Out with the Old...

...In with the New!

This is the old stove that we put in 23 years ago. Actually, it's original to this house---34 yrs. old. We just replaced everything you see on the top 23 years ago. It really still looked like new because I was diligent about cleaning it. But boy, when things boiled over, that was a huge mess! It got all burned on and required one of those razor blade things to get it clean again. What a hassle.

When we remodeled the kitchen, I wanted to get a new cooktop. We went with "induction." Well, okay, I went with it---Butch just went along! I love the sleek look of it. No knobs, it's all digital with a swipe of the finger. It's taking some getting used to. We still don't know all the ins and outs yet, but we'll get there.

I had potatoes and lima beans boil over---it boils so quickly, I'm not used to it. The beauty here is that the surface of the cooktop doesn't get hot---just whatever heat is radiated from the pot. I don't really understand it, but it works by magnets directly through the top straight to the pot. Anyway, I had this huge mess. It just wiped right up! Nothing can burn on it---EVER! I'm lovin' it!

Stephanie said that I would hate it because that black always looks smeared and messy. Well, not so. I think hers got direct light on it. Mine does not. It looks perfectly clean all the time. At least for right now. I hope it stays that way.

Speaking of appliances, we used our brand new air fryer last night for the first time.

We were having barbecued hamburgers for dinner and decided to make fries to go with them. That's Butch doing the peeling while I'm figuring out the machine.

It's so cool! It was really easy to use. I used 2 large potatoes, 1 tsp. of salt and 1 tbsp. of oil all mixed in a ziplock bag. They took 20 minutes to cook and were great! We both agreed they were a little salty but I was following the directions in the instruction manual. Next time, we're just going to salt them after---like you would normally do. The best part is that the oil actually sinks to the bottom below the basket. Sort of like it used the oil, but then drains it off so the fries didn't absorb it. I didn't discover that until I started cleaning up. In fact, when we took them out, they looked a little greasy, so I put a paper towel in the bottom of the bowl. After dinner---before I knew where the oil went---I said to Butch, "look, no grease on this paper towel." I just thought that meant that it was absorbed in to the food. Not so. Once I removed the basket to clean, I saw the oil in the bottom. It's great to know that we are not really eating fried foods--but "air" fried!

When I first hooked it up, I was so happy to see a retractable cord---except it wouldn't retract. I pulled it all the way out thinking that's what I needed to do to make it retract. Instead, I ended  up "feeding" the cord back in. Butch said to just leave it. I guess I will in the future.

Turns out, you CAN teach these old dogs new tricks!