Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Limping Along

Did I tell you that my cooktop died?

For all the nearly 17 years that we have lived in this house, I have complained about the kitchen. Not only is it exceedingly ugly with plaid vinyl floor, Stygian cabinets, and mottled mustard-and-brown tile counters, it also has a single oven and only two burners to complement the Jennair grill. I'm sure it was state of the art in 1979 when the house was built but it's more than dated now. I'll bet you haven't seen an analog microwave oven in 20 years; well, we have one.

For all my griping and complaining, it has been a pretty functional kitchen until recently. All the original appliances worked (except for the fridge, which we replaced a few years ago), and that's saying something in this time of planned obsolescence. Last year, however, two major failures happened; one of the oven coils decided not to heat any more and the cooktop decided never to turn off again.  The former, we can deal with - it just takes a long time to heat up the oven. The latter was a real problem. Not turning on is a minor problem; refusing to turn off is a biggie.  

With visions of raging burners in our heads, we went down to the breaker box, worried that we'd have to disable the entire kitchen electricity. Thankfully, it was on its own breaker switch, so we could turn off the juice to just the stove.  Whew!

The next day, I went out and purchased a small, two-burner countertop stove, figuring that was 'way cheaper than calling a repair person to fix a cooktop we would be replacing in just a month or two anyway. So, that's what I'm using for the foreseeable future. It in no way replaces a real stove, but it will do as a stopgap measure.

The kitchen remodel can't start soon enough to please me. Now, if I can just get the architect off the dime to give us plans to work from!

In case you are curious, that's Nueske's corned beef hash in the frying pan. My Beloved ordered it as a Christmas treat. We like it, with reservations. We found it a bit too salty and the texture is very fine, not as chunky as we like. So, we added our own chopped, softened onion and sautéed mushrooms, which rendered it very delicious indeed. Nueske will ship right to your door in a styrofoam cooler, making life easier than ever. And, no, I don't get paid to say nice things about Nueske.

So cooking is happening in our kitchen, even if we are limping along.

8 Comments:

Blogger Nancy Ewart said...

Looks like you have a lot of reasons for eating out - good luck on the kitchen remodel. I sympathize with your stove problems which make me even more grateful for my 1946 Wedgewood gas stove and oven. It has never given me a moment's trouble (knock on wood). It's a bit dinged up but it's old reliable.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014  
Blogger Greg said...

That burner will come in handy during your remodel. I have a propane burner on my barbecue. It filled in during our remodel.

Wednesday, January 29, 2014  
Blogger kudzu said...

I was lucky enough to receive one of those styrofoam containers at Christmas with 2 huge packages of Nueske's bacon. (Now tell me my niece doesn't know her aunt!)

Wednesday, January 29, 2014  
Blogger Zoomie said...

Nancy, the older things are the best. I can't complain as most of my appliances are original to the house - I just happened to be the owner when they gave up their ghosts.

Greg, yes, I figure with that and a toaster oven, I can still make reasonable meals. It's the washing up that will be a pain in the neck.

Kudzu, lucky you! Isn't it just the _best_ bacon? And lucky me - My Beloved ordered bacon as well as hash. :-)

Thursday, January 30, 2014  
Blogger Diane said...

you DO really need that kitchen remodel. I hope it happens soon. Not sure I would be able to manage as well as you are with the two burner. Challenging, for sure.

Saturday, February 01, 2014  
Blogger Zoomie said...

Diane, actually, our original stove only had two burners, so I'm used to that. But these two are slow to heat, don't hold their heat, and fluctuate between "do nothing in this lifetime" and "quick! Call the fire department!" The remodel can't begin too soon. :-)

Saturday, February 01, 2014  
Blogger Denise | Chez Danisse said...

You are still blogging away. Excellent! I could totally go for some corned beef hash right about now.

Sunday, February 02, 2014  
Blogger Zoomie said...

Denise, and so are you. Rock on!

Sunday, February 02, 2014  

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