Hello gorgeous, we've been waiting for you...

I was never ungrateful for the oven in our rental home. It worked, for the most part, and it being gas was a new experience from the previous three years of our series of electric ovens. There were things about it that bothered me I suppose. From the beginning the front left burner wouldn’t light unless Aaron took a match to it (a game of roulette I never opted to play on my own), the knobs for the clock and timer were broken, the numbers on the stove dials were fading and faded, water took an eternity to boil and the flame on the cook top only came in two settings high and off. The gas part was nice though, the oven always seemed instantly hot and with the exception of boiling water (I’m sure Alton Brown could tell me why) everything cooked with great speed.

It was a good stove, a nice oven that served its purpose in the kitchen well. Until, that is, the back left burner also stopped lighting. One burner not functioning was workable, but two was getting a little difficult. “It’s probably just the pilot light” said Robin to Aaron as they stood over the stove. “Just lift the top and you’ll see it.” This under normal circumstances would have been the correct and most wise solution to our problem, but upon opening the top it was a complex maze of wires with no identifiable pilot light anywhere. The two of them peered and searched in the mess and then decided that it was best to close it up and maybe Google it later. Unbeknownst to us all the closing of the lid served as a knife like action to the wires underneath severing a few that may have served as the primary flow of gas to a burner or two. As the heavy smell of gas and strange serpent-like hissing would tell us later something was wrong, and with a call to our land-lady and to the gas man our stove was no more. Carried off to where unsuspecting appliances go to die…or our land-lady’s basement. 

This is where the story gets good. Two days later what is being wheeled into its place but an appliance one might believe was made with modern fairy dust and stainless-steel rainbows. It was sleek and striking. A digital display with buttons galore, 4 working burners each with a flame range from low to high, an oven with bake and broil options, a warming drawer with separate controls, it even had a nightlight feature with the option to lock out burner controls keeping children and pets safe. It was amazing and it sits effortlessly in my kitchen even as I write. I’ve been racking my brain all morning on what I might be able to cook that would simultaneously use all 4 burners, the oven and the warming drawer…Thanksgiving anyone?

And so goodbye little white Chefmate stove, you served us well, but you oh beautiful Whirlpool are serving us much better and may I say you look gorgeous doing it.