The Newest Member of the Kitchen Team

I've been holding out on you. I mean, we've had a new range for three whole days now and you didn't know about it.

I know. Shameful.

Anyway, I guess it's not really that exciting, because the new range is pretty much exactly the same as the old range. Which was really old. It was a brand called a "Holiday," that is no longer made. It was in the house when we got here, so I don't know exactly how old it is, but I'm guessing about thirty years old.

To replace the Holiday, I purposely bought what is euphemistically referred to as an "entry-level" range, for which you can read "cheapest." I did not want anything with excess electronics and digital displays. Or buttons. Not only does that stuff always break sooner rather than later, but I wanted to be sure that I could use it when the power goes out.

The Holiday didn't have any electronic parts at all. But since it's no longer possible to buy propane stoves with pilot lights--at least not at a standard appliance store--I settled for getting one that only has electric igniters. If the power does go out, I can still light the stove burners with a match.

A. installed this thing in about fifteen minutes, which was something of a miracle. I was sure there would be some mysterious parts that would need to be ordered and would delay the installation. But no.

There was one part that had to be taken from the old stove and put on the new one, but other than that, it looked pretty easy. Possibly because I didn't do any of the work.

Range Senior and Range Junior during installation.

Although they look similar, the new range has several important differences. For one, the burners actually light on their own without the aid of a match. For another, the oven door closes tightly. Also, the burners aren't clogged with decades of grease, resulting in dirty, greasy, sooty stuff getting all over the bottoms of my pots and thus all over the kitchen.

And finally, and perhaps most excitingly, the oven has two whole shelves. I've been working with a single oven shelf for two years now, so this is a very welcome change. 

There are a couple of things that I'm still getting used to with the new range--namely, two of the four burners don't seem to have a low setting, so I have to be careful which ones I use when I want to cook something gently--but overall, it's a great improvement.

There. Now you're all caught up with the excitement at our house.

Carry on.