200

I’m on day 200! That in itself is a delight. I’m getting back to being able to recognize delights as they occur. Another delight.

ABW and Bosch

Our contractor suggested we use a company called ABW (Appliances a Better Way) when we were looking at appliances for the kitchen remodel. We did and they’ve turned out to be a good choice. We’ve had some issues with our Bosch duel fuel range. The door won’t close completely. Technicians from ABW have been out several times to try to fix it and it has never properly worked. Each time they have been out, they are empathetic with our situation as are the people on the phone when I call to tell them that the door is not closing, yet again and my trick involving rolled up dishtowels is no longer working.

The other day our oven became very slow to preheat (not preheating at all on bake or convection bake, but eventually preheating on convection roast). I am not sure if it is related to the door not closing (I am currently using very strong magnets to keep it closed). It would seem that no matter what the setting, it would either preheat or not, but I am not an expert. I called ABW and the woman I spoke to warned me that the range was out of warranty and we’d be responsible for the service call and parts. I mentioned that I was pretty fed up with the range and was thinking of scraping it for a different brand. She said she’d check with Bosch to see if they would pay for this repair since it was less than 6 months out of warranty and it was the same problem that we’d been having since we got the range.

I didn’t expect Bosch to cover it having overheard their service representative telling one ABW technician someone must have sat on the door for it to not close. Also, according to the Internet this is a common problem for this particular range (older versions, but the same general range model). But this morning I answered a call from Bosch who said they’d be happy to foot the bill for this repair. I told them this call restored my faith in their company. Delight!

Villeroy & Boch

Dean and I were given for our wedding a lovely tray and serving platter with primitive scenes of rural life in Belgium (Design Naif) and because of that we ordered that pattern for our “good dishes” with some of our wedding cash. We still use the set for only special occasions, the rest of the time it sits in our china cabinet. I still feel delight when I look at the patterns.

For years I acquired more of the set, either as gifts from my mom who picked them up at Home Goods, or by buying them myself. About 10 years ago I bought two pans with the same pattern and they lived on top of the china cabinet until this afternoon when I moved one in order to put a planter with a trailing plant in its place. I figured I might as well use these pans more than I’d done in the past. I don’t even think I’d gotten a good look at the design until today. They made me chuckle. One depicts a woman scrubbing the floor while her husband sits at the table enjoying a bowl of soup while the family cat sits on the table. The other is a little better, but even though the man is cooking something in the wood-fired oven, the woman is still working. At least the cat is off the table and warming itself by the fire.

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Not a delight

I’ve decided to try to cook a recipe from my original Moosewood Cookbook each week and provide a rating in stars (0=inedible; 1=edible but won’t cook again without modifications; 2=Ok; 3=Good; 4=Excellent, will make again often). I’ve not yet rated anything as 4 yet. This week we had an excess of peppers and the remaining ingredients for a recipe I’d been meaning to try: Bulgarian Pepper and Cheese Delight. Don’t search for it on the Internet — you’ll only find Katzen’s updated version Bulgarian Pepper and Cheese Casserole.

Even though the name of this dish includes the word “delight” the finished product did not delight me, although all of the ingredients I used are things I like. The just didn’t work well together. The cheese topping didn’t blend with the onion/mushroom/pepper layer and neither blended with the bulgur layer. We ate most of the dish, but didn’t save what was leftover. I’m giving it a 1.5 star rating.

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