devarim

We decided last week (after, quite literally, years of discussion) to make our repaired six-quart slow-cooker meat. It has been very convenient to use for soups (and for hot water when we had no urn), but pareve cholent offers limited satisfaction to non-vegetarians on cold winter Shabbat afternoons. Yesterday I went to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to buy a second slow-cooker, because (1) I can't imagine living without a pareve one for the times when we have dairy Shabbat meals, and (2) this way we can serve soup and cholent on the same Shabbat (which we actually need to do this week).

Anyway, I went to BB&B, found the slow-cookers section, and after browsing for a few moments asked the nearest employee whether they sold the non-programmable type. You see, those computer scheduling pads on the new slow-cookers are nifty and all, but they're a problem if your power goes off in the middle of cooking and you aren't around to turn the pot back on when the electricity comes back (or are halachicly forbidden from doing so). A manual turn-dial controller will just start back up when the electricity comes back on (not sure about the implications of that happening on Shabbat, but it's a good thing if the power flickers on Friday morning) or whenever you set your plug-in timer to tell it to. No plug-in timer for these computer thingies; no help for you if your power goes away for a few minutes. Not to mention that a programmable voltage-controller is just another part that can break.

So I asked the BB&B guy for help (isn't this the third time I'm trying to tell this part of the story?) and he responded by showing me the two nifty programmable slow-cookers that they carry, along with a $99 monstrosity with more dials than an airplane cockpit. Not helpful. I asked, "Do you have any of the simpler, more inexpensive models?" He stared at me with unmistakable scorn before spitting back, "This is all that the up-to-date retailers are carrying. You might find one of those in a store whose stock doesn't turn over so quickly."

Well, fine then. And, no, I do not have any Grey Poupon.

On the way home (I had two friends in the car with me), we discussed where I could what I wanted. Someone was kind enough to remind me that there is a Sears right near where I work, so I decided to swing by today. Lo and behold: a simple slow-cooker! Not just any slow-cooker, but a Rival crock pot. Yay. It's a tad bigger than we wanted (we would have preferred 4 or 4.5 quart capacity) and I'm not sure what to do with the bonus "Little Dipper" pot that came with it, but it's shiny and the price magically changed from $34.99 to $29.99 when it rang up (I hadn't seen the website yet and the tag in the store didn't reflect the sale price).

Er, yeah...I should mention that this 4-quart model was also available. It's not as shiny, so I skipped it. I'm terrible.