It Always Starts Off Harmless Enough - February 14, 2021
It always starts off harmless enough… You buy a crockpot from Amazon to cook dried beans. Much cheaper than canned. Mind you, you can buy a lot of canned beans for $60. But I digress...
And then you find that your four quart crockpot is not big enough, so you go online to kijiji and find what is supposed to be an six quart crockpot and buy it. Only to bring it home and find that it too is a four quart crockpot.
Back to Amazon to find an eight quart crockpot – same price as a six quart – and have it delivered. Only to bring it home from Tom’s and Julie’s (our kids) – that’s where we have our orders left (a story in itself) – to find that is also comes with a one quart crockpot. Are you keeping track? That’s FOUR crockpots.
We live in a small seniors’ apartment where there is not enough room to “swing a rat” let alone a cat. (Not that we would swing either of them.) We went from having a big farmhouse kitchen in Sudbury to a tiny kitchen in St. Catharines where you kind of walk in and back out. No space for our crockpot collection there. (Seniors Apartment Friends and Potential Life Lease Folks – I truly LOVE our place. We could make far better use of our space. But that would involve spending a tad more than $60. 😊)
You might suggest simply storing them on top of our fridge. But that is where our 40+ spice jars are stored. If you are going to be a serious crock-potter, you have to have an abundance of spices. My theory is that this is to compensate for a lack of fat in these recipes. But again, I’m digressing.
And our pantry / storage space in our apartment? Already packed to the rafters with important things that we never use like ceramic bowls, muffin tins, an ironing board, iron, etc. Still, we managed to carve a space out for what I now think of as the “four fighting sisters.” Why the name? Because when I use one, I feel like I’m neglecting the others. I feel like they are calling “Pick me! Pick me!”
Of course, it doesn’t end there. These crockpot recipes I get from the internet are sized to serve a rugby team. So, although we have goodly appetites, even we can barely make a dint in a particular batch; we now have to have a freezer in our kitchen that is crowded to begin with. Thankfully, my Mom gave us her apartment sized freezer because they are scarce as hens teeth. And with my unreliable memory and with our surplus of soups, stews, beans, and casseroles, I have to keep a running list of what is in frozen storage.
And then there is the challenge of what to pack these “creations” into. Laur likes to have a variety of plastic storage containers formerly know as margarine, ice cream, potato salad, and peanut butter containers. He is close to a hoarder when it comes to these. But we have no space so need containers we can stack.
Back to Amazon where I bought a case of medium sized (25 oz) stackable containers. I did not really think about how much space 30 containers might take up until we picked up this large box from Tom’s and Julie’s. I looked at Laur, he looked at me. And Laur – not quite willing to give up his current stash – suggested, “We can put them in storage.”
“Not an option,” I countered; “the ratties would really like the box they came in… “😊.
So with some sighing and grieving, hubs put his collection into the blue bin in our garbage room. I so wish I’d taken a picture. It looks a bit like the one to the right.
(Yes, I badly need a haircut…)
And then you find that your four quart crockpot is not big enough, so you go online to kijiji and find what is supposed to be an six quart crockpot and buy it. Only to bring it home and find that it too is a four quart crockpot.
Back to Amazon to find an eight quart crockpot – same price as a six quart – and have it delivered. Only to bring it home from Tom’s and Julie’s (our kids) – that’s where we have our orders left (a story in itself) – to find that is also comes with a one quart crockpot. Are you keeping track? That’s FOUR crockpots.
We live in a small seniors’ apartment where there is not enough room to “swing a rat” let alone a cat. (Not that we would swing either of them.) We went from having a big farmhouse kitchen in Sudbury to a tiny kitchen in St. Catharines where you kind of walk in and back out. No space for our crockpot collection there. (Seniors Apartment Friends and Potential Life Lease Folks – I truly LOVE our place. We could make far better use of our space. But that would involve spending a tad more than $60. 😊)
You might suggest simply storing them on top of our fridge. But that is where our 40+ spice jars are stored. If you are going to be a serious crock-potter, you have to have an abundance of spices. My theory is that this is to compensate for a lack of fat in these recipes. But again, I’m digressing.
And our pantry / storage space in our apartment? Already packed to the rafters with important things that we never use like ceramic bowls, muffin tins, an ironing board, iron, etc. Still, we managed to carve a space out for what I now think of as the “four fighting sisters.” Why the name? Because when I use one, I feel like I’m neglecting the others. I feel like they are calling “Pick me! Pick me!”
Of course, it doesn’t end there. These crockpot recipes I get from the internet are sized to serve a rugby team. So, although we have goodly appetites, even we can barely make a dint in a particular batch; we now have to have a freezer in our kitchen that is crowded to begin with. Thankfully, my Mom gave us her apartment sized freezer because they are scarce as hens teeth. And with my unreliable memory and with our surplus of soups, stews, beans, and casseroles, I have to keep a running list of what is in frozen storage.
And then there is the challenge of what to pack these “creations” into. Laur likes to have a variety of plastic storage containers formerly know as margarine, ice cream, potato salad, and peanut butter containers. He is close to a hoarder when it comes to these. But we have no space so need containers we can stack.
Back to Amazon where I bought a case of medium sized (25 oz) stackable containers. I did not really think about how much space 30 containers might take up until we picked up this large box from Tom’s and Julie’s. I looked at Laur, he looked at me. And Laur – not quite willing to give up his current stash – suggested, “We can put them in storage.”
“Not an option,” I countered; “the ratties would really like the box they came in… “😊.
So with some sighing and grieving, hubs put his collection into the blue bin in our garbage room. I so wish I’d taken a picture. It looks a bit like the one to the right.
(Yes, I badly need a haircut…)