Need Help Dealing With a Bad Oven!!

[Peggy]

I'm staying at my friend's house outside of London being "Mary Poppins" to her kids a few days a week. One big problem!! Her oven is absolutely awful. She warned me about it but I thought she was exaggerating...NOT!!!:(

The oven has a bad hot spot in the rear right-hand side and in general, the temperature seems to cook unpredictably especially when there is more than one thing in the oven at one time. Last week, I made chocolate chip cookies for the kids and the back ones burned while most of the others were still raw. I ended up rotating the cookie sheets every few minutes to try to get more even baking but was only moderately successful. Last night, I made some Banana Bread. After 20 minutes the top was really brown and the rest was liquidy. I put foil over the top and reduced the temperature a bit to slow down the cooking. After 2 hours (I kid you not!), it was still not cooked in the middle. I needed to put some salmon in the oven for dinner so I added the pan to the oven. After 15 minutes, the salmon hadnt' even gotten warm!:mad: I pulled the bread out of the oven, and cooked the salmon. After dinner, I put the bread back in and it took an additional hour (at low temperature) to get the bread done. It looked awful but tasted good!

My culinary ego is taking a real beating here because at home, it is extremely rare that I have problems in the kitchen. Does anyone have any suggestions or advise on how to deal with this oven? I have been assuming that I need to decrease the baking temperatures and increase the baking time to compensate, but is this the right approach?

Any help will be gratefully appreciated! TIA!!

Peggy (Who is being brutally humbled in the kitchen...:( )

[donleyk]

Peggy, your being much too hard on yourself.

I think your best recourse for you and your friend is to make a service call on it and have it fixed... It may be something very simple and hopefully end your frustration.

Good luck, whatever you decide!

[Kathy B]

In the meantime, does the STOVE TOP work? Might be better to stick with things you can cook on a burner until the oven is fixed. Less frustration (and less waste!).

Pasta and Sauce
Chili
Soups
Skillet Dinners
Stirfry
Burgers
Etc....

Also, no-bake cookies, fudge or other candies, and sauces for ice cream can all be done on top of the stove!

Good Luck!:)

[Peggy]

donleyk - If it were my oven, I would have it looked at in a jiffy. Unfortunately, my friend isn't a huge cook/baker and has been living with this disfunctional oven since she moved here over 10 months ago. They are leasing the house and she figures she will just put up with the idiosyncracies. Not sure how often she uses it...:confused:

Kathy B - I think you are right. I had better just stick with the good ole stovetop while we are here, which works quite nicely. Just too much frustration for a documented foodie.:)

Thanks for the input!

Peggy

[memartha]

Peggy,

What a bummer! I feel your pain, because the little cottage on the Cape that we rent each summer has a similar oven. So, for the past 7 years, I do only stovetop cooking when we are there. Hang in there. It's not you!