The Oven as Art ~Gluten Free Italian Dinner

 "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful."
~ William Morris

 William Morris was a socialist, a man who renounced the Victorian Age. The irony of his beautiful work. meant to honor an eglatarian better world could only be afforded by the very wealthy.

It took 6 weeks for the extended warranty provider recommended by Maytag to decide it was time to replace rather than repair the range. Their settlement offer was for 65% of replacement value off the lowest price on Internet- that would take another 2 weeks to be shipped.  Which just might explain   why it is the contract that was to be e-mailed that day was then to be mailed within a week and then 6 weeks and is still not here.  I can deal with that next week. For now- the priority had to be replacing the old range and microwave before there was an accident.

2 weeks of every spare moment was spent studying floor models and Internet  reviews.  Then it was time to get the real price between competitors.  Delivery, set up, disposal of the old unit- and extended warranties had to be compared. The least expensive "compromise" model didn't fare so well in the all-inclusive matrix.The $500 extended warranty on one range blew one store totally out of contention.

Gerry left this decision totally in my hands.  The GE profile microwave door was well on its 4th repair- each time greater than the cost of a brand new unit. So I said bye-bye to one of the more disappointing purchases of my homemaking career.

Pricing suitable models- campfires were starting to sound real good. Not good enough that when a local vendor met all the criterion- including price- that when they said delivery would be in a month- I had to say no and keep shopping.

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Meet Juan Carlos. As I understand it, he is an independent contractor for Best Buy. Not only did I get everything I wanted at a fair price, customer service heard that I was trying to coordinate the arrival and install with my husband's discharge (even when you are getting everything you want- there is still something to stress over).

Best Buy moved heaven and earth to make my install the first one of the day. Juan was professional. clean, gentle with my possessions.

Gerry was concerned when I told him I could not get the same double oven configuration in bisque. The new LG appliances are officially stainless steel- but have ample black trim, cast iron grates and a wide 5th burner to grill off of. Not only handsome- this unit gets an "A" for cooking where the other never got over a "B".

My husband's mother stayed the first few days post hospital with us. Equal parts to be with her son and to have another adult around so his wife has an extra pair of hands. My mother-in-law, being gluten intolerant-  it is fun to play with recipes for someone so unfailingly appreciative.

Tonight I made meatballs with ground turkey- pushed the usual spices down a bit- and replaced crackers with ground Corn Chex. Mixing the eggs, celery and carrots- the mixture was too slippery. So each ball was firmed by dredging each through a bit of gluten free biscuit mix before being dropped into hot oil for 3 minutes. When the entire batch had a touch of crisp to the meaty crust - the deep fried balls waited in a medium lasagna pan to finish baking under a bath of Classico Spicy Red Pepper Sauce.

The rice corkscrew pasta noodles were cooked according to directions. Once rinsed, slices of  butter melted with ricotta and mozzarella cheese. And as there are no pasta dishes that don't love olives- a drained can was stirred in with a generous pour of heavy cream.

Trevor was last heard from on stand -bye. Guess his pasta may be for breakfast. Whenever, we look forward to feeding him - love and pasta.