Tiny Kitchen, Giant Oven

The kitchen in our apartment won't win any contests for size (it certainly has an "efficient" work triangle) and has a woeful lack of counter space. However, it more than makes up for its shortcomings with ample storage space and full-sized fully functioning appliances. In D.C., I struggled to work with our teeny tiny stove, which killed my soul on a daily basis. It was hard to clean because of the old scratched enamel top, the burners could never get low enough to simmer, and the oven never ever held a constant temperature. I suppose anything slightly better would have been an improvement, but our current stove is brand-spanking-new. It had a burning smell the first time we turned it on. I nearly cried.

The fact that it's electric is less than ideal. Eventually, I imagine that I will learn to control the heat well enough to prevent the near disasters at dinner time that have occurred this week. However, I still see the electric burners as a fair trade for a full capacity oven that is calibrated and will hold the same temperature for hours! HOURS! Equipped with an oven thermometer and a pantry full of baking items (thanks to my massive shopping trip last week), I decided to give my new oven a test drive. Brownies are probably the hardest desserts to mess up, so I decided that would be a good first try at baking in my (actually) new oven.

I usually make the "one bowl brownies" on the back of the unsweetened Baker's chocolate box, but for some reason they decided to switch it up and print "soft and chewy chocolate drops." I read through the ingredients and quickly realized that they were essentially brownie cookies and charged ahead. The oven preheated while I stirred and kept it's temperature throughout the whole process! A miracle!

The cookies were delicious, but more importantly the oven passed the initial test. Now I can move on to more complicated things like pies and tarts and maybe even a turkey. Oh man, it feels like Christmas!