If you have ever read my blog, you might have figured out by now that I love crock pots.
Not the bland white or silver kind, but the real crocks from back in the day, with their signature 70s~style fruits and veggies strewn all over the front of them. These are the real crock pots ~ and I can never have enough of them.
Sadly, there is the tale of the loss of my very favorite crock pot. And as grody as it is, I am going to retell of the day that oval-shaped, perfectly designed, hunter green pot was lost forever:(
My big old Irish family spent a few years booking hotel rooms from the 8th floor of Philadelphia's Embassy so that we could have a wonderful view of the Saint Patrick's Day Parade that happens annually on a March Sunday. The rooms were full of green, spirits, & plenty of food. It was a crock pot addict's dream, and I brought my share of them filled with roast beef, meatballs, and chili.
Well, some of the clan were smart enough to take personal days on the following Monday, but I never seemed to be able to bring myself to do it. Instead, my own little clan got up and departed from the city around 5 am to go back to reality. We didn't bother to clean the crock pots...we just threw them in a giant trash bag to deal with later.
At the time, my brother and my family were both staying at my parents' home, but he was in the process of packing up and moving out. Since we were in a hurry to get to work and school, we left the big giant trash bag full of dirty crock pots alongside his own bags of clothing and personal belongings he had sitting on the front porch.
And then we totally forgot about them...
Until one late May evening when I went searching for my favorite cooker in preparation for a surprise baby shower for a fellow colleague the next day.
It was then that I remembered that those three of several crock pots never actually made it into the house for over two months. When I went to go get them and dare open the bag to God knows what smell, the bag was gone.
My mother then realized the reason why the Purple Heart had left a "Thank You" card on the door that week ~ though I am not sure how grateful they were when they opened that particular "donation".
I've never quite fallen in love with another crock pot like the one that either got trashed or completely sanitized before finding a new home in somebody else's kitchen.
But my love affair with crocks is still going strong.
So today I diced up leftover grilled chicken, added two boxes of steamed spinach and a bag of vegetable and cheese tortellini, and threw everything into the crock with a giant can of chicken broth, now slow cooking beautifully on a low setting & ready to be chowed down with the baked pita chips served alongside of them.
~It's a wonderful Saturday.~
