Now We're Cooking with Gas

Literally.

No, literally. In the Lexington house, we enjoyed the beauty of new cabinets, engineered granite countertops (just like granite, but not one slab, a product made of ground stone that makes for one smooth surface. I dunno, it looks, feels, and is composed of granite, but it's not a slice of rock. Google it.), and almost-new appliances.

Therein did the problem lie. Those appliances sucked. They were absolute poo. The fridge didn't open all the way because of molding on the door.

The cooktop was solid glass. I'd always wanted a solid glass cooktop, because it looked easy to clean. No. Also: very unpleasant to cook on. All the inconvenience of electric cooking, PLUS my pots would spin around like tops because they're not entirely flat on the bottom. I cooked in my cast iron a lot, because at least it's flat! You haven't lived until you've caught a spinning pan with a wooden spoon just in the nick of time before hot fat splashed onto your hugely pregnant belly. Good times.

The microwave was built-in above the cooker. Result? No room to boil water in a pasta pot and reach the controls. I'd have to turn on the burner, push the pot over it, then use a wooden spoon (yes, that again) to turn down the heat or turn it off. And all that steam? Wafting up onto the front of the microwave, whose weak little fan did nothing.

Blech.

So tonight I cooked my first meal in our new kitchen. Our new (old) kitchen with a gas cooktop. Be still my heart. It was great. the pan got hot. It stayed in place. It responded quickly to changes in the flame. The oil bubbled, the chicken browned, and all God's children were happy, happy, happy.