functional fanciness

The end of October brought about the end of our microwave. It gave no warning or farewell; it simply died. I have always had mixed feelings about microwaves, stemming from having never had one until I was married, and about once a month I would consider, perhaps, just going back to that kind of life. They are a convenience for sure, but they only ever give you mediocre results. Save when warming up leftovers, when else do we ever consider sacrificing quality for instant gratification an acceptable habit? [Feel free to call this my ridiculous midlife crisis 😄]

So when our microwave passed on to that happy land where microwaves get to have all of their buttons used [ah, the sound of the rejoicing popcorn buttons is magnificent], I was more than a little interested in just possibly not replacing it. I quickly discovered all of the things I "needed" the microwave for in our normal day to day: heating water for dough making, melting butter for pancake making, and warming up leftovers. After the first few times of "whoops, forgot I needed to get that on the stove so I guess I'll have to wait a bit longer than expected," living the microwave-free life has felt 100% normal. Food tastes better warmed up in the oven. Butter melts more consistently on the stove. Honestly, the main drawback to not having the microwave? When I have a timer going on the stove, I don't know what time it is because I do not have the second clock from the microwave. 

Of course, while I had kitchen appliance shopping on the brain, I naturally thought of replacing our range. We've wanted a new stove for a while. And by "for a while" I mean "ever since we moved into this house ten years ago." The front burners on our stove are a bit wonky. And by wonky I mean that the left one cannot lower the heat enough to simmer and the right one can only heat on the highest temperature possible no matter where you set the dial. So for the past decade, any time I need to have two things cooking, I do a fancy Dance of the Pots, where I switch them back and forth and try not to let anything burn. The fact that this has seemed like a reasonable way to live should be the number one sign that you probably never want to eat over here.

Well, my search for the cheapest range I could find quickly morphed into a "ooh, this could be the moment to upgrade to a double oven!" search [this "one thing leads to another slightly different thing" in classic If You Give a Mouse a Cookie fashion is my specialty, by the way]. Do I need a double oven? Well, it's kinda like the "Do I need a microwave?" question. I probably do not need it, but it would make things a lot more convenient at times. The number of times I just stuff multiple dishes in at the same temperature, do some sketchy time math, and cross my fingers is... just a regular part of life at this point. The real question was, are we fancy enough to justify the ownership of a double oven? After just a couple days of sighing in exasperation at not being able to make a baked good because of something else already being in the oven, Jason came to the conclusion all on his own that a double oven would indeed be an excellent thing to have and that we were, in fact, fancy enough and adult enough to own one. We make an impeccable team.

Luckily [?], there were not a lot of options for double ovens in our price range, so the choosing of the oven did not take much overthinking [something that I love to do during a Big Purchase]. The purchasing and installing of the new range went without a hitch, and the removal and donation of the old one went just as smoothly [did you know there's a pretty high demand on Craigslist for old stoves?]. One thing that did surprise us is that the oven box would not fit in the back of our giant bus of a van. The box was too tall, so Jason had to rent one of Lowe's high-roof Transits all the while regretting our choice of a low-roof Transit [but no serious regrets because garage parking is sooo worth it]. 

So there you have it. We are fancy. I have absolutely loved having multiple functional burners and have made much use of them. I have also made near daily use of both ovens and it's been a game-changer. Have I ever put food in one oven but turned on the other oven? Only once - THAT'S NOT BAD, FOLKS. I continue to surprise myself with how on top of things I am. 😂

And you know what? I have not found myself wishing I had a microwave again. Jason might sometimes feel low levels of disgruntlement when he has to decide if he would rather eat something cold or wait fifteen minutes, but I have faith that one day he will spontaneously decide to remove the old microwave and turn it into some sort of practical shelf space. Perhaps with a clock. Who can say?

The Decrepit One

Out with the old

In with the new!

Bonus: Huge box/cave/house/rocketship/hiding place