As I mentioned before, most food I cook is on a grill of some sort. There is one kitchen device, however, that I actually prefer over a grill for certain foods, and that is the other low and slow -- the Crock Pot.
I have been giving Crock Pots a heavy workout for many years. What I mostly use them for today is stews, chili, and one of my favorites, Corned Beef and Cabbage, which I just cooked today.
I bought potatoes, onions and cabbage at the Saturday Farmer's Market. I used carrots I already had at home. The corned beef came from Aldi's. I remembered seeing corned beef the night before when I bought my tri-tip, ribeye and salmon. I got a great deal on a brisket flat, about $15. I still managed to hit the grill tonight. I also got summer squash (yellow Patty Pan and an unusual yellow and green variety that is like a zucchini), asparagus and tomatoes at the Farmer's Market, which I grilled to go with the tri-tip I smoked last night.
As a little side story, I use a basic Crock Pot with a manual selector switch: off, low, high, warm. I had gotten a digital one many years ago. I usually cook my meals during the night and take the food off in the morning. I started waking up to raw food. The crock pot was turning off during the night. I connected the crock pot through a power meter to try to figure out what was going on. What I finally discovered was that when my air conditioner kicked in, there would be a very short power drop. You could see it in dimming of the lights. It would be just enough to turn off the Crock Pot which would not restart, since, it is digital. It was confirmed later by an electrician who claimed that the cause was the air conditioning circuit being in front of the kitchen circuit in our power panel. The analog Crock Pot works just fine. I don't program cooks so there is really no need for a processor in my Crock Pot. I don't need my Crock Pot to become part of the Internet of Things, aka IOT. I still have that digital Crock Pot somewhere in my house.
