As of 8/4/11 this problem has been resolved to my satisfaction. I believe GE made a good faith effort to keep my business. Please read the comments to get the full story. — Dara
If you follow me on Twitter or like me on Facebook, you know that my GE Profile PDCF1NBX refrigerator broke this weekend. The photo above shows the current temperature of both my refrigerator and freezer — 65° F. This appliance is just shy of four years old, and still under warranty. Although we called in the problem before 9 AM on Saturday morning, the earliest repair date GE would give us was Tuesday afternoon. That’s basically four full days without a refrigerator or freezer, assuming the service guy actually shows up during that window and is able to fix the problem. I’m not holding my breath.
I complained about my problem on Twitter, hoping to get the attention of GE there, and it worked — kind of. @GE_Appliances tweeted me back, asking me to send an email about my problem to their special “eresponse” account, and they’d try to get me an earlier repair time. I contacted them immediately at that address, but no one responded. Hey GE, lip service does not fix my refrigerator. It was clearly a case of wanting to appease a public consumer complaint, and not a real attempt to solve the issue at hand.
It hasn’t been a great summer for many people near and dear to my heart. Illness, injury, death in the family. Lots of people around me are dealing with much bigger issues than a broken fridge. But one way I have been trying to help my friends is by cooking for them, and on Saturday I was scheduled to bring dinner to a family of twelve that had just lost a loved one. Thankfully I’d done all my baking and grilling Friday night, and with J.’s help getting bags of ice I was able to safely cook and cool the rest of the meal Saturday morning. Just like you, there are times I don’t want to cook. But there are times I really need to cook, too. It’s how I show people I care, and that I’m thinking about them. I hold out hope that a home-cooked meal comforts and steadies in a time of crisis. Without a refrigerator, this way of showing how I feel is not an option.
Tonight, I went to the grocery store to buy another two bags of ice. I needed a way to keep a couple of containers of the yogurt G. takes for lunch, and the cheese A. eats on his sandwiches safe for tomorrow. I’ve got a cooler filled with ice on the counter in my kitchen, acting as my fridge for the night. It’ll keep my kids’ favorites fresh for another day, and I’ll do the same thing again tomorrow night. It’s an inconvenience. It’s not the end of the world. But the fridge that came with our house lasted for 20 years without a problem before it finally gave up the ghost. I am skeptical about the lifespan of a major appliance that completely stops working after less than four years of service.
So pretty, no? I served this plate to myself, and allowed the kids to serve themselves at the table. In all, they had a choice of whole wheat rolls, lettuce and tomato, sweet potato fries (frozen, made by Alexia Foods), ketchup, and broccoli “trees.” You must know the punchline by now: What did they eat? The rolls. Ba dum bum.
G. did try a fry, but didn’t care for it. We had a snow day today, and truthfully both boys were pretty hyped up and not in the frame of mind to try something new. I am sure they would like this whole meal if they’d only try it, though! As it was, A. was excused from the table before he had even finished the roll. (Yes, it was that kind of day.)
The turkey burgers were really good — I combined the ground turkey with a little panko, yellow mustard, and garlic powder and pan-fried them in a bit of olive oil. The burgers stayed soft (I sometimes have a problem with ground turkey cooking up into a hard lump) and the mustard (a tip I got from Merrie) adds both moisture and seasoning.
This meal comes together so quickly, but still feels healthy and well-rounded. I’m sure someone else’s kids would love it.
In November, just as my CSA was ending for the year, I bought a Groupon for an Urban Organic Original Value Produce Box for $20 including delivery to Westchester (the company is based in Brooklyn). I thought I’d hold onto the Groupon until January, when I’d have used up the last of my CSA share and would be starting to incorporate more supermarket vegetables into my shopping. Had I bought the box without the discount, I would have paid a $25 registration fee as a new customer, plus $34.99 for the produce, plus another $4.99 delivery charge to Westchester (other areas cost less).
Urban Organic is all about certified organic produce, not necessarily local. They bulk buy from many different sources, and do try to buy locally when possible. But considering my box contained grapefruit, oranges, and tangerines (in addition to sweet potatoes, green leaf lettuce, Russet potatoes, eggplant, broccoli, Granny Smith apples, and Bosc pairs — I declined delivery of carrots, bananas, and kiwi) and it is a freezing cold January in New York, it is not all from around here.
Here’s what the box looked like when I received it:
Unfortunately, all the heavy fruit was on top of the more delicate greens. The lettuce held up fine, but the spinach looked on its last legs. The eggplant was in the worst shape of the bunch, with its skin peeling off on its lower half (it looked like it had been wet for a long time), and the top quarter practically dissolved when I picked it up. After a night in the fridge, it was unusably mushy, and I had to throw it all out, even though I am usually happy to carve out bad parts to find what can be saved. That said, the rest of the produce looked mostly unblemished, save for some cosmetic bruising (particularly on the apples).
Best of all the, everything tasted great. The lettuce smelled as though we’d just pulled it from our home garden, and it was fresh and crisp. The citrus was full of sweet juicy flavor — no anemic, dried-out fruit here. We really enjoyed the pears and apples as well. It was a lot of fruit for us, though — we tend to eat more vegetables than fruit, and a week later there are still some pieces hanging out on our kitchen counter.
We are lucky that we have a couple nearby indoor farmer’s markets to choose from during the winter, and I would tend to buy my produce there than use any delivery service again. I like the atmosphere of the market, and if I had to choose I’d prefer to buy local produce over organic anyway. I’m also willing to buy non-organic produce from the supermarket (though my grocery does have a fairly large selection of organic, most of it shrink-wrapped on Styrofoam trays, which just slays me), so I don’t feel that I need a resource like a delivery service to keep our produce consumption up.
While Urban Organic seems like a pleasant one to work with (the driver called for directions and was courteous; a customer service agent called once to thank me for buying the Groupon and to let me know the box was on its way) and on the whole the produce was in good shape and tasty, it’s not the right service for me to use again, at any price.
Disclosure: If you use the Groupon link above to sign up for an account, I get $10 in Groupon Bucks when you buy your first Groupon. I bought this Urban Organic Groupon with my own money, and will continue to buy Groupons regardless of whether I earn their Bucks or not.
Did you miss me? I missed you! If I’m not updating here, you’ll probably find me on Twitter, so make sure you’re following me there, too.
As 2010 comes to a close, I want to thank you. Yes, you.Thank you for reading. Thank you for commenting. Thank you for emailing. Thank you again. I write this site for me, but I am always grateful and humbled to hear that you find it useful or entertaining, too. And a special thank you to Merrie, for telling me she was waiting to read this year’s stats.
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Wishing you a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2011!
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more about me and CITK, and keep in touch:
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Moroccan Chicken Tajine: I recently had a chicken tajine dish at Fig & Olive in Scarsdale, and wanted to recreate something similar at home. This is an Ina Garten recipe, and she never fails me.
I'm Dara, the Chick in the Kitchen. Living in the suburbs of Manhattan with my two school-aged boys and husband. Feeding my family something more diverse than a different shape of pasta each night. Read more 
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