Newsy Bits: Am I a Wizard, or What?!

When we were ready to install a stove in our kitchen, we chose a General Electric Adora gas stove.  We have loved it for several years.  Recently one of the front burners has failed to light.  Well, for several months it has failed to light.  This morning I had had enough of that failure to perform.

Since I am absolutely sure that the reason the burner failed to light is directly related to my poor housekeeping skills, especially allowing food to boil over the top of the pot, I decided to see if I could fix the problem without calling in the appliance repair man (which would save us lots of money). 

{Perhaps some of the other cooks in the house may have had a hand in this boiling over but I will not be pointing any fingers as I am the regular cook AND I do tend to get distracted by other things, like washing dishes, reading that last few pages of an exciting book, knitting the last two rows of a darling pattern.  (My mother-in-law was such a great example:  when she was cooking, she was COOKING, no resting up or moving on to other things. I doubt if she ever burned a pot of potatoes or carrots or beets or anything else.  I should try harder to emulate that in her!)}

SO, to get to the point of this post, this morning I wanted to boil some potatoes to use in pan fries for breakfast.  (Of course, since it is 10:05 AM as I am writing, it will me more in the line of brunch, or potentially even lunch!)  Having that burner not working was such an aggravation that things finally got to a head.  I removed the cast iron griddle and grates and washed the stove top as best I could without chemicals.  I tried to light the burner again and nothing. 

Next things I tried lighting the burner with a match after having taken off the little round plate/diffuser and I did get a little bit of a flame but nothing to write home about and not enough flame to push out through the holes under the diffuser.  At this point I was at a loss because everything looked ok.

Going onto the Internet I put in a little questions: "Why won't the burner on my gas stove light up?"  Shazaam!  Someone had an answer which did not include calling the repair man.  It was suggested that the use of a sharp hand-sewing needle be used to push through the holes on the unit.  There were two holes in the top unit but nothing happened when I stuck the needle in. One of them looked perfectly clean and the other one didn't.

When I looked down the open hole into the stove workings under the stove top itself, I saw one more little round hole.  It is surrounded by a little washer/nut apparatus, at least that is the best way I can think to describe it.  That was perfectly clean and new looking, but I pushed the needle down into it anyway then re-assembled the burner parts (the unit and the diffuser plate), lit a match, turned on the burner and WHAMMO!!!  Out came perfect flames!  I feel so smart.  A real wizard, in fact.  AND potatoes are boiling on the stove over that burner.  (Oh yes,  I have been distracted by the telling of this story but I have NOT let the pot boil over!)

Now I just need to talk my husband into giving ME the money he would have spent on the repair man.  Well, maybe HALF that money.  I want to subscribe to the New England Historic Genealogical Society.  They have many resources online that would help further my family history research.  Don't you think that would be a good use of good money?  Especially since it did not need to go to an "outside" repair guy?!  I do...