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Because Santa brought me a gas range for Christmas.
And not just any gas range. This is a stainless steel self-cleaning Samsung with five-burners and a convection oven.
It is a thing of beauty.
Actually, my husband arranged with Santa to deliver my present a couple of weeks early so that I might practice on it and, therefore, not burn Christmas dinner.
The day the plumber came and hooked up the stove, I was in Peppertown interviewing the Cook of the Week. When I got home from work that evening, I found my husband standing in the kitchen looking at our new addition.
“Cook something,” he commanded. “Anything. Boil some water. I want to see how this thing works.”
Bless his heart. He had waited on me to christen my Christmas present.
“Well,” I said, “I was planning to make deviled eggs for a potluck lunch at the paper tomorrow.”
And so the first thing cooked on my brand new gas range was ... boiled eggs.
But as soon as those eggs were hard-cooked, we moved on to dinner: roasted salmon, brown rice and green beans.
Everything turned out perfectly.
We’ve been working that range non-stop since mid-December. Pizzas, burgers, casseroles, bread, fish, soups, roasted chickens – even the kids have used it to make grilled cheese sandwiches and sugar cookies.
As 2012 winds down, I’ve been looking for some recipes to cook in the new year. I finally came across this one, and it sounds better than anything I could prepare on my new range.
Recipe For A Happy New Year
To leave the old with a burst of song
To recall the right and forgive the wrong;
To forget the thing that binds you fast
To the vain regrets of the year that's past;
To have the strength to let go your hold
Of the not worthwhile of the days grown old,
To dare to go forth with a purpose true,
To the unknown task of the year that's new;
To help your brother along the road
To do his work and lift his load;
To add your gift to the world's good cheer,
Is to have and to give a Happy New Year.
Author Unknown
Ginna Parsons is the Daily Journal’s food/home/garden editor.