This was not a good week for baking dishes in my house. Something in the cosmos declared that all my favorite cookware was to disappear. Perhaps a precursor to the satellite falling to earth, maybe these explosions are telling me something! Perhaps I should duck!!
It started early in the week with my desire to make a kugel. I took out my cherished kugel baking dish, one I received over 32 years ago from my Dad’s sister as an engagement present. The dish has traveled with me from my first apartment through 3 houses and has held dishes from kugels to brownies, to lasagnas. It’s always the perfect size, always waiting to serve something warm and delicious to those I love so much!!
I needed to boil a pot of water to cook the noodles. Easy enough you would think, and not even challenging (usually). I filled the pot with water, added salt, and ambitiously decided to throw in a load of laundry while the water was coming to a boil, no sense wasting time, there's always so much to do!! Burner on, I went upstairs to gather the laundry basket. Wow, it was full!! I schlepped it down to the laundry room, pulling the basket behind me on the stairs. The basket was overflowing; carrying it was impossible, as not only could I not lift it, I couldn’t see over it! No, I never thought to sort it upstairs… Bump, bump, bump…the laundry basket pounded each step on the way down, assorted socks and underwear falling off the side with each clump.
After successfully making it to the laundry room, I turned on the washing machine and started sorting the clothes, quite relaxing actually. Suddenly, Ka Boom!! Ka Bam!! Ka Boom!! I could hear chards of something hard smashing into the walls of the kitchen! I had no idea what could be happening so I ran up to the kitchen to find my favorite baking dish in huge chunks all around the room, with one particularly large piece smack up against the back of the stove! It was then that I realized I had put the wrong burner on and had mistakenly heated the empty baking dish that was on the stovetop waiting to be filled! The heat apparently built, and since I wasn’t watching, (how stupid am I), the pot truly exploded, like a bomb! Luckily, no one was in the kitchen at the time, because the explosion was so strong there were sharp pieces of ceramic all over the kitchen, the counter, the floor across the room, the cabinets!! Meanwhile, the water was still sitting, innocently in the pot, ice cold. Amazingly, not one chunk had hit or moved that pot.
With great care, as they were still extremely hot and sharp, I picked up the pieces of the once cherished baking dish. I am so thankful no one was hurt, so thankful no one was in the kitchen at the time, but I will miss that dish. That particular dish was always filled with much more than food; it was filled with memories.
Later that week I made oven baked chicken. My Mother-in-law had received a Pyrex baking dish that included a lovely palm tree lined serving platter, she doesn’t cook much anymore and never even opened the box, so she graciously gave the dish to me. It was perfect because it made trivets unnecessary; the pan could be slipped into the fitted serving dish and placed directly on the table.
I tried a new recipe for oven-fried chicken. Instead of egg and breadcrumbs, I read that if you dip the chicken in ranch dressing and then coat it with a mixture of crushed Durkee fried onions rings and flour, it bakes up delicious and crispy. I patiently coated each breast with the dressing, dipped it in the breading and placed it in the baking dish. The oven was preheated and the chicken cooked all the way through to a crispy deliciousness. Really, try the recipe.
When I was ready to serve dinner, I decided not to use the sleeve and just to serve the chicken on a platter. So, with my trusty spatula, I removed the chicken from the Pyrex dish and arranged it on as beautifully as I could…plating it as they call it on the cooking shows!
I brought the chicken along with the rest of the dinner to table. It was then that I decided to soak the dishes used to cook dinner while we were eating since some of them looked like they could use the time in soapy water. I tapped the Pyrex dish with my hand to see if it was still hot, it was not. It was cool enough that I picked it up with my hands, no oven glove needed. I slid the pan into the sink and before I could turn the water on, the Pyrex dish completely exploded!! I couldn’t believe it! Pieces of Pyrex shot against the side of black porcelain in my sink! Thankfully, not one piece flew up high enough in the air or I would have had shrapnel lodged in my head! I later read that there was a problem with Pyrex made for sale in the United States – temperature changes, even mild ones, could make the dishes explode. Not a good selling feature.
Serving piece two, gone.
Finally, later in the week, I baked brownies with a white casserole dish that I had purchased on sale. (I normally would have used my casserole dish from my aunt, but it had already exploded!) This dish was also lovely, and had it not been for the amazing sale at Bloomingdales', I never would have been able to purchase it. The scalloped trim made anything served in it look professional and appetizing. It was also a perfect size and I used it often. I don’t know exactly how it happened, but after removing the leftover brownies the next day, it was time to clean the dish. You would think, after the week I’d had, I would have been extra careful!! But, while loaded with soapy water, the beautiful white casserole simply slipped out of my hands and smashed into the sink as if it had been dropped from an airplane. It split, amazingly loudly, into three huge chunks. I looked into the sink and could not believe I had done it again! What is the Universe trying to tell me?
Perhaps I should be more worried about that satellite crashing to earth today! Wait, I just read that the satellite crashed, earlier today, into the Pacific Ocean. Honestly, the way my week is going up to this point, I am relieved.
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