The Missing Casserole Dish

We live a very wild life here in our small Midwestern suburb so you can imagine the turmoil that a misplaced Le Creuset casserole dish could muster. My kitchen is small and this was very strange! On a whim, and expecting an "I don't know" answer ... I asked my husband Sven (yes, he is very Norwegian) if he knew what happened to my 9 x 12 blue ceramic casserole pan ....?? "Why yes," he said, "it's in the Jeep." 

You see, Sven rises early for his work routine and I don't usually see him before he leaves. Apparently he sneaked this wedding gift out of the house by cover of his Bemidji Woolen Mills flannel vest. But there's more. The winter night before, he'd been at the out-of-neighborhood grocery store buying up Spam, cans of cream of mushroom soup and bags of tater tots. Then he stashed the evidence in the frozen entrails of his Jeep. 

Earlier in the week, he and his is co-conspirator Shep, had plotted to make a casserole in their work's test kitchen bread oven. I am not sure why I got so angry about Sven spending $25 on ingredients with empty nutrition, at a time when our budget was tight, but I did. What else was he keeping from me? Trips to the work vending machine and late-night conversations with decoy buddies?

I told some friends about this a couple of weeks later. It's something you only want your really good ones to know. "You mean he just sneaked out of the house with a casserole pan under his arm ... in the darkness of morning?" Roger asked. "And then he made a hot dish with a co-worker and didn't tell you? Oh golly, he shared it with others too?" said Peggy. I knew Roger and Peggy were right. I overreacted. Thank goodness for level-headed friends and good conversation over a potluck dinner. 

To boot, Sven and Shep received some sharp comments from the boss. Ms. Oberholster said it was a BREAD test kitchen, not a SPAM baking demonstration -- "Our business relies on the simple wholesome goodness and the smell of bread and pastries after all. What were you boys thinkin?" 

Men, dreaming of a hot steamy plate of food for lunch in the middle of winter. I tell ya - it's trouble. The blue casserole pan hasn't been out of the house since.