sharing.
I’ve learned so much from all of the comments on Lisa’s post. I want to thank everyone.
The kitchen-cabinet audit resulted in me learning that my Pyrex bakeware is indeed all PYREX, not pyrex, as it was my grandmothers’ (both ladies were wonderful cooks, and I’ve babied their things I’ve inherited)… The items that cracked, detonated and ruined things were newer purchases. I’ll be sticking to ceramic, metal, and borosilicate henceforth and definitely not buying (or giving!) any “pyrex”!
Thank you all again! ❤
It’s been a revelation! Thank you Ab and Jess so much for the stories and the information. Two ceramic Emile Henry baking dishes are on their way to me, and the other tempered glass Pyrex dish I had is in the recycling:).
I hope nobody has ever been hurt in these events!
Yay for Emile Henry! They’re pretty. I hope you’ll like yours!
Hello Lisa, I was planning to give my kitchen floor a good cleaning soon, so I’ll remember your secret formula of hot glass shards and squash. At least there is no harsh chemical odor, so your method beats most commercial cleaners.
Come to think of it, I once had a Pyrex pan explode on me, but not so dramatically. It was sitting on the stove top, but exploded into myriad fragments, and what was in it all fell into the stove through the burners. I had to completely disassemble the oven to clean it.
Glad you didn’t get burned or injured!
–Jim
Hahahahaha! Bona, for hardwood floors, on your hands and knees, must be added to the glass and squash;).
I have never met anyone who has disassembled an oven. Never in my entire life. I am in awe.
We once had a glass salad bowl explode, sending lettuce etc. and glass to the ceiling. Other holiday mishaps include a stereo starting to smoke, a pottery roasting pan go to pieces when I didn’t know any better than to make gravy in it, and a card table loaded with Meissen collapse. But no personal injuries.
A salad bowl? Sending lettuce to the ceiling? That sounds downright supernatural! I will take a moment of silence for the Meissen, then applaud for the absence of injuries.
We were a friend’s house and one guest brought an overloaded butternut squash casserole in a thin aluminum pan and the same thing happened! Luckily she sent her three dogs to lick up the floor (no glass) and we went on our way eating an amazing meal.
I can imagine that so vividly. That aluminum just going, “Nope!” and folding in half, or tearing. I bet the dogs were thrilled;)
Your table looks gorgeous! But, my gosh. I’m glad we’re not boycotting Google, which is where I went to discover that exploding Pyrex ovenware is a Thing!
This lady can explain it better than I [which might or might not be applicable to your particular baking dish].
https://www.tiktok.com/@cookingatpamsplace/video/7308360510423026987?lang=en
Whew!
I am absolutely sure it was applicable. Thank you! Now that I know it is a Thing I have gotten rid of all mine and am replacing their function with metal and ceramic.
Good Grief! Thank heavens you and your family/guests and the food were all safe!
I was curious about the TikTok comment about tempered glass, since thought it would break into chunks rather than shards. I found this in the NYTimes Wirecutter section — https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/blog/tempered-vs-borosilicate-glass/
I didn’t realize that it’s best to put a hot glass dish on a dry towel or cooling rack. Nor that PYREX/pyrex may deteriorate over time. I did know that old window-glass becomes more fragile, and have a scar to prove it.
Personally, I’ve switched to the cookanyday.com borosilicate glass cookware.
I was certain the glass pie plate I make my husband’s beloved pumpkin no-crust custard in was PYREX/pyrex so off to the cupboard to be sure – Anchor Hocking, it is! And you know what, it’s cracking in spider web formations on the bottom. Yes, must regroup.
You are right. It wasn’t in shards. It was in chunks with VERY sharp edges. The shock of it made me more poetic than realistic. Thanks for the link! Old window glass was really dangerous. Glad you only have a scar.
Lisa,
I’m glad no ER visit necessary! A Pyrex pan exploded when I opened my oven and I feel very lucky that the glass didn’t go into my eyes and only scarred my floor.
About a year later, I figured out a solution… stickers, little leaf stickers on my humble linoleum floor where there were once brown burn marks from the glass.
Aren’t we lucky to have kitchens and food and small emergencies to keep our mind off the larger ones.
Many thanks for your writings and musings.
I love the idea of little leaf stickers. Marking the passage of time, both metaphorically and literally <3 All of us pyrex veterans out here! Now we know we are lower case.
A blessedly uneventful feast here from prep to cleanup. Planning a baking dish audit thanks to all your collective wisdom.
So glad no ER visit was needed, Lisa — here’s to your quick-thinking family!
We are all auditing our baking dishes together;). Hooray for uneventful feasts and quick-thinking families!
Whoa, Lisa! That’s so scary! (And mentally going through the kitchen cupboards now. AND those of my kids, especially of the daughter who loves thrifting vintage Corningware….)
So glad you still managed to find much to be grateful for in the wake of that precarity. And that you all avoided ER. Xo
Thank you. And I should alert my kids too, thanks for the reminder. Corningware, hmmm, a whole other kettle of possibly fragile fish.
God lord, I’m so glad you are OK (and that it wasn’t the turkey). I have had this happen to friends. It’s hard to reassemble a shattered dish to double-check, but the people who have had this happen did believe they had modern lower-case “pyrex,” not the original PYREX.
So glad it wasn’t the turkey, and that we had salad and green beans as other vegetables:). Thank you very much. Thus endeth our lesson in pyrex v. PYREX!
How scary! So glad you’re okay, and the evening ended well, and that your kitchen floor was an unexpected beneficiary of the pyrotechnic Pyrex. Wishing you calmer Christmas! xx
The same thing happened to me! And to a friend. I’m always a little wary now. My sense of trust was shattered.