Thursday, February 28, 2008

traditional oven

I just got an interesting email and have no idea what precipitated it, but it went like this:

"Hey, Lisa, You have a traditional oven, right? - K"

I'm not quite sure if my oven fits in the "traditional" category, but I believe it is well above average. First of all, everything must be converted to Celsius before baking. If I put something in on the 250 degree setting, it'll be char-broiled. That's good to know when I cook most things at 350 (Fahrenheit)! One must take note it's in Celsius. So after I have one of my kids convert Fahrenheit to Celsius for me, I can cook.

Then, I have to choose a setting. I've never had to choose a setting before. In the states it was either "Bake" or "Broil". To this day I have no idea what my settings mean. The oven knob has pictures, but since we can't read the instruction booklet, we don't know what the pictures mean. Here's a picture of the knob, and you can help me figure it out.




  • At the very top, the picture with the two lines is the "off" setting. I'm not sure how the picture represents this, but since the light goes off and it's cold on this setting, I'm pretty sure it means "off".
  • Going clockwise, I have no idea what the picture means. It's a fan on top with a raindrop underneath it. Does it mean there's moisture in my oven?
  • The next setting is the one I always use. There are 2 lines (like the "off" setting), but they're spaced apart. This is the one I always use and just figured it out by trial and error. I don't know why there are 2 lines since there is only an electric coil on the top of my oven. The bottom of my oven has no coil.
  • The next setting has 2 squiggly lines with a fan in the middle. A fan runs when I put it on this setting, and I think it makes my oven a convection oven. Ooh-la-la. I haven't tried it yet because I know convection ovens are fancy and I'm a little intimidated.
  • The next setting is for when I want prepare a rotisserie chicken. I can put a metal spit in the oven, and the chicken will revolve as it cooks. In the picture there are 3 triangles above the line. I guess the triangles represent heat? However, can you imagine the nasty greasy mess if I prepared a rotisserie chicken in the oven? I can buy a rotisserie chicken around the corner from our apartment for 5 dollars, so I'm avoiding the mess.
  • The last setting is oddly similar to the previous one. It's another rotisserie chicken with a weird geometric shape above the line. Does this mean it'll set my chicken on fire? I'm not about to find out.

It's bad enough that I can't speak the language, but I can't even read "universal" pictures. All I know is that I can cook on the one setting that has 2 lines spaced apart. So, is that traditional?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Uh, Lisa, this isn't your oven.....it's your washing machine (or maybe clothes dryer?!).

Anonymous said...

I'm with Meredith...I don't think this is even an oven. However, if you can get your food cooked, go for it. Seriously, though, I LOVE the rotisserie option. I wish I had one. Just put a pan or some foil in the bottom for easy clean up. Then when you're done, I will show you how to make a beautiful ornament with the used foil. Love -Sherry

Anonymous said...

Lisa, I think that you have an oven that those in the US would consider fancy and that I wish I had at my house :) Also, I would ask your language teacher what they all mean and how to use them. This way, you can pass the information on to those of us that are highly curious about your other oven settings. Glad that you can bake "regularly" though. Kimberly

Penny said...

OOOH, those picture directions drive me CRAZY!! I fuss to Jamie all the time about a certain printer company doing this.