Today is my Dad's birthday. (Happy Birthday, Dad!)
We're having dinner at my house tonight, and I'm making Cornish Pasties with several variations in fillings (which I will post, with pictures, after I've actually made them), and two desserts.
Why two desserts?
Because three would be overkill. Hahaha.
Actually, I'm doing two because the first one I'm doing is something I think ALMOST everyone will like, except Alex and possibly my niece. So I decided on a second dessert that should make those two happy, along with everyone else. AND because one will be a chilled dessert and the other will be hot, right-from-the-oven dessert, and I like the contrast. AND because the hot dessert will also have a slightly crispy element to it, and I thought that would balance out the primarily moist, creamy texture of the cold dessert.
And that's all I'm going to say about them until I post the recipes and pictures.
Oh, well, almost all. I'm also going to say that both these desserts are traditionally baked in the oven. That's important to keep in mind.
I wanted to make the cold dessert yesterday so it would have plenty of time to chill. And getting it done the day before would get it out of the way, which is always a good thing when cooking for the 10-13 people who will be dining here tonight.
So yesterday I went to the grocery store, got ALMOST everything I needed (forgot the mushrooms; got them later), put stuff away, and got started on one element of the cold dessert, which had PLANNED to do IN THE OVEN...
And, of course, the oven wouldn't start. Hm. Odd. I have one burner going, so it's not a gas supply problem. I tried again. No dice. Just a succession of four little clicks...and nothing. Normally when the oven starts up, there is one, maybe two clicks and then a sort of "whump" sound as the flames start up or whatever's going on in there. But this time? Four clicks and no whump.
Great.
I shut off the burner, unplugged the oven, plugged it back in, started the burner, and tried the oven.
Clickclickclickclick....nothing.
Hm.
I tried starting the broiler.
It worked fine. Which would be peachy if I NEEDED THE BROILER FOR ANY OF THIS BUT I DON'T.
No oven.
(Insert bad words of your choice here)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, to cut this long story shortish, I figured out it's probably the igniter that's not working, and I called the Sears Blue Team and they've got a guy coming here this morning TODAY, THE DAY OF DINNER, between 8 and noon, to replace the igniter and allow me to feed my family tonight.
So, rather than just running around and screaming, I spent yesterday chopping and prepping. I have all my filling components ready to go for the pasties. I did some cleaning, and will do the rest this morning.
But the best part is, I FIGURED OUT A WAY TO DO MY COLD DESSERT ON TOP OF THE STOVE INSTEAD OF IN THE OVEN, SO I WAS STILL ABLE TO MAKE THAT YESTERDAY LIKE I'D WANTED TO.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY ME!
Sorry for the shouting. But it was kind of a big deal to me, and I'm, well, pretty damn happy about my success.
But you'll have to wait to hear about that, too.
Because right now I need to make sure there's no embarrassing globs of grease or undue amounts of caked-on grime in and around my oven. Just on the off chance that my prayers get answered and my repair guy arrives on the dot of eight.
So that's what's going on here, today, in my little world.
Hope all's well in yours!
Can I guess?
A cheesecake in a pressure cooker?
Posted by: Kat | January 22, 2010 at 01:26 PM