So lately the weather has been on the cool side but we’re still too lazy to cook and dining out gets to be tedious and expensive after a while (hence, we only do it once in a while now.) But there are many great decent uh, edible frozen entrees from the grocery store.
I’ve been digging the Red Baron’s Pan Pastas lately since they’re just a little too much for the two of us (I’m not sure how a family of four is supposed to get fed from one of those trays) and it’s laid in a shallow layer in the tray in order to bake in about 28 minutes. The idea being “dinner in under half an hour” but they of course don’t factor in the 10 bloody minutes it takes for the oven to get up to 425 degrees. There’s 2 trays of the stuff in the freezer but rather than burn out on it, I went for the Stouffer’s Manicotti. Not sure what I’m thinking since I’ll be gone for just over a week and when I come back, the freezer will probably be empty of anything that doesn’t require any real cooking, but anyway…
I got the oven preheated to 350. I sliced through the plastic over the tray to vent just like it instructs on the box. I popped the tray in the oven on a cookie sheet and then I went to set the timer for the oven. Looking at the box it says bake for 67 1/2 minutes. 67 and 1/2??? What the fuck????? Not 67 or 68 but 67 1/2 minutes???? Not the usually vague 60-65 minutes like their smaller lasagne portions. But exactly 67 1/2 minutes is what they specify as the cook time.
Firstly, my oven timer doesn’t operate in 30 second increments which gets me wondering. What happens if you only bake it for 67 minutes? Will it still be raw somewhere in the middle without those extra 30 seconds of cook time? What if you set it to bake for 68 minutes? Will that just be 30 seconds too much and the whole thing will just scorch into creosote in the tray???
Does Stouffer’s have a hotline I can call with this questions? Would the response go something like, “oh, your timer doesn’t do 30 second increments and you’re too lazy to keep your eye on it to time it exactly? Well you can set it to either 67 or 68 minutes but pick which outcome you’re more comfortable with: food poisoning from undercooking or a pile of ashes from over baking. Thanks for calling Stouffer’s!”
So, I decided to live dangerously and I’ve set the timer for 68 minutes. I’ll warn everyone I know if I end up with cremated, inedible lumps in a burnt out, oven ready tray.