Toaster Oven Demise
I'm at a loss for material. I am so glad there are only two more days left of these daily updates. But since they aren't over yet, and I am so committed to doing them that I post-dated entry for the 23rd, that I have to do one today too, even though I don't have a darn thing to talk about.
That leaves me with the subject of how my beloved toaster oven bit the dust. I mentioned before that John set my toaster oven on fire. I say that just because it bugs the crap out of him that he was the unfortunate soul to be using the toaster oven at the time it caught fire. It's an opportunity for me to give him shit though, and God knows I'm not going to pass that up.
As I said in my entry about how much I love my toaster oven, it's most often used not to toast bread but to reheat pizza. Since I wrote that entry, I've gotten hundreds of search hits about how to reheat pizza. I hope I am serving the world well by educating these people as to the proper and most tasty way to reheat their pizza. It really is the best way to go.
So John and I had leftovers from Pizzeria Uno (aka Chicago Bar & Grill) that we were reheating for lunch one day. I cooked mine without incident and was busy pigging out when John calls me from the kitchen by saying, "The toaster oven's on fire," in the calmest way. As you can imagine, I freaked out. Now you might think I freaked out because my toaster oven was on fire, but I don't love the thing that much. I love my kitchen and my house a whole lot more than that, so I went tearing into the kitchen to see exactly how bad this fire was, since John said he couldn't get it out and didn't know what to do.
Now John is a smart guy. He has a very high IQ and can answer just about any trivia question I throw at him. Even so, the man has no common sense whatsoever. Not only that, he knows way to much useless information, leaving no room for useful, necessary information, like putting out kitchen fires. He took the pan of pizza out of the toaster oven and closed the door, which is smart enough, but you know what he did before he closed the door? He blew on the fire! The man watches Survivor. He's seen every single season of that show, watching them start their fires and blowing on them to get them going, but it never occurred to him that blowing on a fire in the toaster was not a good idea. At least he didn't try to douse it with water while the thing was plugged in. He had the sense of mind to unplug the appliance too, so he's not a complete imbecile, only a partial one. The kids have more knowledge on putting out fires than he does.
When I reached the kitchen, there were no flames licking the ceiling or even escaping the toaster oven itself, but it was burning quite steadily. Some cheese or something must have ignited on the crumb tray, and there must have been enough there to keep it going pretty well with no signs of slowing. I got the baking soda and tossed some in the toaster, and the fire was gone like magic, no thanks to John.
My poor toaster oven sat on the counter all blackened with a dusting of baking soda on it. It looked so sad and defeated, but I didn't trust it anymore. Sure it might have served me many more years had I faithfully cleaned out the crumb tray every time we used it, but I don't faithfully clean anything in this house, even the potential firebomb known as a toaster oven. That crumb tray was not an easy thing to clean either, since it was attached to the oven itself with no way to remove it. It wasn't that dirty, but it must have been dirty and flammable enough. So it was time to bid my toaster oven farewell.
Of course, the days following the little fire, we all wanted toast and pizza and other things we usually cook in the toaster oven, but we had to settle for plain, white bread and microwaved pizza (except for me, because I won't eat it). John and I decided we would use the money my mom and dad sent us for Christmas for a new toaster oven. This time I chose the model that has a removable crumb tray that I can put in the dishwasher, so there should be no more fires of that sort.
The new toaster oven is so pretty and clean. It doesn't have any melted plastic stuck to its top or blackened spots in its interior. It has a stylish, new design that makes my dated kitchen look that much more sad, but I like it anyway. I cooked my first Pop Tart in it today, and it heats just like a toaster oven should. It doesn't take much to make me happy. Okay, I'm lying, but this is one small thing that does thrill me way more than it should.
Decluttering:
Old baking powder
Old chicken bouillon
Two expired prescriptions
Two medicine cups
One year ago
Run, run,... but I'm no Gingerbread Man - I start running to train for my race.
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One Year Ago Today:
