The Conical Glass: Drawer built for a giant

Thursday, November 01, 2007

Drawer built for a giant

I don't know if I can keep up with NaBloPoMo (which I learned about from yellojkt), but it's 11:20 PM on Nov. 1, so if I'm going to give it a try, I'd better hurry up!

I discovered a couple of very odd things in our new kitchen. The kitchen is laid out differently than any I've ever had before. The cooktop and stove are separated, which is how they were at my grandma's (maybe it's an old-house thing). The microwave and the oven are built into the wall. Above those appliances is a drawer. Yes, above. I measured, and the bottom of the drawer is about six feet from the floor. You would have to be Yao Ming to use that drawer without standing on a stepladder! What on earth should I put in there? I guess it would be an appropriate place to park useless kitchen tools that you don't want to donate to Goodwill but never want to see again. If anyone gives me a ravioli maker or Halloween cookie press, it's going in the drawer!

Another strange thing: the oven is tiny. We were going to bake some crescent rolls a couple days ago (you can tell what a gourmet cook I am), and had them nicely laid out on what I thought was a completely normal sized cookie sheet. Just one problem -- it didn't fit in the oven. The inside space is only about 19" wide. Good thing I didn't plan on roasting a big turkey this Thanksgiving. Now I need to buy new, miniature cookie sheets for my grown-up Easy-Bake Oven. Also: according to my oven thermometer (a useful gadget that will never wind up in the Yao Ming drawer!), the temperature inside the oven is about 75 degrees higher than the setting. So if you want to bake your crescent rolls at 375, I guess you have to set the oven for 300. My old oven was perpetually too cold, so this will require some getting used to.

posted by 125records @ 11:17 PM

2 Comments:

At 11:40 AM, flasshe said…

Thanksgiving at Sue's this year!

I would store rubber bands in the weird drawer.

Y'know, my RSS reader (Sage in Firefox) has the date of this post as 11/2 00:38. So I was thinking, "Ha! She's already missed it!" But I guess it must be translating to my local time.
At 8:21 PM, Anonymous said…

In re oven dial accuracy: try it again with the thermometer in the dead center of the oven, set to 350 and don't bother checking it any sooner than 30 minutes later. Continue checking it 3 or 4 more times, every 10 minutes, and average all the results together. Ovens cycle up and down in the vicinity of the desired temp.

Once you figure out if/how much it is off, you can adjust it. Depending on the model, you may be able to pop the dial off and use a screwdriver to spin a screw or ring in the middle of the dial shaft to fine-tune things. It'll either go in 10 degree clicks, or 1/8 turn will equal about 25 degrees.

Do another round or two of checking and calibrating. If you can't get it to less than about 50 degrees off, call a pro and have the thermostat replaced.

The drawer is for hiding breakable things when friends or family with young kids come to visit.