I hate cooking.
I eat out a lot, or stick a box in the microwave (though I've sworn off of
that). Occasionally I make an effort to cook dinner, but it doesn't last
very long. I don't want to put a lot of time or effort into it, so it's
usually just some meat and vegetables thrown in a skillet for a bit.
A while ago, I remembered an image from my childhood, lo those thirty
five years ago or so. A brand new, burnt-orange cylindrical appliance with
a glass top. My mother had bought a crock pot, as had half of the rest of
the country. I don't know if they were a new invention, but they certainly
were a fad. My memories of that crock pot were of a modern
day miracle: throw stuff in in the morning, go off to (work|school). Come
back that evening and dinner was ready: mmmmm, mmmmm, good
. It all tended to be
similar,
but it was all good. And there was some recollection that it
made even the cheapest meat come out tender and succulent.
So I bought one. In the morning, I put in chopped zucchini, crookneck squash,
onions, bell pepper, mushrooms, and stew beef. Dumped a packet of "beef stew seasoning" on
top and poured in some water, and
left the house.
Well, last night's dinner was no grand cuisine. The meat was tender for the
most part, but also very dry. Perhaps I need to marinate. The squashes were
flavorless, and as far as I could tell, most of the onion disappeared through
a rift in the spacetime continuum. So much for the miracle appliance. The
small cookbook that came with it even talked about pre-cooking some of
the ingredients. That defeats the whole purpose!
I also have childhood memories of pressure cookers, which were in the store right next to the crock pots. Two memories, actually: one
of an older day miracle, that cooked things much faster, and made even the
cheapest meat come out tender and succulent. And the other, when I used it
one day to cook some ribs (came out fine, I think) and my mother lectured
me on how I shouldn't touch the pressure cooker because it might just up and
explode in my face.
Oh well, salad's not bad if you make twenty quarts at a time.
Update: try #2, October 13, 2005. This time I tried a bag of frozen pearl onions, my last few Brussels Sprouts, mushrooms, a can of yellow Roma tomatoes, and some skinned chicken breasts. And a splash of cheap blackberry-flavored red wine. Two splashes.
It came out a little better. I stayed late at work, so it had a total of eleven hours to cook on the low setting. The chicken was a bit dry, not so much as the beef was before, and it came off the bone at the slightest touch. The onions were okay. A crock pot turns Brussels Sprouts into little packages of mush. As before, the mushrooms were fine.