Friday, January 4, 2008

Death of the Toaster Oven

Back when my husband was single and just starting in dental school, he was offered a great opportunity to live in the basement of the home of an elderly lady--the mother of one of his professors. The rent was super cheap and my husband had to mow the lawn, take her blood pressure, and just keep a basic eye on things. The basement had its own entrance off an ally, its own bathroom and a small refrigerator and sink. It was very bare bones but for a single man with four years of expensive dental school ahead of him, it was a great set up.

Fast forward 3 and 1/4years later. Dentist husband and I are about to be married (we met at the end of his first year of school) and we were asked to continue living in the basement of this home. The professor's wife informed her husband that no woman should be expected to live in that basement without a kitchen, so strictly out of kindness to us, they converted an old dark room into a small kitchen for us. (They actually did a lot of improvements to it but the kitchen being the key point in this story). The only problem was that there was no 220 outlet for a full sized oven. After doing a lot of shopping around, I found the largest toaster oven available (a Black and Decker). It seemed super expensive at the time (I am thinking about $70) and hoped that someone would get it for us as a wedding present. We did get it (as part of a group gift from a group of nice ladies in my ward). I ordered some special cooking pans that fit into the toaster oven--it had muffin tins, a cookie sheet, a pan with raised-sides, so I could make a small pan of brownies or lasagna. It made enough food to serve two people. I remember placing that toaster oven on my counter and feeling so grown up! I was newly married and I remember the first meal I made in it was toasted cheese sandwiches.

Well, we have used that toaster oven daily, multiple times a day, for the last ten years and it finally died this past week. I had mixed emotions throwing it out. In my current, married with four kids life in a house we built four years ago, it took up way too much counter space. It could only make two toasted cheese sandwiches at a time, which was not enough when making lunch for my kids. It was old and out-dated looking in our stainless steeled appliance kitchen. I now have double ovens and a large assortment of pans and so I didn't use it for making small batches of cookies, brownies, etc. The toaster oven had quit toasting evenly a few years ago and during a visit from my parents, my dad out of frustration, went and purchased us a regular toaster. So, yes, it was time for it to die, but putting it in the trash can, all I could think about was how I felt taking it out of the box 10 years ago, feeling so grateful to have it and feeling so grown up. So, like a beloved pet, I am in no hurry to replace it. It served me well for 10 years and I have a silly empty feeling now that it is gone.

6 comments:

Gabriela said...

Awwwww. Sorry about your toaster. I know how you feel. Our toaster over that we got as a wedding gift is still with us. I've tried to get rid of it on serveral occasions but I can never do it-it's made 6 moves with us and has lived in 4 countries. :)

ash said...

I'm glad that the flu is done at your house. Here's to the toaster. I'm amazed you cooked all of those goodies in there! I hope you took a picture of the toaster so you can always remember it!

Anonymous said...

We had a toaster oven when we were first married, too. It was a wedding gift and we enjoyed using it. But, when it died, I didn't replace it, either. It took up too much room, and I already had an oven. Too bad you can't take it apart and use the parts to create some cool art piece. Then you could "save" it for sentimentality reasons, but still get rid of it.

Michelle said...

I want to toast the toaster too! The fact that many of my wedding gifts are biting the big one lately is making me feel old! Thanks for your support on the healthier lifestyle, I am really excited one of my friends in utah is going to do it with me and we are going to be accountable to each other. That always makes the biggest difference for me!

love.boxes said...

I love this post Janice. I get attatched to things like that, which is why my decorating is not as sophisticated as it could be. It's difficult when you get sentimental about every paper heart your kid ever made.. especially if your kid is a prolific maker of paper stuffs. :)

Melinda said...

I love this entry. I had a whole set of green towels that we received as a wedding gift and I held onto them years after I should have, even after I decided I didn't want to decorate with green any more, because they had seemed like such an extravagant gift at the time.