Garlic Fries and the Fire Alarm

It has been a long time since I set off our fire alarms by overcooking food. But I managed to do it! A perfect storm of events unfolded:

• baking in a very hot oven (475°)
• giving those thin garlic fries an extra five minutes to cook
• leaving the kitchen to fold laundry upstairs
• using a kitchen timer that stops and starts whenever it feels like it

And then there was smoke and the wonderful ringing of the fire alarm. (A good thing since I don't test them as often as I should.) Despite the cold temperature outside, we opened up windows and the smoke escaped. And the fries? Mostly burned to a crisp. Some were edible and I could tell that if they hadn't burned, they would have been the best garlic fries ever. Pity I'm out of potatoes or I'd try again.