Christmas eve

So I had picked up some beef shanks from Eurotrash (midway down the page) a couple of weeks ago and had this grand plan to make braised beef shank with mashed potatoes and kale for Christmas Eve. I was going to braise the shanks in red wine along with some mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes. So at around 4pm on the 24th, I started to chop the veggies and take out the defrosted meat. I took out my Lagostina pasta pot and put it on the heat to get it ready to brown the beef. I realized that the meat hadn't fully defrosted so I stuck it in the microwave for a couple minutes while I prepared the spice rub - some paprika, salt, pepper, garlic powder, cayenne - and then put the rub onto the meat:
All rubbed up, the shanks were ready to be browned. I grabbed my Becel oil and poured it into the pasta pot. I heard a "fwoosh" and watched as the oil caught on fire - I guess the thick base of the pasta pot allowed it to heat up beyond the fire point (?) of the oil!! In my haste to put out the fire, I didn't cover the pot but instead reached for the fire extinguisher (in my defense, the flames were up to the fume hood). The fire extinguisher did the trick, but it also left yellow dust everywhere:
The dust got into cracks everywhere in the kitchen, and all over veggies and meat that were going to go into the braise (so we had to chuck it). As well, the fume hood was tinged with a gray that could only be removed by several applications of Vim. So after about 3 hours of cleaning, we decided to go for Japanese food.

And I had to toss the pot. Damn.