Oven Fiasco

Using my new electric oven on Thanksgiving for the first time was a fiasco. I've been cooking for two years using my stove top, microwave and toaster oven when my regular oven ceased working and they've worked just fine for me. Meanwhile, I've been pondering just what all I might want to do to my kitchen. Pondering some decisions an unduly long time is what I realize I've been doing in the years since my husband died. Besides I kept getting side tracked from oven action this year when so many other replacements, repairs and other personal factors kept demanding my attention.

When I couldn't find anyone locally who could repair my oven, I finally decided I needed other plans. Later, I learned my new neighbor shipped the "innards" of his oven off to a Midwest address that he has since lost. He wanted to maintain his kitchen's '50's look. I considered my change by debating with myself giving up some cabinet shelf space to accommodate some other oven type built-in appliance configurations, ultimately deciding I didn't want those. I really have missed having my husband to exchange ideas with as he usually had a perspective with uniquely different aspects from my own. We didn't always agree, but neither of us ever totally wanted a rubber stamp of our own opinion.

I finally concluded a working full size oven was needed for these holidays. Early Thanksgiving week I had a new oven installed. The young man installer said the oven worked as together we watched all the lights, clock and timer functioning just fine. Neither of us had sense enough to open the oven door to see if it was actually heating. Personally, I prefer to accept no responsibility whatsoever for not having done so. That's right! Blame the installer -- it's all his fault Actually, my oven installer was remiss for not having checked for heat, but I should have checked, too.

Thanksgiving Day, unfortunately, the oven did everything but produce heat after twenty preheating (hah!) minutes. I was befuddled for a few moments as I thought about what to do. The toaster oven was not large enough to be a cooking option, but perhaps the trusty microwave would not let me down. I rescued the stuffed turkey roll from the cold oven and placed it in my microwave. I felt quite smug that I had salvaged the turkey roll, but pride was my downfall. I misjudged how long to cook the roll, did not carefully check it since I didn't have any guidelines. Later when the little bell chimed that the cooking process was complete I was in for a surprise. The bottom of the turkey roll meat strip had actually turned black which I soon noticed when I removed the roasting dish. Fortunately, my tasting revealed the other three quarters of the roll was not tainted by that burned meat. I will confess even though the stuffing was relatively moist, the rest of the turkey was, shall we say, just a bit dry and chewy?

I do wish my husband had been living as we would have had a hilarious time laughing at the Thanksgiving oven event. To make a long story short I checked my circuit breaker the next day (even though I had seen the oven installer turn it on those days earlier, or so he and I thought.) For the first time I learned that my circuit breaker could have one side "on" and the other side of the same breaker "off." The connection took multiple attempts on my part to turn both sides "on" at the same time, possibly because this is a really old circuit breaker system. I quickly checked my oven, have since baked stuffed pork chops and heat is forthcoming. Seems like it takes a long time to preheat, but guess I just need to get used to the oven. I'll get that opportunity in the weeks ahead.