::cue background music::
I'm just an old chunk of coal,
But I'm gonna be a diamond some day,
I'm gonna grow and glow 'til I'm so plu pure perfect,
I'm gonna put a smile on everybody's face.
I need a new way to cook. I tolerated my current Plain Jane gas range until flames belched out of it a month or so ago. Then, I found out it caught fire before I bought the place. Needless to say, I haven't used it since.
And, needless to say, the lack of a safe, working stove is a problem, given I eat primarily homemade foods and love nothing more than a nice omelet (made with eggs from chickens I'm personally acquainted with) for breakfast and some kind of stewish, stir-fryish, vegetable-ish, half-slow-cooked, half-flash-cooked something for dinner.
But in catastrophe lies opportunity. Besides, I never was happy with my kitchen - its multiple flaws include tininess, overlinoleumedness, dreadful plumbing and worse floors. So chunking the stove presents the perfect opportunity for an HGTV-style Kitchen Makeover.
And I even have the beginnings of a plan. The problem is, I need to make some decisions. So, in the best imitation of HGTV that I'm capable of (given my naturally chaotic tendencies), I'll tell you my current plan. Then, I'll start getting into the decision-making process.
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The Plan
The target date for my HGTV-style Kitchen Makeover is spring, which might leave me oven-less for several months, but gives me plenty of time to decide whether I'd be better served by a wood, pellet or corn stove, a conventional oven, or some combination thereof.
Waiting until spring also gives me time to consider other options --- and scheme on remodeling projects, like the one I've been turning over in my mind for months now: converting the space used for the stove into a pantry area. Oh, and pulling the behemoth propane tank full of propane I haven't used in three years because the stuff stinks. And investigating whether the rumor's true that they're laying natural gas lines out here. Etc.
Which leads to my [still incomplete] [and subject to change] plan of attack for the kitchen makeover:
The Plan
- Chunk not only the hideous stove, but the hideous range hood;
- Install a deep pantry in their place;
- Install a microwave slash convection oven on the top - or middle - shelf of the pantry;
- Install a wood, pellet or corn stove, for use in winter and when the power goes off;
- Install a firepit in the back yard;
- Investigate small countertop grills and woks;
- Build a small kitchen island, to help with the lack of counterspace in my tiny kitchen.
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Decisions, Decisions
Before I get too far into it, though, I need to figure out whether it's even worth it for me to install a wood, pellet or corn stove, and, if it is, which is the better option for me.
The pros:
- Relative independence from the energy grid, which is especially important given it's not uncommon for us to lose power, etc;
- Cooking on top of a wood stove is cool, so maybe the same is true for pellet and corn stoves;
- The type of cooking I could do suits my natural style, which revolves around unknown heat settings, slowness, imprecision, inborn chaos, frequent disasters and even more frequent discoveries.
The cons:
- It really doesn't get that cold that often here, so any one of them might be overkill;
- I would have to figure out alternative means of cooking for 80+% of the year;
- Wood stoves are often the culprits in mean fires.
Hm. Well, there's nothing terribly convincing about the cons, although I'm sure I could come up with several dozen more of them. Sure, I'm not crazy about the idea of setting my place on fire. But if I'm careful with the installation and with how I handle it, I think it will be okay.
Besides, I've been thinking about doing this for 4 years now. Might as well get it over with and free that mind space up.
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But Should I Go For Wood, Pellet or Corn?
The first contender: a Vogelzang Boxwood wood stove. I like this one's small size and rustic look. It would be pretty good for heat in the winter, especially when - not if, but when - weather conditions knock out gas and electricity. I also have years' worth of downed branches and trees, including lots of hickory and oak, so I have years' worth of fuel readily at hand.
Besides, I can buy it for a mere $129 at a feed store over yonder.
The downsides: it's a wood stove and, in my climate, there are many more boiling days than cold days. So it isn't something I could use that often, and certainly not every day. And installing it would require some serious renovation. Finally, I don't have that much space to heat - maybe about 500-600 sq. ft., which makes even this little fellow too big.
The second contender: a pellet stove. I've seen this model in action in a space even smaller than mine. It does the trick without being overkill. And the people who have it are careful and deliberate sorts, and would never have gone for this model if it had a history of breaking down or exploding or whatever.
But there are some huge downsides. First, pellet shortages are common - which wouldn't be such a problem for me, as we simply don't have those northern-style winters, where it stays bitter cold for weeks at a time.
More problematic is that the tops of pellet stoves don't get very hot, meaning cooking on them is out.
The real kicker, however, is that they require electricity to run.
Um, okay. That's not going to work. There are people in this area who still don't have electricity, thanks to the last ice storm a month ago.
So what about a corn stove? Well, not only do corn stoves present the same problems as pellet stoves, corn cobs just aren't that easy to come by here. We're not really corn country, and the people who do grow corn use the cobs for other things, like feeding their critters or doing - well, I don't even want to know.
What I do know is that pellet and corn stoves are out, which means the question now is, do I want a wood stove?
I don't know yet. I need to think about it some more. But given the weather and my easy access to free seasoned wood, they're looking like a better idea by the day.
Besides, I'm determined to pull my propane tank because I hate the stuff - it not only stinks, but it's way too expensive. And I really don't want to lay natural gas lines, although I might just to make this place more saleable, should I need to make a quick exit from it. But I wouldn't connect it to a gas stove.
And electric stoves are really sucky to cook on.
So. I remain undecided, albeit definitely closer to a final decision. Thankfully, spring is just around the corner. I'll keep you posted.
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Oh, and ...
Dinner tonight has gone to the dogs. I'm cooking them lentil stew in leftover buffalo broth. Sans onion, which is often toxic to dogs, but with plenty of carrots, which they simply love.
And your host next week is AAF, who will turn the world upside down with his take on Pizzas!
And finally ... if you'd like to host What's for Dinner? for an evening (or two) (or three), let us know! Write us at what's_for_dinner AT earthlink DOT net.