The Family Table: Farewell to the stove
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That鈥檚 what my stove beeped at me, furiously, before going off to the great appliance center in the sky.
It was not an ideal time to think about replacing the most-used appliance in our home. It was a Tuesday, and we鈥檇 just come back from vacation Sunday.
We discovered this issue because I was having a rare craving for spaghetti and had put a pot of water on to boil.
I set a timer on my phone to go check it, and walked into the living room to chat with Mike about my first day back to work. Then the sound came: a slow deliberate beep like our stove timer going off. I didn鈥檛 think I鈥檇 set that timer, but it had been a busy day. I figured I鈥檇 done it out of habit.
Before I could finish up what I was saying, though, we heard what would be the herald of a stove preparing to leave this world: rapid, insistent beeping that grew progressively louder. I hurried into the kitchen and called for Mike. It was a code I鈥檇 never seen before (and hope not to see again).
He looked it up on his phone. The long and short of it: there was an electrical problem with the stove. Official advice from the company was to unplug it immediately because it presented a fire hazard. So, out the stove came to the middle of the kitchen floor as both dogs circled. Both know the beep of the stove 鈥� and microwave and pressure cooker 鈥� and immediately head into the kitchen to obediently sit, hoping to be the taste testers of whatever鈥檚 being made.
That wasn鈥檛 the kind of welcome home we鈥檇 expected, particularly because we had planned to replace the aging washing machine when we got back from vacation. (The washing machine, while on its last leg, still worked. We鈥檇 just wanted to be ahead of the curve in replacing it.)
We waited for the stove to cool down, cleaned behind it and trekked off to the appliance store, letting Gabe know not to panic when he got home and saw the displaced stove.
Two purchased appliances later, we were faced with yet another dilemma: a delivery date 10 days away. The stove we picked wasn鈥檛 in stock, and while it would arrive at the store two days later, late July is apparently peak appliance purchase and delivery season.
My cooking during that period was limited to food prepared on the grill, pressure cooker or slow cooker, or heated in the microwave. One of the kids suggested we just eat our meals out until the new oven arrived. After we stopped laughing, Mike and I went to our best-of recipes for the pressure and slow cookers and got to work.
The 10 days sailed by, and no one starved, thanks in part to my mom, who sent some food home with me.
I even managed to get the spaghetti that I wanted the day the stove went down. After going to a dozen or so sites to figure out the proportions, I figured out how to cook raw spaghetti in the pressure cooker with sauce and water. It definitely produces starchier pasta than the stove, but it satisfied my craving.
I even managed to create a new pressure-cooked dish 鈥� one that could easily be translated to the stove top if you don鈥檛 have a pressure cooker. Directions for that are below.
While I embraced the challenge of alternative cooking over 10 days, I鈥檓 glad to have a stove again. Now if I could just get Mike to stop telling people that I broke our old one 鈥�..
Spicy Shrimp and Potatoes (electric pressure cooker)
6 large gold potatoes, cut into bite-sized cubes
2 pounds still frozen deveined and peeled raw 31-40 count shrimp
1, 14.5 ounce can fire roasted tomatoes
2 jalape帽os, seeded and minced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Using the browning function on the pressure cooker, saut茅 the jalape帽os and garlic for about 1 minute. Pour in the fire roasted tomatoes, including liquid. Stir in the potatoes and put the frozen shrimp on top. Set the pressure for 1 minute.
As soon as the pressure cooker comes up to pressure, slowly release it. Use a slotted spoon to take the potatoes and shrimp out. Add the paste to the liquid and bring it to pressure for 2 minutes. Pour over the potatoes and shrimp, top with cheese and stir together.
On the stove top: In a large pan with a lid, saut茅 the jalapeno, garlic and potatoes over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes before adding the tomatoes (omit the paste). Cover, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes or so. Once the potatoes are nearly cooked, add in defrosted shrimp. (I used frozen for the pressure cooker dish because I didn鈥檛 want them to overcook.) Once the shrimp are cooked through, add Parmesan, stir and enjoy.