A lil' update
It's been about a week since my last post and things have happened this week.
First off, I got a new stove. Yes, my old one lost the lower element of the oven during my week of vacation, making it kinda difficult to roaste, or bake anything without it as just setting the oven temp to say 450F for roasting brought on the (upper) broiler element, thus that just won't do. So on Tuesday I called my apartment manager and she was on the case, and Wednesday morning, I had a new stove.
Old Stove
New Stove
As you may have noticed, it's the same size, 24 inches. Yeah, I had hoped they'd go with a basic 30 inch job, but oh well. At least it does hold my half sheet pans (11x16 roughly) so that's good.
Man, that stove is MUCH quicker to heat than my old one ever was, and it got worse as it aged to teh point that the large burner, and at least one, or two others occasionally would not go into full high mode, resulting in futzing with the knob to rectify the problem - usually.
So needless to say, I've been making up for lost ground of late. Made Potage with the leaks I got from my oldest sister a week ago Saturday after the trip to Mt Rainier, all I had to do was buy 2 russet potatoes to make it, and a small package of sharp cheddar cheese.
I also had an Acorn Squash to eat as all of this had just days before going bad. Sadly, on Saturday, I finally got to cook that squash and found half of it was bad, but hey, at least I HAD half of one. Adding a small package of Fillet Mignon, wrapped in bacon that I seared on the stove in my cast iron skillet, finishiing it off in the oven under the broiler, moving the squash to the lower rack to finish cooking. I also made brown rice with chicken stock for a tasty dinner. So needless to say, some of what I've had is using up the veggies I was given a week ago Saturday.
Today, I caremalized 2 onions, one of which I was given, the other I bought this morning to bag into 2.5Oz sized baggies, roughly and then freeze in a small plastic container for later uses. 2 large onions will reduce to about 1/4th their original size as you cook them, much like spinach will for that matter. I've also done dishes at least twice, and still have some left to do, mostly glasses and such. It's because of not having a dishwasher, thus have to do it all by hand.
Tonight, I made Cannaloni with some dried extruded pasta tubes I had on hand, and a recotta/spinach filling and a spaghetti sauce I had from my best friend in the freezer, which I got out yesterday to thaw in the fridge. I then stuffed the pasta and assembled the dish, making a Bechemal sauce to put over it. It's a basic white sauce that is surprisingly easy to make and then sprinkled parm cheese and then baked it covered at 375 for 25 minutes before uncovering and running the broiler to finish it off, browning it a little (little brown specks form in the sauce). It's rich, but very tasty. So far the little stove works greally great and heats up cast iron skillets quickly too!
I've grown to like the old traditional calrod based electric stoves when they work great, but sadly, as they age, they just don't heat as evenly, nor as quickly as they did when newer. That is their one downfall that I see, other than elements going eventually. Another thing, for rental units equipped with electric stoves, the wiring goes bad eventually, making them unsafe as apparently there have been apartment fires where the stoves were the culprit.
I also know that ceramic and glass top stoves tend to be a liability in rental units because of their potential for damage, so calrods are still preferred there as they are cheap, and easy to fix and/or replace due to abuses of tenants.
Today, was spent not only washing dishes, but cooking off and on much of the day. I also bought a new album, well, a used one at that, but new to me. It's one Iv'e wanted for a long time, Freak Out! by Frank Zappa, his first LP, and a very early double LP at that, and the first true concept LP as well, and was released in 1966. I think it surpasses the CD remaster as approved by Frank Zappa in the early 1990's that I also have.
Anyway, outside of all that, a quick outing later today, a nap, and laundry comprised my Sunday. It stayed cloudy, though a hint of sprinkles late in the afternoon was the only change in the weather.
Today, we only hit 64, tomorrow, 70? then mostly in the low 60's with off and on showers or rain for the rest of the 10 day forecast. I already have switched to flannels for the colder months when I changed the bed today so I could wash my smooth cotton sheets.
So now, full and satiated, and sleepiness is coming on so time to call it a night and head to bed. Tomorrow is another day, and a new work week at that.
I did transfer funds to savings and to pay down the credit card a little ($100) to bring down my balance as much as possible.
One thing I will mention though is hopefully no signs of fraud with my debit card from the Homo Depot breach that occurred recently, if not then I'm good until my new card comes in the mail. By this time next year, we should be done with the older stripped cards for a more secure chipped based one as used in Europe. So far, so good on that front, so unless something changes, I'm OK there, but a pain for the banks/credit unions nonetheless.
So that's what's largely been going on this week.