Oh, how I missed you!

I recieved a crockpot for a bridal shower gift in 1995. I didn't use it a whole lot for the first several years of our marriage, but I discovered a porkchop recipe one day that was for the crock and I was hooked. A few Christmases ago, my mother-in-law even bought me a crockpot cookbook; it has dog-eared, well-worn pages now.

Fast forward to getting home from vacation in June. I'd thrown some bone-in chops in the crockpot at 7:30am; at 6:30pm they still weren't done. And they weren't frozen that morning either. So, I cry a tear or two, we call a time of death, and we toss the crock in the trash. *sob*

Well, then comes summer. And while there were a few days this summer that I wished that I had my crockpot, most of the summer I hardly gave my loss a thought.

Sometime yesterday Matthew casually mentions to me that he thought that they (himself, Jon and Caleb) should have gotten me a crockpot for my birthday, but that Jon 'poo-pooed' the suggestion, telling Matthew that a "crockpot is not a birthday gift".

So I mention this conversation to Jon last night and the long and the short of it is that if I want a new crockpot I should go get one.

This morning we did just that.


Oh my goodness. Rival Crock-Pot Smart Pot. This is a COMPLETE upgrade from my former friend. It's like being friends with the freshman class president and then getting invited to Senior Prom by the captain of the football team. WOW! It even has a 'warm' feature that kicks in as soon as the food is done.

We're having chili for dinner tonight, which I regularly make on the stovetop. But mark my words: by the end of the next week, we will have a crockpot dinner and I'll tell you all about it.

And now I can get started on making recipes from the crockpot blog! Yippee!!