I’m combining Items 4 and 5 since they’re both referring to
natural gas for heating and cooking.
I do not understand why anyone uses electricity to heat or
cook with. It is very expensive! There is a reason for the expression “now
you’re cooking with gas!” The expression
came from an early advertisement for gas stoves. Of course, that was back when people were
switching from wood or coal burning stoves.
Still…it has relevance when comparing gas to electricity.
So yeah, I’m complaining.
BIG time. But what does that get
me? Nothing, really. Well, okay, at first it got me some
advice. And partly it was bluster
because I was embarrassed that it took me six weeks to figure out that each
room had its own radiator. Oops. But the issue still remains, electric heat
and cooking is inefficient.
I know that there was natural gas being used before
electricity. Case in point: gas
lamps. They were thought to be the
greatest thing back in the late 1800’s. And they were, compared to open flames on
candles and torches. When Tom Edison did
his thing, the powers that be switched the gas lamps to electricity.
I will admit, electricity for lighting is cleaner. I’ve burned enough candles to know what happens
to your ceiling when you have an open flame.
But for heating? Phooey! Yes, I said Phooey! It’s a perfectly acceptable word and it is
appropriate in this case.
I’ve lived in enough places to have used both forms of
heating. Actually, I my first rental
used steam heat radiators. But something
had to heat the water, right? Unless you’re
lucky enough to have a natural hot spring running under your home that you can
tap into. But I digress. I’ve compared the cost of electric heat to
gas heat. My parents’ house was
approximately 1100 square feet divided into two stories. My condo was 1000 square feet sprawled out on
one level. The gas bill at my parents’
house was less than my electric bill at the condo. Of course, I had lights and appliances… Sheesh!
I’m giving myself a headache.
Forget the heat issue—for now. Cooking with electricity is a pain in the
tuchus. I’m slowly getting the hang of
it. The first pan of brownies I made
back in February ended up like warm pudding.
(Actually, it was pretty tasty—I just had to use a spoon!) The second pan was too dry.
I’ve worked out that I have to set the heat a bit lower and
check what I’m baking a couple of minutes sooner than the time in the
recipe. The thing is, the longer
something has to bake, the more you have to turn down the temperature. I’m sure there is some ratio of time to
temperature that my brother, the mathematician, could figure out. I just try different temps and cross my
fingers.
 |
| Maybe it's the other way around? |
On top of that, the consistency of my ingredients can make a
difference in the timing. I made pumpkin
bread that came out just a bit dry. It was
good, just that little bit over. A few
days later, I made a sweet potato/rutabaga bread. (Don’t knock it ‘til you’ve tried it…it was
very tasty!) The sweet potato/rutabaga
loaf was noticeably more moist. The same
recipe, different main ingredient, same temp, same time. But the rutabaga was much wetter to begin
with since it came from a can. Don’t
even get me started on the seasonings I used.
I should’ve used cinnamon, but the recipe called for pumpkin pie spice
since it was a recipe for pumpkin bread…
More digression, sorry!
What was I saying?
Oh, yeah. To bake a snack pan of
brownies, I turn the temp down just a little for the 10 minute bake time. For the sweet bread, I turn it down nearly 25
degrees lower for the 60 minute bake time.
I’m getting the hang of it—mostly.
But I don’t like having to do all that.
It’s hard for me to remember all this stuff, although I am writing more
things down.
Thankfully, the weather has been pretty good. I ran the air conditioner three times last
week. And I try to put off turning it on
for as long as possible. I don’t know
how efficient it is. The fact that this
apartment has very little insulation doesn’t help.
I can hardly wait for next fall and winter—NOT!
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