2ND MAN HAS A NEW TOY

SO, a bit of backstory.  When we moved into the first apartment here in the building after we sold our house, it had a cooktop and a separate oven/micro combo.  The oven was convection, which is what we had at the house, 2nd Man loved baking with it.

When we moved to this 1 bed/1 bath unit a couple years later, it had a regular electric, glass top slide in range/oven, no convection.  A couple of years ago, we went to the model of this unit we are in now just to kill some time and see how it was decorated and noticed the range had a convection oven and an induction cooktop!  We asked about it and they said it was ordered by accident.  We asked if we could have it swapped with ours but someone was about to move into that model unit.  

Flash forward to when we signed our lease this last time, they asked if we needed anything in the unit.  We told them how we were big foodies and asked about having a new fridge and possibly a new range with convection oven.  We got a new fridge a few months ago and last weekend...

BEHOLD!

Our brand new range and not only did we get a CONVECTION OVEN, we also got it with an INDUCTION COOKTOP!

There are no knobs, it's all touch pad tech, so no cracks and crevices to food and splattered grease in.

When you touch them to turn on a burner, you move your finger along the scale to the desired temp. It also makes a really cool sound, ha.

There are five cooking areas with the one on the left having a bridge to make it one long griddle area.  Now this is not just a glass cooktop...it is induction, which some may not be familiar with.

There are three types of cooking surfaces...gas (flame)...electric (coil or glass top)...and induction (glass top or hidden).

Induction is incredible to cook with.  There is no direct heat, you can't get burned and heating begins instantly.  Using magnets, it heats the pan itself and doesn't transfer it from the surface to the pan.  Because the technology uses magnets, you must use cookware that works on it which is almost anything except aluminum or ceramic/glass.  A good way to test is to see if a magnet sticks to the bottom of your pan, if it does, it will work on induction.

The first thing we did was boil water, ha.  A little over 60 seconds to bring a pot of water to a boil.

The other cool thing (literally, ha) about induction is when you remove the pot from the surface, you can put your hand right on it.  There is no hot element that can burn you.  It's a very efficient means of cooking and doesn't heat up your kitchen.

We also have a convection oven once again.  The convection feature is selectable which is nice; for example, you don't need it for casseroles or covered dishes, you also don't want to use it for sensitive cakes/breads where moving air would affect their rise.  The convection works great for breads and regular cakes and makes unbelievable roasted meat and veggies.  The fan blowing hot air around is what helps that.  The racks also roll out and there is even a steam feature for cleaning!

We haven't even started to try out these features yet but it will also Air Fry, Warm, Proof (bread rising), and has preset selections for frozen items and baked goods.  

2nd Man has used a convection for a while since we had one at the house and one for a bit at the first apartment.  At the new house at the farm, he wants double convection ovens and since we won't have gas out there, we had already decided on induction.  It's efficient, doesn't use as much electricity as electric burners and doesn't heat up the kitchen.  Plus it's just so amazing to cook with.  Now, we'll get to become proficient at it by practicing, ha!