Posted: 3/20/2013 10:46:00 PM EDT
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A birthday or two back, I got the Magic Bullet. As it is, the grinder section sits on the counter, the various attachments take up room in the cabinets and aside from a slight disasterous OJ mixing session, it really hasn't been used much at all.
A while back, I pass over an informercial on this wonderful device, but didn't stay to watch it (it may have been in Spanish, anyway)........but watching that may have been easier, not necessarily less painful though, than going through the recipe and user guide that I have finally brought in to work with me to read and go through. While I suppose it is wonderful to have lots of kitchen tools just like it is to have lots of food sources..........in an apartment galley kitchen, it can be a little crowded and the limits are quickly recognized. Ie, 4 counters: one counter for the microwave, coffee maker, coffee grinder, juicer, and now the magic bullet. One for a cat. The other two are taken up with dry goods jars and bins and the emergency 5 gallon water cooler. Galley kitchens work best if you keep the floor space absolutely cleared but even "little" things like the trash bin, the recycling bin, the dog food bin, and the director's chair reduces that room real quick...................oh, well! Still, I have kitchen gadgets that I haven't used for decades or perhaps never at all. Ie, things like the crepe maker and the electric wok I haven't used forever thought I am thinking about trying it again, try out rum flavored chicken crepes. Further, to be fair, I have used the electric wok in part. I've used the lid because it is the only thing that will cover both the stove top wok and the big pot when I want to put on lid on them. And things I've never used? 
Crock pot somewhere, serving dishes, etc. This is how I will approach my eternity, with tons of books I will never read all of, a massive video and audio library I will never see or hear completely, and a kitchen of devices where some have not been used since the Last Supper. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ("Of course, we have every labor saving device you can imagine."--Scaramanga, (w,stte), "The Man With The Golden Gun") |
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LOL!!!
I have and rarely use that cornbread pan. I do use my crockpot all the time. Honestly would hate to not have it, it's a wonderful device. My Mom gave me a gigantic George Foreman grill, the biggest one. It's very large. Was about 15 years ago. I think I've used it three or four times. It actually works great, I just have never really needed to "grill indoors" for ten people. |
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A birthday or two back, I got the Magic Bullet. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ("Of course, we have every labor saving device you can imagine."--Scaramanga, (w,stte), "The Man With The Golden Gun") I'll bet you did. |
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That pic is... disturbing on several levels... 
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LOL!!! I have and rarely use that cornbread pan. I do use my crockpot all the time. Honestly would hate to not have it, it's a wonderful device. My Mom gave me a gigantic George Foreman grill, the biggest one. It's very large. Was about 15 years ago. I think I've used it three or four times. It actually works great, I just have never really needed to "grill indoors" for ten people. Mom gave the family's crockpot, the pressure cooker, the waffle iron, and the aluminum griddle, among other things. Of those four named, I've only used the griddle a few times for pancakes.......but I am not such a great pancake maker so far. They either come out charcoal black or something that looks like biscuit renegades. Further, while having a "normal" breakfast is something that I desire, seek out from time to time (when one lives a life of a Vampirelle, breakfast really becomes something of the past), cooking for one's self sets the battle between grand memories of one's childhood..............and not being able to eat that much, whether it is one's cooking or not. Or, to put it another way, it is easier to remember childhood brunches of eggs, hash, steak, english muffins.........when there were four or five people eating this great endeavor in the kitchen. I "do" want to get into making cornbread. While as a child, it was the kind of cafeteria tray thing I used to crush and soak up the gravy, it just seems, for whatever reason, the thing to make in the present. I have all the makings such as corn meal, just that I've never used corn meal for making corn things. Instead, I've used it as a filler or stiffener for pizzas and stews. I will have to look up recipes for crockpots, see about them. Tonight, I was going to try a dinner of beans and brown rice. Had the beans soaking overnight in the fridge, was boiling them up in water, olive oil, cayenne, garlic, and paprika on the stove top, brown rice in the microwave..........................and then realized I just didn't have the time to eat it. So back into the fridge and had quick tortilla sandwiches instead. I suppose cooking comes about as a outsource of my out of schedule, Vampirelle life. When you essentially operate on your own clock, when there are few people around on the same clock, you need something to bury yourself in. Maybe it comes about when I read about "Laura" as a child in 
......................or the realization that if one is a decent cook, they might not be shot first if ever taken hostage. Once, Mom gave me this huge, megawatt microwave, was trying to steer me to grand microwave cooking.......................but she gave up on that when she saw how much room that took in the apartment kitchen, realized that it was so far beyond my needs. And yet, I still spend a lot of time cooking on the stove top. I just haven't found that the microwave is good for things beyond boiling, defrosting, or melting cheese. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ ("Have you heard of the great Indian warrior who hunted for breakfast?" "Haya Waffle", (w,stte), old joke) |
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Ahhh... cornbread is one of the easiest things to make from scratch. So delicious and leftovers make a great quick grab-and-go breakfast. Wedge of cornbread with some honey over the top..
I detest microwave ovens. I'll boil water for a cup of tea or pop popcorn with it, but that's it. Won't even re-heat leftovers with the thing. Have you ever done the houseplant experiment? Go buy two identical little houseplants, doesn't matter the variety. When they need to be watered heat one cup of water to boiling in the microwave. Heat another cup to boiling in a pot on the stove. Let them both cool to room temp., use one to water plant A, one to water plant B. The one watered with the microwaved will wither and die as if it hasn't been watered at all. Boiled should be boiled, right? But apparently not. eta.. The crockpot is your best friend EVER... Just dump things you like in the thing.. soup, stew, roasts, whatever. Turn it on low before you leave for work, don't worry about it don't even think of it, and when you get home.. dinner is ready.. |
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Ahhh... cornbread is one of the easiest things to make from scratch. So delicious and leftovers make a great quick grab-and-go breakfast. Wedge of cornbread with some honey over the top.. I detest microwave ovens. I'll boil water for a cup of tea or pop popcorn with it, but that's it. Won't even re-heat leftovers with the thing. Have you ever done the houseplant experiment? Go buy two identical little houseplants, doesn't matter the variety. When they need to be watered heat one cup of water to boiling in the microwave. Heat another cup to boiling in a pot on the stove. Let them both cool to room temp., use one to water plant A, one to water plant B. The one watered with the microwaved will wither and die as if it hasn't been watered at all. Boiled should be boiled, right? But apparently not. eta.. The crockpot is your best friend EVER... Just dump things you like in the thing.. soup, stew, roasts, whatever. Turn it on low before you leave for work, don't worry about it don't even think of it, and when you get home.. dinner is ready.. SIGH! On one hand, being a biologist, I have done not so pleasant things to living things and I know the need for being doing so. On the other hand, the thought of doing that to some helpless plant doesn't thrill me at all. One of the things I need to figure out a way to do is to start having plants around again. I had two ficus bushes once............but my wonderful kittens DESTROYED them by brushing against them, breaking all the branches. But the thing is, in my waste not, want not mentality, I picture instead of dropping the pets' used water down the sink, the coffee pot remains down the sink, of how much better it might be if that was going to "feed" plants. Now I could set up plants in the other apartment (been endlessly thinking of starting my avocado orchid in there) and then, maybe, pour the old pet water into a great big multi gallon jug, lug the jug over the other apartment, figure out a way to get it to the plants............................but even in just typed words, that's quite a haul. When I cook spaghetti, what I try to do is put a little water, olive oil, and garlic in the big pot, start that boiling. Boil more water in the microwave. Boil more water in a kettle (when I have one, I have burned out two of them). Mix in the big pot as oppose to boil ....... and wait wait wait.......all the water at once in the big pot. My quick grab and eat food,right now, are tortilla sandwiches of this or that. In the past, it would be an avocado.....but my avocado supply is a little bit tired right now, involves me cutting them open and digging out the still green parts, so the quick meal doesn't work with it right now. The fascinating logic of a child which has brought us to this point. People are stunned that I don't have syrup on my pancakes or waffles. I'm not such a sweet tooth for honey either though I don't recall if the reason for that comes from the same source. As a child, oh I guess about 5 or 6, Mom schooled me about washing my hands after eating pancakes because my hands were sticky. Well, back then, I didn't like washing my hands, so I decided not to have syrup on my pancakes........................and my hands are now black as coal! No, not really about the hands. Obviously, I wash them.......but the decision about syrup just locked in those oh so many decades ago.....and I don't use it. Now, in a way on a side note, sometimes, these sacrifices will just lock in. As children, we gave up potato and corn chips for Lent. In the present, I don't have any chips in my house. Such munchies are probably not good for me anyhow and over the years of sacrifice, I just don't feel the need to have them always around. I will buy them once in a while, a packet to go with a subway sandwich, take home the left overs from a party, but generally, no, I don't have them around. In the past few years, it has been hard alcohol, following an example from my Mother. Didn't do that this year, though, probably more because it is a question of how much of a sacrifice it is to begin with; so instead, I gave up block cheese (chedder, colby, monterey jack, mozzerella, swiss). In part because it is something I use a lot and in part because it is something I would like to reduce how much I consume of it anyhow. So far, so good, I've essentially gone the 40 days without it completely.....though after Easter, I am sure I will be unable to resist the temptation to have it back in the fridge. But as with most things we like, if it is not there, we find other things to replace it with. Been using a lot of feta and powdered parmesan. And the not having the munchies as in chips in the house? I go through many, many, many bags of croutons! ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ (How many days belong to the year? 325.....the rest of hem are Lent., (w,stte), old joke) |
| My wife's mother bought some kitchen gadget and it came with two free magic bullets. She gave us one. Thing is a total piece of shit. I think we've tried to use it two or three times for various things, and it failed miserably at every possible application we tried. |
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OUCH! .................................because I have been my DVD movies in order and I filed part II of that movie tonight. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ (".........All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, You better run, better run, outrun my gun. All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, You better run, better run, faster than my bullet.....", lyrics, (w,stte), "Pumped up Kicks" by Foster the People) |
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OUCH! .................................because I have been my DVD movies in order and I filed part II of that movie tonight. ______________________________________________________________________________________________ (".........All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, You better run, better run, outrun my gun. All the other kids with the pumped up kicks, You better run, better run, faster than my bullet.....", lyrics, (w,stte), "Pumped up Kicks" by Foster the People) I figured that if anyone on Arfcom would understand the film reference, it would be you. |
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I figured that if anyone on Arfcom would understand the film reference, it would be you. C'est la vie. Recorded it the other year during TCM's 31 Days of Oscar (so it is an academic issue). I suppose it is a pity that Arfcom is not composed of aspiring actresses. _________________________________________________________________________________ ("[His final message, on his deathbed, to his research team] There will be epidemics of greed, hate and ignorance. We must fight them in life as we fought syphilis in the laboratory. We must fight, fight. We must never, never stop fighting."--Dr. Ehrlich, (w,stte), "Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet") |
