Fixin' Supper

We are waiting, waiting, waiting for the new stove. It was supposed to come tomorrow, but the plumber [who is installing all the gas lines, including to my new water heater and YAY to my gas grill] had to resked for next week, so I moved the stove delivery too so as not to be without one at all for several days. Unreliable and old as the current stove is, it does at least cook stuff. Mostly.

The big news here at Fixin’ Supper is that I canceled the cable earlier this week.

"What?" you say. "I know that’s not possible, because all we’ve been getting here all week are links to articles on del.icio.us. What the @#$#@ are you doing, if you’re not watching TV and you’re not blogging??"

Hahaha good point you have there, in the conversation we’re having in my head. Whoever "you" might be.

Well this week the 8yo is here, so I’m sure you realize, this week is all about homework.

I have actually cooked several things in the past couple of days, in a last-minute frenzy, as if I’d miss this awful stove once it’s gone.

* Chocolate peanut butter treats [They probably have a real name but I'm too lazy to go look it up.]
* Roasted butternut squash soup. To.Die.For. Don’t be fooled by the time to make this in the recipe: It takes all day. First you make the toasted spice mix, then the roasted squash and only THEN the soup. Worth every minute.
* Green beans with cracker crumbs. I must have expounded on these before here. [Apparently not. I will share the secret with you soon.] It makes no sense why these are so good, but they are.
* More chicken and rice.

And I’ve spent most of today and tonight reading about the weather online, of course. Someone at work asked me what the heck I’d do about tornadoes, without cable.

Pause.

I thought the whole point of a tornado was to interrupt your cable access, but maybe that’s a unique phenomenon in East Nashville. Of course, as a long-time East Nashville resident, I have both my battery-powered weather radio, and intimate knowledge of every weather website on the web. So whether we’re having a lose-the-power storm or a freakishly-didn’t-lose-the-power storm, I’m all over it.

  This is not the new stove

I have freaked out even me this morning. After two incidents of uneven/burned baking in three days [and not the first ones, either], and Thanksgiving looming, I finally snapped. I already knew the specs I wanted in a new stove:

* Stainless or stainless-look
* 5 burners
* Gas cooktop
* Double oven
* Self-cleaning ovens

I was flexible on anything else, but frankly, when those are your starting parameters, you don’t have a lot of choices under $2000. [Plenty over $4000, but I didn't want the oven to outweigh my equity in the house.]

I ended up looking at a Maytag and a Jenn-Air. I was stunned at how much prices varied on both appliances. Apparently I should be price-checking more items before purchasing, because I ended up with the Maytag, and saved several hundred dollars off the first price I saw. I found similar deals on the Jenn-Air, but it started out around $300-$400 more expensive than the Maytag, and I couldn’t find anything to convince me I wouldn’t just be paying for the name.

I will have to schedule delivery with Home Depot. I’m hoping I can get it to somehow coincide with the installation of my water heater in the next couple weeks — then my plumber will already be here to hook up all the gas lines for me.

Am now going to plan my menu of beans and rice for the rest of the month so that I can pay for the aforementioned purchase.