Cooking With Kevin

To say we are fans of "The Office" is akin to saying that fish like water. We don't like it, we need it. When the writers' strike began, something in us died. We didn't just lose a show, we lost a group of very dysfunctional friends. To try to ease the pain, we bought Season Three on dvd and consoled ourselves with special features. One of which was "cooking with Kevin." It was hilarious. And genius. Hello? Can you make creme brulee using only a toaster oven, some pudding and a package of sweet 'n low? Well, Kevin can.

We watched that clip twice. Then we set out on a mission to recreate it. Step one: accumulate the needed equipment. A few weeks after watching said clip, we found a toaster oven on clearance at Walmart for $10. Toaster oven? Check. A week later Chad went to Kansas City on a business trip and stayed at a hotel with a continental breakfast bar. He rolled out of bed early, after some 14 hours of traveling and a mere 4 hours of sleep, so that he could get to the breakfast bar before it closed down. It just so happens that sweet 'n low is a staple at most breakfast bars. 2 packages of sweet 'n low? Check. Finally, weeks and hundreds of miles later, all we needed was pudding. But, alas, do you know how impossible it is to find pudding in a metal can? We nearly gave up. Then inspiration hit. We bought a couple of tapioca snack packs and poured them into a metal muffin tin that would fit in our toaster oven. Pudding? Check. We were ready.

Next came the assembly. I poured the pudding into the muffins tins and Chad sprinkled the sweet 'n low over the top. We carefully slid the pan into the toaster oven, set it on "broil" and watched the magic begin. Kevin's creme brulee. We were ecstatic. It was as if our kitchen had been mystically transformed into the Scranton branch of Dunder Mifflin. We swore if we listened close enough we could hear Pam answering the phones and Dwight booking rooms at his rustic beet farm bed 'n breakfast. We were at one with The Office.

It was a beautiful thing, my friends. For a few minutes we were able to live a scene out of our favorite show. Are we obsessed? Maybe. Was there perhaps something better for us to do with our time and our focus? Probably. But was the creme brulee delicious? Yes. Oh heavens yes. Warm and gooey with a delicious crispy crust. Kevin is a culinary genius. And we are fans.