know thy oven

If only…

As some of you know I moved recently. My husband and I had lived at our last place for nearly six years and in those years I held parties and cooked and did what I love – baking. So to say I knew my oven is a misnomer. I was intimate with my oven.

It burned me, it steamed in my eye, it emitted foul odors when I didn’t clean it right and it fed people from across the boroughs. It also ran hot.

Which to those who don’t cook I’m not making a joke. Ovens can run hotter or colder and still say 350 degrees. My mother’s oven for example runs a little cooler. Take for instance a batch of brownies to be cooked at 325 for 25 minutes. My mom’s would take about 28 – 29 minutes, with my old oven, I’d clock it around 22-23.

With the move, I lost my beloved oven.

Now I’m stuck with the  a temperamental oven.

Yesterday’s recipe for the pound cake came out dry. Wanna know why? My oven runs hot. Sometimes.

I followed the recipe, stopping it about 3 minutes before the recipe called for it and the cake was still dry.

Granted, I should have checked a little more frequently if I knew my oven was pms-ing but hey, I didn’t ask for your logic. So just take it and move along.

Move along….

So, I have to break in my oven. With baking. My meat dishes tend to come out well (thank you meat thermometer) and frozen foods (yes, not everything can be magically whipped up into … well, magic) come out fine.

It’s just by baked goods.

I’m telling you this because if you follow the previous recipe, watch your oven. Love your oven. Unless it doesn’t love you back and then spite it by using the microwave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

sick…but this is your playground until mommy gets better

I have a head cold. Of course I get a head cold at the tail end of summer when it is still averaging around 80 degrees because that’s just my luck.

So what I’m going to do, since I’ve been remiss the past few days, is let you guys play. Send me something funny – a story, a picture, a poll, a giant elephant, whatever makes you happy. Or a cure for a head cold, I will take that.

In order for this to work, you have to post in the comments.

Here’s something for you guys; I loved it so much in college.

It might be offensive to some, so don’t watch if you don’t like cursing, ruining childhood memories or weird children.

 

sunday is the day before monday – last chance for fun

Sundays around these parts are going to be sort of slow and weird. I’m warning you now. I wake up late and I have little energy to do anything but dread Monday.

The above picture is from Retronaut, a website dedicated to the past and it’s awesomeness, and some of it’s weirdness. So I give you this: Retronaut’s WTF part 1 

Enjoy