1.5 quart crock pot gift for myself...

[happystuff]

The 1.5 has one setting: low.

So if you are making pulled chicken that you'd cook for 4 hours in the big one on high, then you cook it for 7-8 hours in the 1.5.

Also, you just plug it in to turn it on. You unplug it to turn it off.

Thanks. I might look around for one.

[SteveinMN]

In my current reduced circumstances, I am wondering if it might be wise to investigate them more fully.

Maybe. Can your kids cook meals in your absence? Are there options for take-out or meal-prep (think Blue Apron, Hello Fresh, etc.; maybe not in your location) that you find nutritionally and economically attractive? As a firefighter, are you okay with leaving the house while an appliance built to a price is heating up for hours on end? (People do this all the time with furnaces and water heaters, but those are built more with that kind of duty cycle in mind.) Do you want to "complicate" your life with one more "thing"? A slow cooker is not quite a one-trick-pony but there are only so many things they do well and many things they do in a mediocre fashion.

I think those questions can start your investigation.

[JaneV2.0]

I will confess. I have never used a slow cooker of any sort.

In my current reduced circumstances, I am wondering if it might be wise to investigate them more fully.

Don't forget to investigate the Instant Pot, as well--the Swiss Army knife of appliances.

[bae]

Maybe. Can your kids cook meals in your absence?

I will shortly be the only resident here, as my daughter heads off to the UK for grad school. Well, except for the dog and the cat, but they seem unable to cook at all:-)

As a firefighter, are you okay with leaving the house while an appliance built to a price is heating up for hours on end?

On this point, no. I'm presuming I'd only use this to sit on the counter and Do Stuff while I am at home Doing Other Stuff.

Do you want to "complicate" your life with one more "thing"?

Only if the invested complexity pays dividends in time/bother saved. I'm thinking if I go this route of the Instant Pot solution, so I *allegedly* may be able to reduce the number of appliances I have sitting around the kitchen.

(Similarly, I am investigating decent toaster ovens, as I suspect most of my baking/... needs for just myself might be accomplishable in a toaster oven, and I'd be able to avoid firing up the big wall oven, which is a nice oven but takes forever to preheat and uses an amazing amount of power.)

[Tybee]

All of my adult children use toaster ovens--I think one is a Cuisinart or similar nice brand? it shocked me because I never had one, though my mother did. They have made quite the comeback. One son doesn't even even have a regular toaster.

[Tybee]

We need a trading forum. I would trade some white china for the mini crockpot. . .

[catherine]

We need a trading forum. I would trade some white china for the mini crockpot. . .

You have a deal!

[Tybee]

Awesome--I will pm you re the china

[bae]

All of my adult children use toaster ovens--I think one is a Cuisinart or similar nice brand? it shocked me because I never had one, though my mother did. They have made quite the comeback. One son doesn't even even have a regular toaster.

I was speaking to my mother about the toaster-oven idea just yesterday, as I remembered she used one quite a bit in The Olde Days. She confessed to me that she still does for most of her 1-person cooking jobs, and rarely uses her large kitchen oven.

[Teacher Terry]

Once my Dad died my Mom did the same thing.