murphy's law ko'd pie #11

i'm mourning the loss of a true friend.  we have been through so many triumphs and tragedies together and i am completely lost without him.  poor, poor mr. kenmore; he was my only oven and he died this weekend.  we wrote two books together and in the process tested more recipes than i can recall.  for hours on end, he heated through and through and he did so much more than just baking pies and cakes.  he cooked many, many loaves of bread, meatloaves, lasagnas as well as roasting chickens, turkeys and at least one goose.  how can i go on without my mr. kenmore?  unfortunately, as far as baking goes, i can't go on until i get him replaced.

mr. kenmore's coil exploded

so what exactly happened?  it went like this:  preheat oven to 300.  as i whipped up batch #2 of my chocolate pavlova pie hearts, i saw a bright flash in the room which was followed by a sizzling noise.  i turned to see what caused the flash behind me and saw a bright light coming through the window of the oven door.  it was so bright that it reminded me of a welder's torch!  the coil had a hot spot and it blew and it was in danger of starting a fire.  with a yell of four letter words and cry for help, my husband came running with the fire extinguisher.  luckily, once we turned off the oven and unplugged it from the wall, all danger subsided and reality set in-no pie this week...we made the decision to replace rather than repair because we have already had it repaired once-a stove coil did the same thing not long ago and it also required new wiring where it had blown the connection.  we have had this oven for going on 8 years and decided that with the workout it gets from two professional chefs, we would just replace it and hope for the best.

the dessert that almost wasn't

since it was valentine's day, i decided on a few things; chocolate, hearts and red berries.  with that in mind, i set about making chocolate pavlova.  here is a close up of the unbaked meringue heart-the first batch made it through before mr. kenmore bit the dust.

the meringues after they baked were too thin and a little more dense than i hoped for.  after adjusting the recipe, i was attempting to make the second batch when it all went to hell in a hand basket.

after all, it is a recent tradition to make a dinner for valentine's day and we had three girls to serve so i made lemonade with the lemons or more accurately, pavlova with the meringues.  topped with strawberries and whipped cream, they were tasty.  i am not posting a recipe this week because i am not done with this one.  look for me to post this again as soon as i am back in production.  i wanted to have a sauce ot accompany the dessert and this was not the presentation i hoped for.

so how did i spend the afternoon that i normally use to make a pie?  with the rest of the girls:

believe it or not, we are urban beekeepers and we took advantage of the warm sunny day to go into the hive and check on the rest of our girls.

here is a close up of the activity on the front porch.  they were out foraging for nectar.  believe it or not, there are some flowers out there, mainly what most people call weeds but to us beekeepers, they are beneficial plants since they provide the only nectar at this time of year.  so, before you think about that golf course lawn that you've always wanted, think about the bees and just let the lawn go-you will feed the bees and help save a stream in the process and save yourself a whole lot of money.

look for me to be up and running asap!  i'm going out to look at stoves today!!!