Despite my barrage against dream kitchens, I do sometimes fantasize about a big SubZero cooler and maybe a Wolf or Aga range. Though an Aga is pretty damn inpractical unless you live where it’s cold and damp all the time.
In part, my fantasizing comes from having cooked on everything from a can of sterno and some chicken wire to a full-fledged, six-eye gas range with grills and griddles and bells and whistles out the whazoo. I know what cooking on a quality range versus a $50 garage sale find is like. But, what really makes me happiest is just something that works properly. I have decent pans which can hide a multitude of appliance deficiencies.
This really all circles back to the fact that our range in the new place is flat out crap. It’s definitely the original range as it’s a built-in. We are guessing the units were built in the early 80s. They have that look about them. Appliances in rentals take a beating. They just do. This one has had its ass whiped on more than one occasion. The oven doesn’t heat evenly, the broiler doesn’t work and the big eye on the front of the stovetop doesn’t work at all. Baking is pretty much out. And anything in a ten-inch pot or bigger has to go on a back burner, not impossible but definitely not terribly convenient.
And the fridge doesn’t work very well either. We have had ice cubes in the freezer for three days that are still watery. The stuff I had in the door thawed and had to be thrown out. And the stuff in the fridge part is cool at best. Cold is a far away idea. There are work arounds on the range. I can finagle it to still cook and maybe even bake with a seriously preheated oven and a pizza stone to retain the heat. But, I just can’t work around the fridge. We can’t afford to throw out food. And, one of my many quirks, I like my ice cubes solid.
The maintenance guys were supposed to be at the house two hours ago and promised to look at everything. They brought a replacement stove yesterday, but it was an insert because no one told them the stove there is a built-in. If we had known all this we could have waited to move until it was repaired. Alas, we just have to deal with it now.
