Now We're Cooking With Gas!

I was such a nice boy before I got to the Big City. I was raised by my mother in Iowa to cook on nice smooth-top electric burners. Easy to clean, no open flames to singe your hair (it involves a bunsen burner in high school biology- another time), and only proper flat-bottomed cookware. Like nice boys should.

But then I left home, went to college and ended up in an apartment with a crazy landlady, a guy who collected guns living in the basement, and most shocking of all- a gas stove! I was nervous at first- what if the pilot light went out? What if I blew up the apartment- that deposit money was all I had! But after only melting one plastic bowl on the hot spot over the pilot light- I began to make peace with the stove. I soon learned to love the instant response- the total control that came from actually seeing how much heat I had on- and most of all, I reveled in my ability to use cast iron skillets! I even got hold of my great-grandmother's cast iron chicken pan! 80 years of seasoning were mine! All Mine!

Eventually we left the old apartment, and moved to our first house. But this house came with - A Full-Sized Gas Stove! Now I could feed my obsession like never before. Electronic ignition, so no more pilot lights. A full 30 inches of space- I could use more than one pan at a time! It was a heavenly addiction- and I reveled in it.

But eventually this house could not contain us. We had to move on. And our next house came with a terrible price- an electric cooktop. Installed by my parents during their tenure in the house, it was a return to the smoothtop range of my youth. And truth be told- it was a fine example of the form: responsive, efficient, and easy to clean. But I could never be satisfied. Having succumbed to the lure of the blue flame, I could not again be happy with the simple red ring as I once was. Ever did it torment me! Too slow to heat, too slow to cool. Always either too hot or not hot enough- the constant rise and fall of the elements within drove me to distraction. I longed to pull my beloved cast iron from it's hiding place- still retained as a promise to myself that this trek in the wilderness would some day end!

So, uh, yeah- we put in a new cooktop. It's gas, and works really well. Pretty too- although Sherri thinks it looks like a herd of giant spiders on the counter. Here's a picture: