More Stainless, No Granite

To see the first part of the story, go here, and ignore that last part about posting a week later. Because I didn’t. I’m a big tease (read: lazy).

As I mentioned, we bought applianceS. Plural.

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, I was prepping to host dinner at our house. I put some bread crumbs in the oven to make them stale, and everything was going fine. The oven was warm. The bread was staling (new word?). The turkey was thawed and in its brine. I had a fancy new fridge. My boy was coming over for Thanksgiving dinner. My girl was off work for the holiday. I even had the surprise of being off work the whole day Wednesday instead of training my replacement. Things were right in the world. Until I went to check the bread crumbs and start pie baking.

The oven was cold.

I checked that the oven was on. I remembered it being warm previously, so I had to have it on, right? The knob was in the right position. I tried turning the knob off and back on. Nothing. I sniffed for gas. Nothing. I looked for flames through the holes in the oven where pretty blue flames should be. Nothing. I checked the burners on the stove top. Those worked just fine. I turned the oven up and waited, hoping for burnt bread crumbs. Nothing. I tried the boiler. More nothing.

It was time to go into the living room and break the bad news to John. Thinking he wasn’t going to believe me, I put on my best serious face. “You’re not going to believe this.” Dramatic pause. “The oven died.” Another dramatic pause.

First doubt and then confusion passed over his face.

“I’m serious,” I said in case my serious face wasn’t working, which it must not have been, because he still said, “You’re kidding.”

If only.

Little did we know we should have been looking for ovens while we shopped for a fridge. It was too late to shop for one at that point. It was after eight the evening before Thanksgiving and was unlikely we could pick one up that night anyway. We had to devise Plan B.

Since Justin and his one roommate who hadn’t gone home for Thanksgiving were coming to our house, I knew his oven was available. I already had the turkey thawed, so I needed to cook it somewhere.

Justin was fine with me using his oven but warned, “You don’t want to eat here.” Understood. He lives with five other college guys in a 100+ year old house run by a slum lord. I’ve been there. I’ve seen their kitchen. My plan would be a tactical symphony involving as little contact as possible. The turkey would arrive ready to go in the oven and leave when completed without ever leaving the pan. The ride home could be its time to rest. We could either forgo stuffing, or I could make some in the toaster oven. There would be no pie. Sides could be cooked on the still working stove top at home. Plan B was a giant pain in the butt, but it was doable.

Then Plan C was presented by John’s brother in response to our Facebook posts lamenting the demise of our oven. (Facebook can be used for good!) Chris was going to his girlfriend’s, so we could use his oven, which was much closer. He also invited us to Dannette’s where there would be stuffing and pie! Though it was likely to be cramped in her apartment with the addition of our five, we’d make it work. Plan C it was!

It was a good Thanksgiving, and I was very thankful for many things that day. We had fun. The food was great. We were all together and have a good family. Surprisingly, I never got too upset about the oven. I accepted it and figured out what to do. As someone who has a tendency to worry and get emotional, I feel pretty good about that.

Speaking of emotional, Chris said our oven probably died from a broken heart when our old fridge left. Maybe they’re together again, since they were both picked up by Best Buy. Now we have a new appliance couple–both stainless, because I’m not so hateful of the stainless trend I want mismatched appliances.

For the record, even though we had an excellent reason to shop on Thanksgiving day, we did not! Sadly, our stand didn’t seem to make much difference as the parking lots of several stores we drove by on the way home from Thanksgiving dinner were more full than I’ve ever seen. But the appalling greed of businesses is a topic for another day. This is a happy story of compromise, flexibility, and learning stainless steel isn’t all that bad, especially when your fridge has what I have dubbed The Beer Drawer. Beer Drawers are awesome!