The house we live in now is actually the second one built in 1928 which we have renovated; we only lived in the first one for 3 years. I think that kitchen might have been nicer, but the breakfast room here is definitely better - a real necessity when your "breakfast room" is actually "family dining" and furnished with an entire Bassett Furniture dining room suite, including 12 chairs. But I digress...
We had 2 stoves in that house as well. One was a standard GE range; the other, which looked identical, was a Combination Range - with a built in microwave. Now, this was 1983, and the microwave, while not unheard of, was not a thing everyone had. So my dearly beloved, who ordered all of the appliances for this house, selected this range for me. And, because microwaves were a novelty, and one built right into your regular oven was unlike anything else, it came with its own real live cookbook: The Combination Range Guide and Cookbook!
The first unusual thing about this is that it is hardcovered. Of course I didn't leave it behind with the house! And when have you ever seen a real, meant-to-stand-the-test-of-time book that came with any appliance?
Just look how happy this modern 1980 lady is with her cornbread from her combination range!
They tell you all about how to use a microwave, since it wasn't just an everyday thing then. (I did use it to reheat my tea once or twice, but it was sooooo slow! And so weird to just put a cup in the middle of your oven!)
How to cook your meats....
And plenty of recipes, too.
The gold bars were for your microwave settings, and the grey bars indicated the oven temperature. It was actually pretty comprehensive.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I sort of wish that type of oven were available today. (Of course, I also wish for my very first stove, which had a regular oven, and then another oven over the stove, taking up some of the cabinet space, so it was in total the height of the refrigerator. Another brilliant appliance choice by my dearly beloved; you'd almost think the man had some notion of how to cook.)
This is Cookbook Wednesday, which I'm hosting while the lovely Louise is on hiatus. Leave a message if you want me to link you up!
Happy Wednesday, everyone!
5 comments:
How fun those old ranges were! I remember the cooking books that came with them. Your house sounds wonderful!
I was out of town and didn't do a Cookbook Wednesday today. I'll be back next week tho.
That is a very nice cookbook for an appliance! I love hardcover cookbooks.
I think it's lovely that you and your husband look after each other so well.
I know it's too late for it to do much good, but my Cookbook Wednesday post was here: http://granniepantries.blogspot.com/2015/06/recipes-for-fun-controlled-low-taste.html. I have three jobs and last week was a doozy, so I am not on top of things!
Your story about your husband reminds me of my grandparents. My grandma always secretly wanted the newest kitchen appliances, but she was too frugal to get them, so grandpa would get them for her. It was sweet.
I'd be afraid of putting something in the microwave part and setting the timer for the oven part. A cup of coffee shouldn't cook for 4 hours.
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