Toaster Pancakes Are Not Good

I detest cooking. This isn't a recent development--just ask my mother. Most attempts at getting me to make dinner as a teenager resulted in hot dogs or Hamburger Helper being slammed on the table with a huge helping of attitude on the side. Before Shaun and I had kids I would make dinner approximately twice a week, and we'd go out or order in the rest of the time. In fact, calling what I'd do twice a week 'making dinner' is an insult to the phrase. Boiling some pasta and throwing a jar of spaghetti sauce on top of it isn't really 'making' anything.

Now that we have children I do attempt to cook a little more frequently. This was difficult in Houston where you can get take-out from a different restaurant every night for a month without repeating. Here in St. John's my take-out options are limited, forcing me to become a little bit more domestic. I've also become a little bit more dependent on Domino's Pizza, as evidenced by the fact that if the doorbell rings at all between the hours of 4 and 7 PM Brandon will immediately run for the kitchen yelling, "Pizza!!!!"

You can just imagine how dependent I must be on my microwave. Completely dependent. Just-claim-me-on-your-taxes dependent. If I go to the trouble to cook you better believe I make enough for leftovers, which requires the microwave for reheating if you don't believe in planning for dinner far enough in advance to preheat the oven. I can also create an entire hot meal exclusively using my microwave--I'm a little bit proud and a lot ashamed of this. If lunch is hot in any way (rare when peanut butter sandwiches, coldcuts, fruit, and dairy products don't require heating) it will involve microwave use. I do not believe in using the oven during the day.

Now imagine my horror when my microwave stopped working 10 days ago! I'm not going to lie. It's been a struggle. FYI, unlike frozen waffles, frozen pancakes cannot be heated in the toaster. Leftovers are going to waste because I cannot bring myself to reheat them via oven or stovetop. My George Foreman grill and Crockpot are about to start charging me for overtime.

Why don't I just go buy a new microwave, you ask? Because this house is a rental, the microwave also functions as a range hood, the homeowner is a lovely woman but is also very particular about what appliances enter her house, and appliances are a very sticky issue during relocations. I also thought that having a new microwave installed would be a matter of a few days, having forgotten that apparently all appliances in Newfoundland have to be first built, then sent via ferry, and finally installed by very, very busy appliance-installer-men.

I've been forced to get creative with my oven. And by creative I really just mean that I've used it for all the things you've all been using your ovens to accomplish for years.

Me: I warmed this leftover pizza up in the oven! I had no idea at what temperature or for how long, but I decided to wing it.
Shaun: Really? It's pretty good like this.
Me: I know! And it didn't really take that long. Sure, it would've taken 45 seconds in the microwave, but 6 minutes in the oven isn't so bad. I did have to preheat it, though.
Shaun: We should do it like this more often. It's good. The crust is crispy.
Me: Whoa now, Shaun. Don't get used to this. As soon as we have a working microwave this leftover pizza is never going to see the inside of an oven ever again. If you want oven pizza you're going to have to warm it up.

Someday I hope to tap into my inner SuperMom and find the desire to cook, but for now I would really just like it if someone could put a rush on my new microwave. Please? The kids really miss having pancakes for breakfast--and I'm not making them from scratch.