Cookie experiment

This week was very frustrating. I spent two whole days shopping (hate that.) One day was errands for the house and one was school shopping with the boys, and registering Nathaniel for school and getting Davis' schedule, books, PE clothes, freshman orientation, and I skipped the band parent meeting. Bleah. But, I got some things done. I painted the master bathroom, I spent two days scraping calcified gunk off the shower tile, and someone's sloppy grout job ( does it take so much time to wash the tiles off after you regrout? Come on!) The bathrooms are starting to come together, but there is a lot more to do. I have to prep the master bath floor for vinyl (pulling out nails, staples, removing base board molding), scrape more stalagmites out of the shower, and paint the hall bathroom. Then they will be clean and useable.
This picture is a closeup from a kitchen photo I posted earlier. I'll point out the problems with the range hood if they aren't obvious. There are gaping holes in the front where the fan blows out the air it just sucked in so it hits you in the face. Nice. And weirdly enough, there is a secret layer of tiles (that were covered in kitchen grease until I Goo-Gone - ed it) under the visible layer. It is the same tile pattern, but a slightly different color. I have no idea why. It looks like the upper layer was cut to fit a different sized range hood and the current hood isn't big enough to fill the space. So, off to Home Depot to get a new hood.

Chris installed the new hood. It is so fancy with a fan that actually vents outside instead into your face or in the cabinet above it (like our S.Pas one did.) The hood fits the space better, and if you click on the picture to enlarge it you can see the fantastic caulking job Chris did so you can't see the weird under-tile and it will clean up nicely. Yay!

Something I miss is the big gas Okeefe Merrit oven/range we had. I really liked that it would get hot fast. However, it had 7 pilot lights (4 range burners, one griddle, two ovens) and it would heat the kitchen up without us even using it. I was very skeptical of the electric ovens in the new house. How good could they be if you couldn't see any fire? Chris reminded me that they were modern appliances (that means younger than we are.) So I decided to test them out.

Here they are both at 375 degrees (note the oven thermometers in each - they each run a little hot so I set them about halfway between 375 and 350.) They each have 25 teaspoon size mini-morsel chocolate chip dough balls. I set the timer for 12 minutes.

After 12 minutes, the cookies in the bottom oven

and the cookies in the top oven are evenly and equally ... over cooked. That was my fault. 12 minutes is too long and I think I should have done 350 degrees. But the cookies are evenly done on all sides and the kitchen wasn't turned into a sauna in the process. I'd have to say the experiment is a success. I think I'll be ready to use both of them for Thanksgiving. Do you want to come? You are invited! I think I'll have unpacked by then... if I can make it through the first week of school.