40somethingmag - Kat Marie - It-s A Great Fucki... Access

The oven, as it turns out, was in a dusty warehouse in New Jersey. The seller, a man named Vinny who smelled like regret and Pall Malls, loaded it into my SUV. “It’s a beaut,” he said. “Just don’t touch the right side. Or look at it wrong.”

It’s a great idea… until it isn’t. By: Kat Marie, for 40SomethingMag

By Friday, the kitchen was 94 degrees. The pilot light on the vintage oven had a personal vendetta against me. I tried to make a test batch. The dough came out looking like a topographic map of the moon—burnt craters surrounded by raw, gluey dough. 40SomethingMag - Kat Marie - It-s a great fucki...

When the guests arrived, they didn’t see a failed renovation. They saw a woman drinking Chianti out of a jelly jar, blasting Bonnie Raitt, with a stack of pizza boxes labeled “Artisanal Flatbreads.”

The reel was perfect. A woman my age, wearing a linen apron (who wears an apron to cook pasta?), was pulling a golden, blistered focaccia out of a retro Italian oven. The caption read: “Sourdough is for your 30s. Focaccia is for when you know exactly how much olive oil you deserve.” The oven, as it turns out, was in

So here’s to great ideas. And here’s to the even greater mess they leave behind. At least we know exactly how much olive oil we deserve. (Spoiler: all of it.) Kat Marie is a 40-something freelance writer and recovering renovator living in Chicago. Her next great idea involves backyard chickens. Mark is building a fence.

The next morning, I announced to Mark, “I’m buying a vintage oven and throwing a Gelato & Gasoline party.” “Just don’t touch the right side

Getting it up to my third-floor walk-up took two hours, a case of beer for the neighbor’s nephew, and the permanent loss of feeling in my left thumb.

The party went until 1 AM. We sang “Something to Talk About” so loud the downstairs neighbor banged on the ceiling—but rhythmically, like he was joining in.