Connor Andrew Clark-Lindh

My fridge burnt out this weekend, so I haven't been able to do any gluten-free cooking for a bit. The loss of my fridge also crippled my ability to coupe a lot more than I was expecting.

On Sunday night I started to notice a light plasticy smell coming from inside my fridge, but I thought it was likely some strong smelling food or something not quite sealed tight enough.

The next morning, the smell was stronger, but not really noticeable. I cooked normally, read a little, blogged a bit and then went out for my gluten-free chicken rice lunch and shopping.

When I got back from shopping, I loaded the fridge and then got back to reading my book (I just finished reading the Undercover Economist - I really recommend it for anyone interested in learning more about how the world works - sometimes)

Around 4, I went for a snack, opened the door and was slammed in the face with a horrible melting / burning plastic stench. I tried to find the source, but it seemed to be everywhere inside my fridge. I turned it off for a bit and let the fridge air-out. But when I turned it back on, the smell came back stronger than ever.

I cut the power and started googling. After a longer than normal search, I managed to piece together that the internal light-control shorted and the bulb stayed on even when the door was closed. This caused the bulb to heat up and start to melt the surrounding plastic socket and cover. True enough, when I opened the fridge door and pressed down the light switch, the light stayed on and flickered menecingly. If you google around there are ways to replace the light, but they don't seem universally sucessful and you will have to take out the insolation as well to get out the smell.

Thankfully my landlord agreed to replace the whole thing. But so much for my newly stocked fridge-o-food. I trashed it all. Even the stuff that was sealed in airtight plastic containers stank of the burnt plastic inside. Everything gone.

So until my new fridge arrives, I am stuck on improvising a gluten-free diet. Not the best thing in the world.

But more on that for the next post....