The cooktop that we inherited with this house we purchased in 2023, unbeknownst to us, was installed in 1999. It was working perfectly, until it wasn’t. It died during a routine cleaning. From there, it took half a week to get a proper diagnosis, because in a majority of situations, the problem resolves itself within a few days. Ours did not resolve itself. So we had a technician come out, only to learn that it required replacement parts. Joke was on us, because parts from gas cooktops manufactured in 1999 are no longer in existence – not even on eBay! We were going to have to purchase a new one. At first I panicked, this was going to take so much time and so much energy, I’m stretched thin, and oh, if only you knew how often I use my cooktop!
Luckily, this happened in summer. When grilling naturally happens 2-3x per week, anyway. Also, my oven still worked. And let’s not forget about the ace up all our sleeves: a slow cooker with a sauté function. My cousin kindly drove over her InstaPot to loan us, so we could have rice. We go through a lot of rice. By the end of the first week without a cooktop, I knew we’d be fine. Did I love hauling out a slow-cooker to sauté scrambled eggs in the mornings? No. Did I love using an InstaPot to make rice? Definitely not. But I learned that I was able to do almost everything I wanted and needed, and it didn’t feel like such a handicap to not have a cooktop.
I learned that I much prefer the taste of rice cooked on a stovetop than rice cooked with an InstaPot. I learned that you can actually boil bagels in water that was heated up in a slow-cooker on sauté mode — and they’ll still taste great. I learned that between those two appliances, plus the grill, and the oven, that we were able to keep up with our regular rotation. The only meal I didn’t attempt to try was pasta, and maybe that was for the best, absence makes the heart grow fonder, and all that. And though we were fine for those twenty-seven days without a cooktop, I was very relieved to finally get the new one installed. The first two things I cooked: chicken noodle soup and pasta bolognese. Not to be eaten together, those are simply my staples, and it just felt right to break in the cooktop with my top two dishes.
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