Raspberry Cobbler Flambé

No, this is not a recipe.

A couple weeks ago, our oven/range tried to kill us. We had gone up to Ogden to visit Grandma Britt who had surgery to repair her broken foot. We got home, I made dinner without incident. Then later, I started talking crazy about cobbler, and Jim got all excited and soon we were making Charity's yummy, easy cobbler with raspberry pie filling. My favorite!

Then Jim and I got busy emailing Jeff in Taiwan. A few minutes later, Kenny yelled up the stairs, "Dad! Dad!" Jim went out into the hall, and we quickly discovered that smokey smell that seems to penetrate every corner of a house in a millisecond, along with actual smoke in the kitchen. Kenny had taken the cobbler out of the oven and put it on the front porch. The thing was, the cobbler had only been in for about 10 minutes, and it's supposed to cook for 30-40! We briefly debated which of us dummies had put the oven on broil instead of bake. Without too much finger pointing, we determined that neither of us had. AND we quickly determined that the oven was still on! Yes, the possessed appliance was broiling at full speed while we stood there, and...while the knob was in the OFF position.


Quick-thinking Jim went to the circuit breakers and flipped the switch, killing power to the oven. We examined the now-cooled cobbler and realized that it had indeed been broiling in the oven. Hence the smoke after only 8-10 minutes. No, it was not salvageable. :( Sinister forces were at work.

Jim flipped the breaker back on and began setting the clock. A minute or two later, I opened the oven (turned off) and, lo and behold, it was broiling again! Pure evil. Back to the breaker box.

We hurriedly shopped for a new range/oven the next day, quickly realizing that not many stores stock many models. We had a bbq that night, and our shiny new sight-unseen Whirlpool was delivered the next day. So far, no stubborn broiling.

We did discover via the Internet superhighway that other people have had this same trouble with Kenmore ranges. Ours was 14 years old, and we couldn't really expect much more life out of it. So it found a new home at the dump. And all is well in the Britt kitchen.

Spring in Utah

Yesterday, April 16th, we had an interesting April shower. It was of the snow variety. Like 6 to 8 inches! They had forecast it, so we were forewarned. But it still didn't seem likely. All evidence, as you can see here, points to the fact that it was real.

8:00 am: I stuck a large dinner fork straight down in the snow on the back step. This, of course, got Angel's attention. Luckily she didn't injure herself on the fork or the slick steps.

Jim spent several minutes shoveling the wet stuff off of the driveway. If you look closely on the RH side, you'll see the snow was 6 inches deep. Our willow tree broke one branch, but many trees in Provo didn't fare as well and will need major trimming.

The kids are all home for Spring Break (though maybe we should call it Winter Break) and the girls went sledding while the snow lasted. Honestly, 99.9% of it is gone today, so no harm done except to the worms that got flooded out and to the broken branches.

This is pretty dark, but it's our backyard with a cloudy sunrise. I kinda like it.

Happy Spring to you all!

The April Fool

So the kids were all excited about April Fool's Day. Last night they were scheming about doing "funny" things to their teachers and here at home. Two of the girls followed through on their plans. Becky spotted herself with a washable red marker, so she looked like she had a pronounced case of the pox. (Can you say overdone?) She hammed it up and her teacher took it in stride, telling her to get away so she wouldn't get sick too.

Alicia had a more subtle approach. She asked for an envelope and gave her teacher a "note" that had a blank sheet inside. ha ha, ha, ha ... ha.... Yeah, I don't get it either. But she was happy to have been a part of this special day.

I didn't do much at all. Just a little blue food dye in the water pitcher, which Katie loved. I told them it was diet Kool-Aid when they thought it was real Kool-Aid.

Becky, in all her 10-yr.-old wisdom, decided to fool herself. Drawing from Troy's punking of Dad last year (which was not too successful), she dumped Kool-Aid powder on her OWN towel and then got it all over herself after her shower. Needless to say, she was red, and she showered again. She was still red. And then I gave her 10 minutes to clean the bathroom and take everything tainted to the laundry room. AHEM. Ah well, what can you do? Just keep laughing.