Welcome Home to My New KitchenAid Oven!!

It's only fair to share...

For any who actually know about this, I am well behind on putting this post up.  Since the Mixed Conference sort of inspired me to start this new endeavor, and I won this incredible new KitchenAid oven there, I thought it only appropriate to share my first photos on my new blog.  This thing has it all:  an easy to clean, flat-top, induction range (safe for the kids because it won’t heat up without a pan on it); an oven with options for both conventional and convection cooking; and a warming drawer (which was really nice when I made pancakes recently!).  I love the clear glass front so that I can actually see what I’m cooking instead of trying to look through those little dots!  It keeps me from having to open the oven as much and losing out on all the heat.

To be honest, I had mixed feelings about receiving it before Christmas.  On the one hand, a bright shiny new range would look great and I could show it off to family when we had them over for dinner.  On the other hand, moving from an electric coil range to an induction range meant having to relearn how to cook on it and I didn’t have the benefit of my aluminum based non-stick cookware to mask any errors (aluminum is not magnetic, so the connection can’t be made to heat the pan).  In the end, I figured it was worth having it, and, even though we had a hiccup with delivery, we got it in and installed it pretty easily.

Since we knew we were getting a new range, we figured we could spring for a new hood also.  Our hood was probably 20 years old (it came with the house) and this seemed like the perfect excuse.  Plus, because I had the old range pulled out anyway in anticipation of the new one, it wasn’t too hard to install.  Unfortunately, the prior owners failed to properly install the previous hood, relying on styrofoam spacers and long screws to do the job.  Thankfully, I am somewhat handy and have power tools and wood scraps lying around.  I rigged up something with properly cut wood, glue, and screws that made the install of the new hood much more secure.

So no picture of my brand new KitchenAid oven would be complete without a picture of some of the results, right?  Two days after I got it installed, my grandmother and uncle came up for an early Christmas.  Rather than roast a huge turkey for such a small crowd, I decided to roast this beautiful chicken!  I haven’t used a convection oven in a long time, so I had to keep on top of it to make sure that it was done right, but the chicken came out just done–moist and juicy with a lovely crisp skin.  I couldn’t ask for any better.  I look forward to sharing more creations very soon!

Have you received a new range or oven recently?  Have you tried out these induction cooktops?  What are you thoughts?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

It's only fair to share...