Catching up, day 2

May 16, 2018

Jonesing for gadgets and wanting to become a minimalist do not exactly go hand in hand. So, though I’ve managed to get rid of a lot of  assorted “things” over the past few years, I still have a drawer in my kitchen filled with things I likely never should have bought in the first place.

May 17, 2018

For example, my sous vide machine. It attaches to the side of  a large pot filled with water, keeps the water at a very specific temperature, and cooks food “low and slow”, guaranteed to turn me into a gourmet  chef over night.  I couldn’t wait for it to arrive, and have used it exactly once.

May 18, 2018

I cooked pork tenderloin that day, a cut of meat that you really can’t ruin – there is no way that I have discovered (yet) to cook pork tenderloin that results in a tough meal. So even though I made a very good dinner that day, I can’t really attribute the win to my sous vide.

May 19, 2019

Most recently, I picked up an instant pot, and even though it is huge, even though it takes up a lot of valuable real estate in my kitchen, even though I know it is just a dolled-up pressure cooker (and I already had an old-timey one of those), I can honestly report ZERO BUYER'S REMORSE.

MAY 20, 2019

I use this sucker every week. Sometime I use it twice a week. Hell, I’ve been known to use it three times a week. I make big batches and store them individually in the freezer. My son, who does most of the cooking through the week, seems to love it as much as I do.

Caching up - Day 1

May 10, 2018

I am a little bit hooked on appliances. Not the big kind, the little kind that take up room in your cupboards and drawers. The kind you must have and then use only once or twice. It started with an immersion blender that I saw on TV. I think it was $100, and came with…

May 11, 2018
…an assortment of blades. It could turn skim milk into whipped cream, transform boiled potatoes into the creamiest of mash, and render a pig into sausage in five minutes. I had to have it but was newly married and frankly poor. So I set aside $1 per day in a jar, and 100 days later…

May 12, 2018

…sent away for my blender. That’s the extent of my memory of it. It disappeared over the intervening years. I know I used it to froth skim milk (why would anyone want skim milk whipped cream when full-fat whipped cream is a thing already?) But owning it was not as fun as anticipating owning it. 

May 13, 2018

Several years ago I bought my mother a tagine. I loved the idea of it, and thought she would too. I borrowed it once to make goat (superb, if I do say so myself), but when I went to give it back, she suggested I keep it, since she didn’t think she would use it.

May 14, 2018

So now I have a tagine. I use it once or twice a year and it takes up a lot of room in my kitchen. I’ve used it to make goat again, and beef, and I intend to use it to cook venison, but my friends who hunt never seem to come home with much.

May 15, 2018

It is a beautiful thing, and I wish I could display it, but I’m not about to leave it on the stove, taking up an element for the sake of letting it be seen, so it is hidden away, taking up space, until someone brings me some venison. Or until I get some more goat.