Our O'Keefe & Merritt

When it comes to ovens, it has been proven that it doesn't take the new & modern to cook great food... When Kenny and I were searching for a new oven we started out looking for one a year or two old, but we ended up falling in love with one 56 years old!

O'Keefe & Merritts were the Cadillac of ovens in their day. They had all of the most modern features, including a broiler, griddle, electric clock/timer, and automatic oven control. They were the first of their kind that could be set to turn on the oven at a certain time and then turn themselves off. O&M's were also manufactured right here in Los Angeles, making them not too hard to find if you know where to look. Have you ever watched the Rachel Ray show? The red oven she has is an O&M.

We found a family in Pasadena who were remodeling their kitchen and were ready to get a new oven. Their O&M was in great condition, which is hard to find, it had been in the same family for years and they had taken good care of it. It cost us the same as any other used oven would have, which isn't bad considering that restored O&M's can sell for thousands.

Before the oven was moved into the apartment it took me a full day to give it a detailed cleaning. For the past few months we have worked on it a little here and there. Kenny loves to work on it, I think it has to do with its' likeness to an old car. It has chrome to polish and wiring to fix up.

For my Christmas present last year, Kenny found an original 1951 print cookbook that came with the oven on eBay. The book gives specific care instructions, most of them you don't see anymore like using a slice of lemon to get up tough stains. All of the illustrations include a woman in her dress & apron with perfect hair and high heels, smiling as she cleans the oven. You know I look just like that when I clean it! :)

I love using the oven, the broiler is great for pork chops, the little vanishing shelf it perfect for letting cookies cool after they come out of the oven. But our favorite meal to make is pancakes on the griddle.