Culinary Fiasco

Last Friday I came home to a dark digital clock- the whole electric circuit of kitchen wall outlets had gone out.  I unplugged the reachable appliances, excluding the post-rat digital/gas stove which is too heavy for me to move.  Flipping the breaker and GFI did not restore the power.  I am, as usual, loathe to call the landlord until I exhaust all possible, personal attempts to solve the puzzle.

Likely the problem is rat/raccoon damage in the wall, or a failure or short in the digital oven controls.  (It could also be a function of the apparently shoddy installation- but I don’t think that is the case.)  I looked up the owners manual for the Kenmore range-  almost impossible to read the tiny number on the door, which luckily turns out to be the model number.  Someone mentioned that there might be a reset button on the back of the unit, so we can look at that, too.

My neighbor, from whom i got the stove- another story- loaned/gave me an electric convection oven which I installed on the small enamel table with a heavy power cord strung around the corner from the bathroom GFI.

Today I got out my electric toolbox- turns out the continuity tester I had in there (it was Steve’s) is missing one leg, so into the electronic recycling bin it goes.  I pulled the 2 USB port/power outlet I installed last year which looks fine.   I am again shocked at how poorly the box is installed, jammed way back into the original wall, crooked, behind the layer of sheetrock.  It took some jiggling and adjusting to get the outlet mounted straight, but now it is better than I had it before.

Meanwhile, a couple of culinary fiascos, including two enormous potatoes that would not bake, after which I bought an adorable small magnet/hook/stand oven thermometer and tested the convection oven, right to 350 in ten minutes, then hovering at 300 throughout the baking of a Trader-Joe’s-mix cornbread–too sweet, but a somewhat-successful baking experiment.