The igniter (a.k.a. pilot light) in my oven gave up the ghost two weeks ago. Chuck did his part as the Engineer in the Family and did an Internet search to help locate the problem. He figured out what was wrong, decided what part it needed, and realized this was something he could not do himself. I give him credit for that. After that, he looked for the name of the appliance repair guy we’ve called in the past.

I handed him a can snuggy – not just any snuggy, mind you, but a souvenir snuggy from the appliance repair dude’ s last visit.

So anyway, we survived almost two full weeks without an oven. How? Well, I cooked supper in the crock pot three times – four times if you count the apple crisp recipe I made in the smaller crock while I cooked lamb stew in the big one. Lamb stew, tomato soup, and finally, chili kept the family tummies satisfied.

We grilled outside a couple of times, too. It’s just the end of autumn, and we can still light up the charcoal despite the chilly wind.

Then there’s the stove top and the microwave oven – stove still worked, as did the broiler. Those parts have their own ignition switches.

So anyway, we managed. Now that we have a working oven again, I baked cookies! Oatmeal raisin cookies never tasted so good. When those are gone, I’ll honor the season by making pumpkin cookies. In the meantime, we’ll enjoy meatloaf followed by baked mac and cheese and all the other dishes I craved during the oven outage.

Good thing it’s fixed. I’m planning a Minnesota Hotdish in a few weeks – recipe courtesy of Mr. Food’s Kitchen. Look out, Vikings! But first, Da Bears. We had pizza last time. Chi-town style hot dogs, maybe? Or bear claw pastry for breakfast? We’ll find something delicious and suitable for toasting Aaron Rodgers’ continued good health.