HOT PURSUIT

The holidays wouldn’t be fulfilling or complete without some homemade baked goods. Of course, the waistline probably doesn’t agree, but who cares, right?

I’ve been known from time-to-time to engage in a little holiday baking. So, I set aside a day last week to make a few of my family’s favorites. It’s not always easy to squeeze time into an already hectic schedule. But I usually make it work.

With some holiday music going in the background, I set my mind to baking. My first venture was to whip up a pan of brownies that eventually get decorated and turned into brownie trees. I turned the oven on prior to mixing up the batter and didn’t think twice.

Once I got the brownie batter spread into a baking pan, I opened the oven and found it was as cold as an artic blast. Well, maybe that’s a stretch, but it was cold and nowhere close to being ready to bake brownies. I discovered the oven never came on. The stove still worked, but nothing with the oven.

I checked around the kitchen and other rooms to see if the Grinch had somehow gotten into my house to play a little dirty prank on me just before the holidays. No sign of the Grinch. Just found a few droppings from some friendly mice that seem to invade my kitchen every winter. However, I don’t think they were the culprit of my failing oven. 

I kept fumbling around with my oven, just hoping something would ignite. But nothing came on. I was dead in my tracks with doing any sort of holiday baking.

In all my years of baking, I have never experienced an oven going on the fritz. My oven has always been as reliable as the day is long.

I called the home warranty company I have for my appliances and other systems. I thought I could get by a year without using the company, but no such luck.

To my frustration, even though the claim was processed right away, a service technician couldn’t come out for a week. I’m thinking to myself, “seriously, I have some holiday baking to get done now, not next week.”

With my baking plans derailed, I switched to making some holiday candies (at least no oven was needed for them). 

The oven should be back in operation by the end of this week. If not, I may have to scratch my plans for cookies and treats. That would be a real bah humbug even for Mr. Scrooge.

I hoping I don’t have any other surprises as I go in hot pursuit of preparing for the holidays.