Tag: kitchen

Posted in kitchen, Life

A great appliance repair experience

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash

I wrote about our new double-oven a few weeks ago. Worked great and we got a great deal. However, after a few weeks, I noticed that the “hot surface” light stayed on all the time. All the burners worked and both ovens worked, but that light never blinked off.

I turned off the breaker, waited a few minutes and flipped it back on. The light was still on. I got online to see what the fix was. There’s got to be a YouTube video describing an easy fix. But I didn’t find one.

I opened up to the troubleshooting part of the oven manual. The solution? Turn the power off and on. If that doesn’t work, you need a service call.

I’d only had the oven for a few weeks, so the repair would be covered by warranty. I got online to find out who to call. Well, this is 2025, so you don’t actually call anyone. You go to a website, input your information, and make an appointment with a nearby repair company. It was pretty easy to schedule them for the day after tomorrow.

I was really happy when the repair guy called in the first few minutes of the four-hour appointment window and said, “I’ll be there in a few minutes.” The only thing I had to do was shut the dogs in a bedroom. My appointment confirmation email specifically said, “If you don’t have your pets secured before the technician arrives, he’s leaving.”

It took all of five minutes for the technician to open up the top of the oven and say, “I don’t know which burner is the problem. I’m going to order a whole new set. They’ll be delivered, and then I’ll come back to install them.” We agreed on the next appointment time, and he was out of there. If new burners didn’t solve the problem, he’d replace the wiring harness. If that didn’t work, I’d get a whole new oven.

One week later, a huge box arrived with all new burners for the oven. A week after that, he called to say he was on his way. One by one he replaced all five burners on the range top. After replacing each, he flipped the power back on. Four times in a row he said, “Nope. Not that one. It’ll probably be the last one.”

Sure enough it was. He popped in burner number five, turned the power back on, and announced, “There we go.” He tested all the burners, packed up his tools, and had me sign a receipt. Problem solved. He assured me, “I’ve never had to come back after replacing the burners.”

Overall, not a bad service experience.

Posted in dogs, Food

A delicate balance

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I did a double take as I passed by the kitchen and saw a pile of homemade Loaded Chocolate Peanut Butter cookies balanced on a teetering plastic container lid. What could possibly go wrong?

What could possibly go right? A lot of dump trucks have been rumbling by our house on the way to construction sites up the street. Wire baskets in the kitchen from time to time, nudged little by little towards the edge by traffic vibration. The house shook when a neighbor brought down a dead tree in the lot next door. I think our dogs are aware of this. I’m certain they were thinking, “Just one more truck and those are ours!”

That’s one scenario. Here’s another. I can imagine the smaller, older dog encouraging the taller pup, “Just go over there and take a sniff. Just a little one. No one will know.” Just in case you’ve forgotten, our taller pup is an eight-month old Great Dane, whose chin is as tall as that island countertop. Her sniff is more than enough to send that stack flying across the kitchen floor. The little dog is quicker. I figure he’ll get four while the big dog grabs two. And just like that, everyone goes back to their respective sofas happy.

Neither dog has figured out how to open the kid gate that keeps them out of the kitchen. I saw the cookie stack long before they did and stabilized the pile for the low, low price of just one cookie. So you can still order some from the Backseat Grace Bakery.

Posted in Home improvement

A little joy: no more drips

Posted on by William Douthwaite

It sneaks up on you. It gradually takes more effort, more finesse, a stronger touch. But you barely notice it. Until one day you think, “I’ve got to fix this thing.”

I’m talking about the kitchen faucet. Ours is five years old. I installed it when we redid all our floors and kitchen cabinets. It’s a single handled, burnished nickel beauty with a three-function built-in sprayer. (Who knew the description of a plumbing fixture could sound so sensual?)

About a year ago, I noticed an occasional drip after washing a dish or filling a pot with water. Not a problem. I just pushed the handle up an extra millimeter to stop the drip. In time, it took an extra nudge with a twist to get the drip to stop. I heard the words, “Do we need to get a new faucet?”

No. A cartridge inside the handle, probably made of plastic, had worn enough to let a few drops of water through the turned off faucet. It wouldn’t be hard to replace it. The thing is, there are hundreds of different parts to fix faucets at the big orange home improvement store. Which one did I need?

I couldn’t remember the brand of faucet I purchased five years ago. I came up empty-handed when I looked through accounts and emails to find a record of what I bought. I was going to have to take the handle off, take the part with me and find the right replacement at the store.

After turning off the water, removing the handle, and unscrewing the faucet, the cartridge came right out. I took it to the store and easily found the exact same part.

The hard part was cleaning out all the mineral deposits before I put it back together. Vinegar took care of most of it. A little CLR (calcium, lime, rust) remover handled the rest. I popped in the new cartridge, screwed everything back together, turned on the water. There were no leaks, so I reattached the handle and congratulated myself on a job well done.

The next day, I marveled at how well the handle worked. Who knew I would get so much joy from a faucet that moved smoothly and easily? Life is filled with little joys like this. Embrace those moments.

Posted in cooking, Life

Where there’s smoke: Pay attention to the cooking oil you use

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Duane Mendes on Unsplash

I was feeling confident about my culinary expertise when something as simple as cooking oil humbled me.

In my defense, it was not my kitchen, so I was using an unfamiliar pan, range, and ingredients. I was at my daughter’s house where my wife and I were staying with a couple of granddaughters while their mom gave birth to number three.

I brought a small ribeye steak with me for supper the first night. At home I would just throw it on the grill. No grill here, so I got ready to pan fry it. At home I would reach for my cast iron frying pan. My daughter had a very nice set of stainless steel cookware. A pan’s a pan, right?

I let it warm up on medium heat while I ground a little salt and pepper onto the meat. Holding my hand over the pan, I could tell it was ready. I grabbed the non-stick spray from the cabinet and gave the pan a quick shot. Even though I quickly took it off the burner, a cloud of smoke filled the kitchen. I turned on the fan only to discover it wasn’t vented to the outside. The smoke alarms started beeping, my wife open the sliding glass door to the backyard and tried to fan the bad smoke out and the good air in. The oldest granddaughter asked, “What are you doing, grandpa?”

It looked like I had no idea what I was doing. I did recover and the steak tasted great. The pan was a pain to clean. I had much to learn about cooking with oil.

I did some quick research online. If I’m are cooking at high temperatures, refined avocado, safflower, and light olive oil work well. At medium temperatures, use corn, coconut, sunflower, and canola oil. Vegetable shortening, extra virgin olive oil, and butter are for lower temperatures. I’ve got a lot to learn, though. Some of those oils taste better certain sauces, marinades, and dressings than others.

For the next two days, the odor of burning oil greeted my nose every time I walked into their house. However, as we packed up to leave today, the smell was just about all gone. Whew.

Posted in cooking, kitchen

Gettin’ zesty with it

Posted on by William Douthwaite

Right after we went and picked ten pounds of blueberries, I made scones with a recipe that called for orange zest. Not knowing any better I shouted, “Hey, do we have any orange zest?”

Of course not. You zest an orange, or a lemon, or a lime, to get the zest, little pieces of the rind, for flavoring in cooking. Okay, so how do I obtain some zest? Duh. With a zester. “Honey, where’s our zester?”

After rummaging around in the kitchen, I found this trusty and rusty old four-sided grater that might work. I don’t even remember using this before. The smallest and the largest sides didn’t seem right, so I tried second largest one. It kind of worked, but quickly got jammed up with rind. What about the next-largest one? Those pieces of rind were a little large, so I had to chop them up finer with a knife.

Time to level up. This looked like a good zester. Amazon choice. Pretty cheap too.

But not cheaply made. Sturdy, curved, stainless, and easy to clean, this ought to do the trick. Before I received it, the seller sent along instructions and tips. Lightly oil the grater. Be sure to wash the fruit. Only zest the colored part of the rind, avoid the white.

Worked like a charm.

I wondered who came up with the idea of using citrus rind in this way? Here’s what I learned:

According to SPICEography, people began incorporating lemon zest in recipes around the 15th century, but the word “zest” didn’t become a part of cooking vocabulary until the 17th century. French culture popularized lemon zest as a key ingredient for sweetening and flavoring pastries. Today, lemon zest is a commonly used, highly versatile ingredient that is used in both sweet and savory dishes. (Read More: https://www.mashed.com/893002/the-untold-truth-of-lemon-zest/)

More and more of my cooking, especially E2M recipes and seasonings, use lemon and lime zest. Now I’m zesting with the best!

Posted in Home improvement

Spelunking at Home Depot

Posted on by William Douthwaite

I finally had enough of a weekend free to put up the backsplash in our kitchen. It was neither a huge nor complicated job, and I had done some floor tile before, but never tackled a backsplash.

My wife had helped me pick out the tile which was more like a mosaic of rough stones. I got to Home Depot, found the tile, and started to count them out. I needed twenty-three pieces, but only found thirteen on the shelf. Come one, there must be more back there. It was on the very bottom shelf, so I stooped down and peered into the abyss. Was that another box back there? I couldn’t quite see. I lit up my phone light and shined it in, and yes, it was another box of that tile!

OK, now I have to get it out of there. Surely I can find someone to help me. I looked up and down several aisles and of course, saw no one in an orange apron. I guess I’m going to have to do this myself.

I got down on my stomach and crawled into the space between two other stacks of tile. Not much room to spare. Thank you paleo and CrossFit for helping me shave off a couple of pounds. I got all the way in up to my waist and got a hold of the box. It was a whole box of ten tiles, still wrapped in plastic, exactly the number I needed! As I wriggled out, I wondered how many had walked by wondering what I was doing. I expected a tap on the leg and the question, “Do you need some help?” But as I extracted myself, I was still the only living soul in the aisle.

Mission accomplished. Backsplash done. Not bad for my first time.