Confessions

            Confession #1:  I watched (ahem) several hours of the Murder She Wrote 

            star-studded marathon today on the Alibi network. 

Confession #2:  I am afraid of my oven. 

In my defense, I got to see Julianna Margulies and George Clooney before they became so famous.  So far my favorite George Clooney line is, “No, no way.  Not Phil.” 

Also in my defense, my oven IS scary. 

When I was on sabbatical in Florence, I didn’t have an oven.  Or a microwave.  Or a coffeepot (which didn’t matter because I had been caffeine free for years at that point—oh, how times change).  I have all those things plus a dishwasher here in Galway.  Having a dishwasher makes me think of the Westside Story song lyric, “I have my own washing machine.”  “What will you have, though, to keep clean?”

But back to the oven.  I am afraid of my oven for two reasons.  First, I don’t know how it works.  Second, it’s kind of greasy. 

Nevertheless, I decided to confront my fear.  I bought a lovely piece of fresh salmon at the grocery store and I returned home to beard the lion in its den. 

First, I turned the oven on to preheat it.  I least I thought that was what I was doing since my oven has buttons and knobs that don’t make intuitive sense to me.  I heard a fan start and determined that my oven is not conventional, it’s convection.  I have never used a convection oven so I did some searching online.  I learned that a convection oven bakes at a lower temperature for shorter periods of time. 

Second, I prepared the salmon.  I addressed the greasy oven issue by wrapping the salmon in foil (to protect it and, therefore, me) with sea salt, pepper, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and a little white wine. 

I opened the oven and smoke came out.  The smoke alarm went off.  “See,” I thought, “this IS dangerous.  I was right.”  Vindicated.  I opened the balcony door to let the smoke out and the fresh air in and the smoke detector stopped.  I put the salmon in the oven and sat down to contemplate the wonders of microwave cooking. 

Despite what I read online, I baked the salmon for twice as long as I needed to.  I hoped it wouldn’t dry out as it was wrapped in foil.  It didn’t.  It was, in fact, delicious. 

Confession #3:  I’m still a little bit afraid of my oven.