The Good, The Bad, and The Oven ( the good is a recipe, sort of..)

If you're Canadian, then yesterday was Thanksgiving. If you're American, it was Columbus Day. If you're neither, it was probably just Monday.

I, like most Canadians, ate turkey on Sunday surrounded by friends and family, and laid about Monday eating turkey buns and doing very little, save coming within rows (rows!) of finishing a pair of socks before my hands revolted and refused to knit another stitch! Sigh.

The Good: My favourite appetizer - ridiculously easy

Sweet and Spicy Baked Brie - original recipe can be found here (Their granola is also awesome!)

You take 1 tbsp chili paste and 3 tbsp brown sugar and smoosh them up.

Score your brie and slather it on top. Bake at 350 for 20-30, or if you are me the other day at 400 (turkey temp) for 15 minutes or so. I have a brie baker

to speed the process but you can use a small casserole or even an uncovered pie plate - it is not even remotely associated with rocket science.

Serve it with crackers or bread rounds. I imagine you could use almost any chili paste - I just really like this one. DO NOT use a brie with a "blooming rind". Trust me.

The Bad: Supper tonight was boxed macaroni and cheese made in the microwave.

Why...?

The Oven: My mother decided Monday would be a good day to try the self-cleaning feature on her relatively new oven. I'd cleaned it once for her months ago using the overnight baking soda and water method (so slick!) and offered to do that again. But she wanted to do the self-clean. Three hours later, it won't stop beeping. It shows an error message but when you press cancel, it just starts up again. And again. And again. We tried throwing the breaker to reset it. Nope. So she tried turning off the breaker and letting it cool. Nope. And we're locked out of it. An online search reveals little and the manual directs us to call for service after we locate the serial number. INSIDE the door. Sigh. We did eventually get a hold of service people (who managed to track down the serial number using just a phone number - scary) but they aren't available until Friday.

Thank goodness we're creative people around here. :-) I'm also very thankful that this minor kitchen glitch is the worst thing with which we have to deal. We're lucky for health and family and a roof and the luxury of a new oven to break down...

Especially since mum also said, just before turning on the self-clean:

"Your father's outside, on a ladder, with a chain saw..."

Very thankful!