Back to Baking

Back in late November, right before I was all set to start making Christmas cookies, our oven broke. The stovetop portion of the range worked fine, and we had no issues with the digital display at all. We could set the oven to preheat…but nothing would ever happen. When we bought our house, it came with a home warranty free for a year, with an option to renew. That warranty paid for a new air conditioning system last summer, so we were very thankful for it. We checked the heating and broiler elements and there were no breaks (which would have been a cheaper fix than paying our deductible to the warranty company), so we called them. The first company they matched us with couldn’t fit us in for two weeks, and then cancelled on us at the last minute after reassuring us several times the day they were supposed to show up that they would be there soon.

The second company was much more timely, but after coming and looking at our range the tech had some bad news: the board was broken, and the cost of repair would likely be close to the cost of buying a new (although lower-end than ours) range. We found this out right after Christmas. So we had to figure out what to do. I checked out some appliance stores and was astonished at the cost of ranges – even the “not so nice” ones. But, since the cost was so high, our warranty company was willing to look into buying one wholesale, and if they couldn’t find one similar to the one we had for the price they would pay for the repairs, we could buy one and have them send us a check for the cost of the repair.

Then Ian remembered there was a Sears outlet not too far from us. They had some old, some new, some new but with small scratches. We initially had our eyes set on a new one, marked down because it was “last year’s model” (seriously?) but when we went in to buy we found this one:

As you can see, there are a couple small scratches on the oven door handle, which can easily be hidden by decorative dishtowels (or by some kind of paint if I really wanted to bother with it). There is also a small scratch on the side of the range (which is not visible thanks to the countertop.) This range is actually nicer than our old one, and the scratches brought the price down by almost half (!). We have a five year warranty on it that includes yearly checkups and maintenance (booyah.)

So today was the first day I used it. I made a quesadilla for Alisdair and me for lunch, and it cooked fast. I had noticed over time that the power on our old stove was beginning to fizzle, although it was still working. And then this afternoon came the real test:

Obviously I’m a little out of practice with shaping the loaves, but I’m excited for them to cool enough to try a slice! Then maybe we’ll be done with buying bread at the grocery store…so much more expensive, much less tasty, many more additives…

Ian says this is my birthday present (woohoo next Monday!). I think it is a more than acceptable gift. Now, do I bake myself brownies or a cake…?

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