Out with the Old and In with the New

Well, there hasn't been a lot of activity in the kitchen this week because my oven has officially died!  It's not hard to believe, the oven is over 20 years old.  It's original to the house and has been dying a slow death since we bought our house.  First the clock broke, then the timer-I'm not sure if the "Continuous Clean" ever work and the temperature was always a guess.  So, it wasn't a total surprise.   Yet, whenever an appliance dies is your checkbook ever really ready?

Armed with knowledge from Consumer Reports, we hit the appliance stores on Saturday.   We went to several stores and looked at tons of ovens.  We touched controls, pressed really cool keypads, turned on oven lights, and gathered prices.  When we came home Scott came up with the "Options Page".  The "Options Page" was just every known combination of ovens and stove tops that we looked at broken down by price.  One minute we knew what we were going to do and then 10 seconds later we thought of something different.  This went on all day Saturday and then more on Sunday morning.  Finally, around noon we figured it out.   Our decision was (drum roll) double ovens and a gas stove top.  We placed our order and sometime this week (Thursday or Friday) the ovens should arrive.  Of course, we are having the installer put in two ovens where there was once one.  Our fingers are crossed that it will work.

So, while I wait for the new ovens (yeah!) I have to make dinners that don't require the oven.  It's been a little cold for me to use the grill so I pulled out the crock-pot.  I like my crock-pot. I bought a new one last year and I'm pretty happy with it.  However, I need to get some different recipes for it and make better use of it (note to self).  I do have one extremely easy, go-to recipe for those nights when I can't cook.  The girls and I love it, Scott merely puts up with it.  Ravioli.

I'm not even sure where I found this recipe, I did not create it myself, I simply do not have the skills for that kind of cooking.  So, here it is, the easiest crock-pot recipe I know....



Crock-pot Ravioli


Depending on the size of your crock-pot (mines pretty big)

2 pkgs. Frozen Ravioli (I think I used Rossetta)
1 jar of your favorite tomato sauce (I used a marinara from Trader Joes)

Put frozen ravioli in crock-pot, pour tomato sauce over ravioli, add 1/2 jar water.  Stir.

Cook on low for about 4 hours.  Serve with grated parmesan cheese.

Now, I'm still learning about food photography so this picture might not do the dish justice, but the ravioli tastes good.  I could do a lot more with it such as herbs, addition of wine, but when I'm in a hurry and no time to fuss, it's a pretty good dinner.

Well, I'm anxious for the ovens and hopefully I'll hear something very soon.  It the meantime, I've got to come up with another meal for tonight that will be made using one of the two working burners of my stove top.