Confession of a Disgusting Discovery

I am not sure how to begin this post other than to say our oven has been stinking lately. Not all the time, just when I needed it to be at 350 or higher. (so pretty much anytime I use the oven!) We have only lived here for a few months and I didn't remember it having a problem from the get go, so I was really confused. It smelled sort of like it does when you auto clean an oven & I figured there must have been some "drippings" of a past dinner frying to a frenzy every time I fired up the ol'girl. I sort of forgot about it as I avoided making meals that required cooking. (Yes, you assume correctly when you think to yourself how lazy that is of me to avoid cleaning it rather than just dealing with it!) And lets be truly honest now-I don't ever do a total oven overhaul unless we are moving out. Cleaning ovens is NO FUN so who wants to do that on a regular basis? NOT ME!

Anyway, I was cleaning the kitchen tonight and noticed that the little round drip trays on the stove top were looking pretty nasty! I decided to pull them out and give them a good scrub & for some reason doing that sent me into oven cleaning overdrive! I figured that cleaning them off would resolve the before mentioned nasty aroma & thought I would quickly wipe out the few small pieces of debris inside that I had noticed the last time I used the oven.

When I crouched down to reach under the racks I was almost startled when I looked into the back of the oven and saw this....EeeeWwwwwwwwGROSS!! The first thought that came to my mind was, "RAT!" Then I came to my senses and realized what it really was, "Sick-a charred to death corn dog!" I had to break it open and see the inside (cause I am gross) & it snapped into two pieces like a piece of chalk!I don't' think that puppy could have gotten much more black! Matt and I were surprised it hadn't caught on fire! It has been in there for a LONG time & what is even more funny is the fact that the last time I made corn dogs one was missing. I pulled the tray out of the oven and sat it down to cool. When I came back to bring them to the table there were only 5, but I knew I had put 6 in. I thought maybe Matt had eaten one while they were cooling off, so I asked him and he denied taking one. I figured he was joking and had eaten it. I didn't even think to look inside the oven!

If you are wondering how I never saw it before go look in your oven at the angle you stand when putting something in or taking it out. It looks something like this:

Well, from now on I am crouching down and looking all the way to the back after I have taken the food out! (I am guessing maybe you will too!) Anyone in the mood for a corn dog?