I have crockpot fever. I went out an bought myself a reasonably priced, medium size crockpot at Walmart about two weeks ago. I didn't go totally cheap, like I did on my recent can opener purchase, but that story will come in time....So, back to the crockpot. In theory love the idea of loading a crockpot with goodies in the morning and coming home to a great smelling kitchen, after a long day at work and sitting down to a 'home cooked' meal. In theory that would be great, but let's throw in "Robyn The Impatient" into this mix: Crockpot bought at 5 o'clockish. I wanted to make a hot cooked oatmeal for the morning, so, if I start it at 10pm on low it will be ready for my 6am wake up. Great, right? That crock pot sat on my counter top and I swear I could hear it say, "Roooobyn, Roooobyn you want to cook and you want to coooook now, don't you Roooobyn?" [In a weird British accent]. So, I had to fight the urge to start the crockpot before 6pm. Then I started to rationalize my reasoning to start right now. "The longer it cooks, the better it will be" and "I could always get up at 2am and turn it off". So, my reasoning won out {like I knew they would}. The crockpot went on at 6pm, full of all kinds of canned fruit and oatmeal and it smelled so good. At 2am. When the smell woke me up. I came downstairs and turned it off and tasted my creation. Ehhh, it was overcooked. No, overcooked oatmeal does not taste good. So, I had to suck it up and throw it out. I was so mad at myself. I hate to waste food. Onto my next issue: Too much food. A crockpot's worth of food could feed an army, well a small army, but you get the idea. I always fill it too full and then get weeks worth of food that I would have to eat for breakfast, lunch, dinner and midnight snacks to eat before it goes bad. Solution: The freezer. The problem: My freezer. It's so small, it is cramped with leftovers and I have to fight with it to close every time I want an ice cube. Do they make freezers the size of mini-fridges? That would be a perfect size, but I have not seen them that small.
This brings me to a recipe that I made this week and The Tale Of The Cheap Can Opener.
Roasted Cauliflower Pumpkin Curry Soup:
This was pretty messy to make, a lot of steps, but worth the taste. I roasted cauliflower until tender. I had on hand an acorn squash, that I roasted also. Then I put all of that into the blender and pureed with veggie broth until smooth. In the pot on the stove I had sauteed an onion with a few cloves of garlic and a big can of pumpkin. I blended all the ingredients until mixed well and heated through. I added a can of fat free evaporated milk, but the true creaminess came from the cauliflower. It was really good, I served it with crusty bread. I was the only one eating this concoction, though. Mason is a good sport about my cooking, he did try it, but didn't like it. At least he tried ;0)
Back in the day I had one of those cool electric can openers. It was great, but it broke, so I replaced it with a nice labor intensive hand held model. It worked great. For years. So in my transition from house to townhouse, it started to act out, like a 9 year old with a bad temper, oh oh, I mean it just stopped working all together. So, while at Walmart I was looking at the selection of can openers. There was a $4.97 model. A $2.97 model. And a $.97 model. Which one do you think I went with? Yeah. I really don't need to reveal the answer because I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be writing this if I had gone with the $4.97 model. The first two times I used it, I remember remarking how well this cheap can opener worked and it's FOOLS, FOOLS I TELL YOU that would spend anymore than a buck on a can opener. Fools. So this brings me right up to the point of where everything is coming together for my pumpkin soup. Everything is in the pot, except for the pumpkin and I break out the can opener.....It's stripped. Useless. I begged it for one more use, but it wouldn't budge. Stubborn can opener, I reply. How can you open a can without a can opener. I mean the name says it all. CAN. OPENER. A million thoughts ran through my head, like asking the neighbor to borrow theirs, but I didn't want to interrupt their disagreement of which is better: Pepperoni's pizza or KFC. So that idea quickly went out the door. Ok, I've got pliers. I washed them and proceeded to pry open the can. In the mean time, I was not only praying that I didn't lose a digit, I was praying that I didn't lose an entire limb. Pliers, not so good. Brainstorming in full force, I decided to use the can punch (I don't even know what it is called). You know the thing that you use to open cans of juice so it can pour out? I guess you could call it a success considering I didn't have to spend half my day at the ER and I got pumpkin soup! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME [for legal purposes I felt the need to post that warning]:
Ouch!
Well, Mason's football season is going to be over next week, they are undefeated and this win will make them the champs!! Let's Go Devils!!
The kids doing the "Pitchfork"!!
Please, everyone reading this this week. Please say a little prayer for Friday's custody hearing. I pray that the judge hears Mason and takes into account what he wants. I want THIS to go our way this time. Thank you everyone for the continued support. We appreciate it more than you know!
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