Omnivore - Easy-Bake Oven causes recall of repressed culinary memories

Lord help us! For the second time in a year, the Easy-Bake Oven has been recalled for roasting kiddy fingers. WebMD has the scoop:

Government officials today issued this year’s second product recall for Easy-Bake Ovens and warned adults to take the toy electric ovens away from kids.

The Easy-Bake Oven is a purple and pink plastic oven that resembles a kitchen range with four burners on top and a front-loading oven. “Easy-Bake” is printed on the front of the oven. Model number 65805 and “Hasbro” are stamped into the plastic on the back of the recalled ovens.

“Young children can insert their hands into the oven’s front opening and get their hands or fingers caught, posing entrapment and burn risks,” states the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Nearly a million Easy-Bake Ovens are involved in the recall. Those Easy-Bake ovens were sold nationwide starting in May 2006. Easy-Bake Ovens sold before May 2006 aren’t included in the recall.

That’s 1 million kids whose baking is going to be interrupted.

The recall has forced me to recall repressed culinary memories of my traumatic childhood. When I was a kid, my neighbor Wendy Woodcock — yes, that was her real name — had an Easy-Bake (or something similar). Wendy’s parents were devout Catholics. At least I assume so, because my main memory of their home was the huge, garish crosses draped with dead Jesus that seemed to be everywhere. Wendy used to bake what she called “bread of his body” in her oven. We played “communion” with Kool-Aid. She also used to warm up the coconut macaroons I stole off the bakery truck that came through the neighborhood several times a week.

Just another memory typical of your average foodie.