What's {not} Cooking?

Oh, that would be me.  After performing admirably all day (It Baked!  It Broiled!) my beloved range started screaming at me just as I was about to put dinner in to cook, beeping loudly and flashing Contact an Authorized Service Center on its display.  Like most people I just turned it off, waited a minute, and turned it back on hoping for the best, but no, Contact an Authorized Service Center started flashing again, still accompanied by the constant loud beeping that the oven makes when it is unhappy (don't spill water close to the front panel or be prepared to unplug the unit to silence the beeping and then wait for the electronics to dry, which takes days).


I love my range.  It is a Jenn Air slide-in dual fuel range with convection.  That means it has natural gas burners for the control I insist on when I am using the cooktop (I hate electric burners) but has an electric oven which bakes more evenly than a gas oven.  I can set the oven temperature as low as 100 degrees for culturing dairy products.  I can dehydrate in it and proof bread dough in it.  I can bake three trays of cookies at once (if I want to, but I usually prefer not to dry them out with convection).  It has a nifty meat probe that helps me roast meats to perfection.  And have you ever had a convection-roasted turkey?  Nom!


And now I am oven-less.  I don't hold out much hope that a repair technician can get here this week.  It is nearly Christmas, after all.  I'll probably be lucky to get someone out here next Monday.  At least I'm not cooking Christmas dinner (I am hosting Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas breakfast, however).


I don't know if I should continue to use the cooktop or not use anything at all.  I think we'll use it to boil water for tea but otherwise shift our cooking to some of my other appliance friends: the slow cooker, the electric frying pan, and the electric Dutch oven.  I also bit the bullet and ordered the Breville Smart Oven that I have been looking at for more than a year, because chocolate chip cookies must be baked for Santa.  And because I wanted it and couldn't justify it to myself before tonight.


But dinner tonight?  Pad Thai for the adults, charbroiled chicken with steamed rice and broccoli for the children ~ thank goodness they are still cooking at our favorite Thai restaurant!