Easy Bake Oven

One of my favorite and perhaps most dangerous toys of my youth was the Easy Bake Oven. With all of its small parts and desire to make everything hot and play with stoves, it was likely NOT the best choice. It was also a questionable gift to give a young boy of the sixties, but that is a blog for another day. I do remember that those little “cakes” remain some of the best desserts I have known. I am not sure what they were made of – – but the word radioactive comes to mind. Where in the world is this metaphor taking me? Last night was one of our first full runs of the play,I sat on my hands and vowed NOT to stop the production for any other reason then the immanent danger of the actors or the set – but mostly the set – cause I got plenty of actors – but only one precious set. I watched. I did not speak. I sat on my hands. I dreamed of a large bag of M&M’s to relieve the stress – but I survived. To ride the metaphor out I was sitting right in front of the oven with directions NEVER to open the oven door in fear that my soufflé would fall – or calamity hit my dinner – so sit I did. But my “oven” did have a window and a button to turn on the oven light, and for two hours I sat in front of the oven’s window, turning off and on repeatedly and looking over and over again to see how my cake was done. I KNOW it takes time. I KNOW it remains unformed dough for a long time. I KNOW that you must keep the oven door closed as the loss of hot air could threaten dinner – but I was hungry. I was impatient.

If only my Easy Bake Oven had been a microwave. I was simply born at the wrong time. But, my dear dinner-guest, dinner will be served the first week in April – and no early hors d’oeuvres will be served for this party.