The Magic Pot

For Christmas this year, I asked for and then ordered for myself, a Crock-Pot. An ancient device that allows me to prepare a meal in the morning and by the time I get home, it is all cooked and piping hot! The wonders of technology! For a long time I was nervous about getting a crock-pot, scared even, about what the pot might “do” all by itself all day, unsupervised. In fact, even in the instruction manual, it states: Do not leave the crock-pot unattended. It also states: do not use crock-pot for anything other than its intended use. So, really? I figure like all good corporations fearful of lawsuits, Rival was just trying to cover all its bases.

I decided to try out my crock-pot the day of winter break. I figured that I should do a test run before I let it go off on its own. I scoured though recipe books, the one Scott got me (after he was informed that he was getting me a crock-pot) and my Good House cooking bible and found a lovely chicken meal that called for potatoes, carrots and chicken. Three major food groups in one pot; I was sure it would be magical or at the very least, tasty.



The final product ended up more “chicken stewy” rather than “chicken dinnery.” but all in all it turned out well. The girls both ate their portion and Ashleigh asked for seconds. Scott not only dug into seconds but moved on up to thirds.

My second recipe the next day: meat sauce for pasta. I prepped all the ingredients the night before, pepper, onion, shredded carrots, meat… and popped in my magic pot the next morning. That night when I got home, my house smelled like an Italian restaurant. Even the girls who do not appreciate spaghetti sauce as much as they should ate their dinner.

The final recipe I tried last week was on Wednesday: Hungarian goulash. (After that I did not need to cook again until Sunday with the amount of leftovers and activities over the weekend) While the girls did not dive into this meal, they did eat and I made it clear that with the magic pot in our lives we were going to be introduced to new foods and flavors and they might as well just get over it now otherwise they could go hungry. They seemed ok with that.

Scott summed up the best thing about my crock-pot on Sunday as we sat down to delicious pork tenderloin (not crock-potted). He said, “You know, we’ve sat down to dinner, as a family, four times this week. That’s more than we have in the past month.”

No only does it cook our meals, but it arranges our schedules too!

What can I say? Magic!