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SHEARON: Progress with those kitchen gadgets -- real meal in minutes |
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Wednesday, 10 October 2007 |
 Robert Shearon
Cars can talk to you, tell you where to turn and guide you to your destination. Might make wives obsolete! (Just kidding, baby!)
But I sampled a good bit of gee-whiz technology the other day in my kitchen — with amazing results.
It started several months ago when I sat through a 2.5-hour sales pitch for replacement vinyl windows. One of the lovely parting gifts we got was a George Foreman grill.
It lived under the counter until the other day when my wife was out of town and I decided to cook something. I figured I had earned that grill, fair and square, and I was going to use it. (If you’ve sat through a sales spiel for replacement windows, you know what I mean).
My good wife had unboxed the device and it was living a quiet existence next to the waffle iron.
I got it out, hooked it up and got ready to cook.
While it was warming up (just like a waffle iron) I looked for side dishes. I found some frozen peas in a microwave cooking bag. I love cooking vegetables in those things. Just throw the bag in the microwave, turn it on and a few minutes later you have fresh hot vegetables — in this instance it was green peas. It feels like cheating, it’s so easy.
I got out a boneless chicken breast, rinsed it and looked for something to spice it up with. In the spice cabinet was something called “chicken spice.” I tried that.
The ready light winked out on the grill and I tossed on the chicken. While it was sizzling away I looked for some bread to go with it. Found some frozen Texas toast that was pre-buttered and topped with parmesan and mozzarella cheese.
When the ready light blinked off on the grill I took off the perfectly cooked chicken breast (I’d love to know how that works), gave the grill a quick wipe down with a wet cloth and put the Texas toast on there. In under a minute, the ready light clicked off and my bread was perfectly cooked.
The meal was fabulous. A hot meal in under 10 minutes that tasted great — due to modern technology.
I washed it down with instant iced tea (that stuff is great!).
A meal like that sort of demands a dessert, so I poked around in the pantry and found something called Warm Delights Minis, by everyone’s favorite chef, Betty Crocker. It was molten chocolate cake. Mmmm. I read the directions. Mix the little pouch of powder with some water, squeeze on the enclosed chocolate icing, and cook in the microwave for 30 seconds. Thirty seconds!
So I finished off my meal with a warm dessert cake. Wow.
Writing about this has made me hungry again. I wish I had fixed second helpings.
There is a postlude to this epicurean concerto.
While a George Foreman grill won’t clean itself, if you cook chicken on it and leave the lid up, a determined cat can and will lick off every molecule of chicken residue. Never thought of a cat as a labor-saving device before.
Robert Shearon is news editor of the Courier. His column appears weekly.
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