Ever since I lost my microwave several months ago, I have been happily surviving, thriving even, without it. I do survive a lot better without it when I don't feel like a cup of something hot.
Because when I do want a cup of something hot, well, then I need to boil water.
Now, while I don't consider myself a highly accomplished person in the kitchen, I feel that I am relatively competent. I manage to turn out some foods that people compliment me on, and I can substitute ingredients like no one else, and still end up with something edible.
So you'd think that boiling water would be a tiny task compared to baking dozens of cookies or making huge vats of soup. Alas, it is not.
The chances of me wandering off and completely forgetting about the water I was boiling are quite high, in the 30-50% range, I'd guess.
A while back, my mom gave me a whistling teakettle, so that I wouldn't forget to go get the water off the stove. Somehow, and don't ask me quite how I managed to do this, I did something that made the whistling part no longer work. But, with eternal optimism, I decided that I'd remember to get the water, and I could continue to boil water.
A week or so ago, I decided that I'd break down and get an electric teakettle, as the whole stove thing was just not working for me. But I continued to use my regular stovetop teakettles in the meantime.
Tonight, I have banned myself from even that. No more boiling water for me until I get an electric teakettle that will shut itself off if I forget about it. And you know I will. I'll have the most sanitized water in the city by the time I actually manage to drink it while it's hot, but at least it won't fill my apartment with the lovely smell of burning plastic. (And no, I don't know why a metal teakettle on the stove produced the smell of burning plastic, but trust me, it did.)
Posted by Rachel at December 28, 2003 01:22 AM