Several months
ago, during a discussion with a friend, we got on the topic of rotisserie
chicken. I mentioned how much I’d like to
have a rotisserie and, coincidentally, she had been given one that she didn’t
use often so she offered it to loan it to me.
I was ecstatic!
It wasn’t long
before Charming and I were eating rotisserie chicken on a regular basis. I would fix a large chicken and we could eat
it for supper that night then have chicken pot pie the following night. With what little remained of the chicken, I would
make chicken noodle soup for lunch the next day. Three meals from one chicken…how economically
savvy of me. Rotisserie chicken is a
great deal as you can turn the leftovers into something that doesn’t seem like
leftovers. Even Costco turns their
leftover rotisserie chickens into rotisserie chicken salad. Now that’s good business!
A couple of
Fridays ago, I was coming home from the grocery store and passed a neighbor’s
house where they were having a yard sale.
As I drove by, I spied a rotisserie oven that looked very similar to the
one that my friend had loaned me.
Screeeeeeech! I hit the brakes
and glanced over my shoulder to verify that I saw what I thought I saw. I could hear it calling my name. Luckily, no one else was calling me names as
I had stopped smack dab in the middle of the road to crane my neck at the yard
sale.
Since I had
frozen food in with the groceries I had just purchased, logic dictated that I
go home and put the food away before returning to inquire about the rotisserie
oven. As luck would have it, Charming
had just pulled into our driveway ahead of me, as he had been out helping my
brother that morning with some construction work. As he was leisurely getting out of his car, I
jumped out of my car at break-neck speed, threw open the trunk of the car and
grabbed all ten bags of groceries at the same time and bolted to the front
door. (I think he assumed that I had an
urgent need to go to the bathroom.) He
saunters into the kitchen a few minutes later, asking if I’m o.k. As I’m throwing food into the refrigerator
and freezer, I breathlessly tell him that I saw a rotisserie oven at the yard
sale down the street and I was in a hurry to go back to see if it was still
there. He offered to ride along with me.
We got to the
yard sale and the rotisserie ended up being even bigger than the one that my
friend had loaned me. We spoke with the
owner and he was asking $25 for the oven.
It came with a lot of accessories.
He said they had only used it once or twice and that it had cost him
over $200 when he purchased it new. It was
evident that the oven had hardly been used, so we bought it.
After we got
home, I did some research on the internet and found out that the item really
did cost over $200…on eBay the asking price for our model was over $300! I also read reviews from several people who said
that some parts were missing when they purchased new ovens. So, as I was cleaning the oven, I was
mentally checking for all of the working parts.
Wouldn’t you know it was missing a “heat shield” that goes in the back
of the oven. I’m assuming that this keep
the outside of the back of the oven from getting super duper hot. After closer inspection, I noticed where the
previous owner had used the oven and there was a spot where the metal was
discolored and looked a little burned…not bad, but the spot was there. So I went back on the internet to make sure
that this particular oven required a heat shield like the smaller one that I
had been using. Sure enough, we needed
one. Bummer.
I explained to
Charming that we had just wasted $25 because the heat shield was a safety
feature and I didn’t want to take a chance on burning the house down. Charming, being the “Mr. Fix-It,
Engineer-Type Without An Engineering Degree, Super Man” that he is, looked at the
oven for a few minutes and then looked at the pictures I had found on the
internet and said, “I think I can make a heat shield for you if you can find me
a cookie sheet.” Really?!?!?
The following
Monday, I made a trip to our local thrift shop and was able to score two jelly
roll pans that were the perfect size to make the heat shield. Yesterday, Charming cut the sides off the
jelly roll pan, rolled the edges with a strange looking tool and a rubber
mallet, and bent the whole thing into a curved shape. He put a pop rivet thingy about two inches
down from the top on each side of the heat shield. These rivets “caught” on a metal bar that
holds them in place. The end result is
that the heat shield works perfectly. We
had roasted tenderloin for supper last night.
So with a little creativity, skill, scrap metal and $25 we now have a
rotisserie oven that is worth its weight in roasted chickens and tenderloins
and turkey breast and…well, you get the idea.
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| Showtime Rotisserie Pro 6000 Model bought at yard sale for $25, but missing heat shield. |
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| Rotisserie accessories included: Gloves, ties, scissors, knives, carving stand, injection syringes for marinade/ flavorings, wire basket for vegetables/small pieces of meat, cook book, and warming tray. |
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| The new heat shield, created by Charming, fashioned from a jelly roll pan fits and works perfectly. |
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| A small pork tenderloin that we used to "test" the rotisserie. |
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| Yum!!! |
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