Christening the Ovens

I wanted to cook something special the first time I used them. My youngest son Matthew requested some chocolate chip cookies so I thought that would be an enjoyable way to christen my oven number one. He said could they please be gooey in the middle!!!!!!!!!!!


I googled until I found what sounded like the perfect recipe. The description stated:  these are the pinnacle of perfection if you want big, fat, chewy cookies like the kind you would see in speciality stores.

BEST BIG, FAT, CHEWY, CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE

Ingredients

2 cups of plain flour (I used organic spelt flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
170g unsalted butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups of chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 165C.

Line baking trays with baking paper.
Mix together the melted butter, brown and white sugars until well blended.
Beat in vanilla and eggs until light and creamy.
Add sifted flour, baking soda and salt.
Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop 1/4 cup of cookie dough onto trays at 8cm apart.
Bake for 15 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.
Remove from oven and allow to cool on trays for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Success! Oven number one did a fantastic job of the cookies.

The oven has a light at the back and one at each side and you can literally see things rising and cooking. A real adventure for me, as my previous oven was about 20 years old.

Matthew's verdict, "delicious cookies Mum!"  For that reason alone all the effort was worth it.

Love cooking for people I love. Love the way their faces light up when they take that first bite.

The Ovens' Journey

The best price and service was found at Clive Anthony's at Capalaba where a sales assistant called J helped us in our decision making. That accomplished, she arranged to have the ovens delivered 2 days later.  Along with that service came the name and number of an Irishman who was an electrician and a cabinetmaker. Jonathon was his name and he emigrated from Dublin some 20 years ago. He is a lively chap who had my kitchen transformed in a few short hours.

The ovens' new home was a little small, so an extension to the existing space was added to enable my 2 new ovens to be comfortable for the heavy work load ahead of them.

That first afternoon I couldn't bring myself to cook anything in my new ovens as they were so sparkling that I didn't want to destroy that look.






  

Why this Blog?

Twelve months ago my eldest son Robert told me his girlfriend Jaymi-Lee would like a cookbook for her birthday. When I asked what sort of cookbook, he said she would like a selection of my favourite tried and tested recipes. So for the past 12 months I've been collecting recipes that have been our family favourites to give to Jaymi. Robert and Jaymi both work at a gold/copper mine in central Queensland. Rob has nearly finished his apprenticeship as an electrician and Jaymi started early this year and works in workplace health and safety. Needless to say neither of them live near their immediate families and hence the request for some favourite recipes from home. I think I'm right in saying that Jaymi-Lee also asked her mother for their family's favourites as well. In this process of gathering together recipes for Jaymi and Robert to enjoy cooking, I decided why not put it into print. So hence the start of my blog and a book to be called Joy's kitchen.

This week my husand Danny and I went looking for a new oven as our old one died suddenly whilst in the middle of catering for a wedding for two 80 year olds.I will call the newly weds L and B. It wasn't actually a wedding but a renewal of wedding vows. To be truthful though, they probably went to more trouble than most people do for a wedding. They have been married for 60 years and it was a lovely service with their son giving his mother's hand to his father to renew their vows. During the catering we had to make a mercy dash to our friend Tania's home to complete our cooking. We were both very impressed with her new double ovens by Westinghouse. After researching and discovering what models and makes were available we decided that we couldn't do any better than copy her idea of double Westinghouse ovens. So begins the story of Joy's kitchen.