Cookaholics Bulletin Board

We are in the process of buying a new home and I am excited! We outgrew our place about 1 or 2 kids ago. It isn't anything too fancy, we are probably gonna buy/build a newer house in 5-10 years. However, we are so excited. It has a beautifully landscaped yard and is right in between the kid's schools. It adds about 500 more heated square feet.

I have only ever had experience cooking on an electric stove. This house has a gas stove. I am excited about being able to cook if the electricity goes out, and the pilot light is useful for proofing and yogurt....but I am scared about baking in it and getting use to it altogether.

Any tips?

Also... an off topic question. I am torn between sticking with Dish Network that we have good luck with or switching to Comcast cable? I am thinking about just getting Comcast's high-speed internet and sticking with Dish for the TVs. Also, where do you get packing boxes anyway?

U-Haul stores sell all kinds of items to help with packing. When I was a real estate agent I always referred customers to them and no one was ever disappointed. It is especially useful because you can purchase knocked down packages of 10 boxes, all of the same size, in a flat, bound with plastic starpping. You want your boxes to be of the same shape/size as it greatly improves packing your trailer. Obviously, they sell various sizes but smaller is better as the loads tend not to get too heavy and it is very easy to organize stuff by room. Likewise spend the extra money for the deluxe packing tape dispenser - the one with the flexible 'tongue' that not only helps the tape to self-cut but to simultaneously press the end of the tape flat.

As for gas - you will never go back to electric and you will wonder why you waited so long However, newer gas stoves/ranges do not have a pilot light (very wasteful of energy); they use a different ignition system.

Becca,

You'll learn to be careful with a small pan on a large gas burner. The heat goes up the side of the pan. Yes, the handle can get very hot. Yes, food will burn on the outside of a disc bottom pan.

With a large bottomed pan, I sometimes heat it for two minutes on a small burner and then switch to the larger burners to speed up the conduction process.

Tim

Becca, U-Haul has a buy-back guarantee for the boxes. Any that you don't use you can return (double check that though - my info is 3 years old).

My brother has Dish Network and he likes it. He uses cable for internet. Sometimes if you don't get the bundle, though, the savings aren't that great.

WRT moving boxes, freecycle.org sometimes is a good place to find them if you don't mind used. And I saw a great website once on organizing a move, will try and find it.

Gas - love it. Cooked on electric in University and the first few months we were married and can't stand it anymore. The experience will vary by stove though.

Stick with dish network. Really, Comcast is nominated for "Worst Company in America" by Consumerist every year.

If U-Haul boxes are out of your budget, try retail stores. Ask early, they'll tell you when their truck comes. They throw away massive amounts of cardboard. Michaels gets much of its inventory in knock-down boxes in three sizes. The small and medium are particularly useful. Definitely invest in the good packing tape dispenser.

Generally speaking, most older gas stoves will not get quite as hot as an electric, and the very low settings don't work very well, either. This is why most newer ranges will have a dedicated high-output (or medium output on Amy's range) burner and a small "true-simmer" burner. Newer ranges will not have pilot lights. The burners will have the clicky lighter. This requires electricity, but you can bypass it in a power outage with a kitchen match or candle-lighter. The ovens, however use a different ignition system that doesn't work unless there is electricity. Because a gas oven goes out and re-ignites over and over as you are using it, this means that you can't bake your black-out cake in a black-out. The corners of disc-bottom pans will get a little hotter, just be sure you're getting into those corners well when you stir. This is especially true of sealed burners. Sealed burners are the ones with a metal disk in the middle of the gas ring. They are easier to clean, but they tend to direct the heat to the outer edges of the pan. This is not really noticeable on lower-output burners. I only notice it slightly when I am stir-frying on my high-output burner. Of course, the thing most people like about gas is its "responsiveness". There's no waiting for the burner to heat up and then for the pan to heat up and "removing the pan from heat" is as simple as turning it off. Well, that last bit is true most of the time. With something really sensitive like a custard or delicate sauce, you'll still want to remove the pan since the grate retains a fair amount of heat. Hope that helps.

If you were really looking forward to the benefits of the pilot light, but didn't get one, you can hack a pretty good proofing box with a cheap styrofoam cooler, an extension cord, one of those light sockets that plug into an outlet, a table-lamp dimmer switch, a 25-watt incandescent bulb, and a probe thermometer. It's pretty cheap, too, since most people have half that stuff laying around the house already.

Congrats Becca on the new house, and gas stove. Anxious to hear how you like it.

I echo the suggestions for U-Haul. We moved my mom and dad last fall, and got everything at U-Haul. Yes, you can still return unused boxes provided the tab closure is intact.

I know I'm in the minority, but I never have any issues with Comcast. Their equipment works well, and they are responsive to questions and complaints. We have problems with Dish here in the cold, windy weather.

Good luck with your move.

Congrats on the new house! It has been so long since I had gas I can't add much to that conversation. Should you consider induction let me know, we can have a long chat. I don't know about moving or cable companies either. Just wanted you to know I am happy for you!

Mary

Congrats Becca!

When we moved to Colorado we bought all of our boxes from Uline. Even with shipping they were cheaper than U-Haul. I've bought boxes from U-Haul, and they're good, but compare their prices with someone like Uline.com.

You will love cooking with gas (pun intended) and you've already gotten the advice I'd give you.

I'd probably stay with Dish Network and go with Comcast hi-speed. Compare the mbps speeds of each service.

Amy

Comcast internet without at least limited basic cable is more expensive than with; generally the cost difference is equal to the cost of limited basic. Just so you're aware.