January 1st - New Years

January 1st

I woke up this morning because our St Bernard was making noise and wouldn’t shut up (we call it “wheeking”) . Finally at around 8:30am, it seemed he would no longer keep quiet when I asked him to so I got up and started to make coffee as he went out. Unfortunately, the burners on the stove wouldn’t go on. I tried the oven and the broiler and it was the same thing. The stove wasn’t completely dead because the light for the oven goes on, and even though the burners never get hot, the light indication they’re on goes on.

I hopped onto the internet to investigate how to fix a broken stove and also to look at stove prices in the event we needed to go buy one. I had hoped to cook a bunch of great food today but it looked like this wasn’t going to work out. There wasn’t much online so I decided to just slide the stove out and open up the back and see what I could find. Luckily I actually did find something. It seems the sparks I had seen in the broiler the previous evening weren’t fat from the hot dogs sparking, it was the broiler element sparking as it burned out. With much cursing and work, I got the old element out and and called Sears on the off chance they might be open. I called the number for the parts division and got someone who looked up the part for me. They looked at all of the parts depots in the state and none of them stock this part so it has to be ordered which will take A WEEK!!!. It’s only $50, and I hope that’s all the problem is, but it means that I have no stove for a week. I have an electric griddle, a crock pot, the weber grill, and…. the microwave. Not the situation I was hoping for (especially since we were supposed to have people over on Saturday). I do have the double propane burners I use for making beer, but it being January and all, I’m not too find of the idea of an outdoor kitchen.

I decided I would still cook anyway and opted for something easy. I cooked some white beans in the crock pot, got a baguette from a boulangerie that was down the street from a coffee house where we met a friend, and brined some pork chops. I figured I would make a white bean puree with garlic, olive oil and lemon and then use that as a bed for the pork chops that I would either grill or cook on the electric griddle. I would serve the baguette on the side with some amazing Irish butter my brewing partner had given me (he claimed he had too much of it; life is rough at Casa Brewing Partner). I got started a little late and the beans didn’t get done until 6:30 or so, which is way after it’s dark, so I opted to cook the pork on the griddle instead with just a little salt and pepper.

The pork was perfectly cooked, the white beans were rich and creamy with just a hint of lemon. The baguette from St. Honore (the boulangerie) was actually quite good. The crust was good and the crumb was very nice. The crumb was a little tighter than I see in most baguettes around here, but very nice. The butter is to die for (or to die from if I eat too much of it). My wife had several of their pastries in the past, but I’m more of a bread guy and figure that any bakery calling itself a boulangerie better be able to make good bread. We also got a canelet so she cold try it. It was rich and eggy, not too sweet and had a nice note of vanilla. It got high approval ratings from her.

To show my triumphant spirit over the broken stove, I opened a good bottle of wine. I love Vieux Telegraphe Chateauneuf du Pape and had a bottle of their 1996. I’ve had a fair amount of their wines from the late 80’s and early 90’s and they are one of my favorite wineries. Even in tough years, the wine has great fruit, an amazing spiciness and is versatile with a variety of foods. The 1996 is no slouch, and although it was browning a bit at the edge, it was quite remarkable. The fruit was vibrant and fleshy and it had that perfect spiciness that Vieux Telegraphe always seems to have.

I’m already thinking of other meals I can cook during the week with no stove and will need to do a little more planning. I refuse to give in to microwaving food, but it could be a long week, so that may change. (I do love those Morningstar farm veggie burgers, so who knows.)