My crockpot is not only really, really dead; it’s really most sinceeeere-ly dead. (If you don’t get the reference, you’re probably not American.)
I’d put a pork roast in while we were out doing garage sales Friday – and came home not only to no cookification going on, but the power was off to a whole bank of outlets.
Ugh.
The crockpot was tripping the breaker. We chucked it once and for all (the crockpot and everything in it, not the breaker), and I can’t say I’m broken-hearted to see it go.
The timing was a bit serendipitous, actually. It was the first time I’d used it in months. Plus, on the advice of several low-carb videos and sites, I broke down this week and bought a Cosori Air Fryer. (Disclaimer: If you click the link and buy something, I theoretically get a tiny commission. It doesn’t cost you anything – the price doesn’t change on Amazon, nothing like that. To date I haven’t made enough to get paid, though.)
The air fryer now resides on the counter where the crockpot used to sit.
I christened her tonight, using her to make zucchini fries to go with the chicken.
It was one of those, “Hmmm… what the heck can I make?” nights. I’ll admit I wasn’t totally flying by the seat of my pants. Earlier in the day, I’d thrown together a chicken carcass and water to make broth, adding onion, garlic, rosemary, olive oil, a little lime juice, and a few other goodies into the mix. I also added a large single chicken breast to simmer with the brew, so we had both a broth base and some chunks of breast ready to fly when I got off work.
I retrieved the breast chunks and shredded them, adding them to a medium skillet. I poured in about 1/2 cup of the broth, a cup(ish) of Greek yogurt, added onion/garlic/black pepper blend, a bit more salt, and a little dill weed for added punch, then turned it on low while I fixed everything else.
I didn’t use a recipe – just used what I had. I let the chicken mix simmer too long, so the yogurt broke down into the broth. Fortunately the flavor remained, and it was excellent. We also have plenty of chicken left for another meal – after the two of us ate from that one chicken breast. I may use the leftovers tomorrow for a chicken salad.
I had to guesstimate cook time for the zucchini fries, checking them every few minutes. (For the record: 12-ish minutes at 400 degrees, shaking about 2/3 of the way through.) The only other thing added to our plates were a couple of low-carb tortillas.
There’s also a nice rich bowl of chicken broth in the fridge, as a base for something else (to be determined) later in the week. The actual prep time was negligible. Other than checking the broth throughout the afternoon to make sure it had enough liquid, there wasn’t much to it.
We went out and took photos this weekend. I’ve been too tired to really do much with them. You get a couple of pictures becsuse that’s about when my energy levels will run out. I was up around 4:30am this morning and still have to go back to work again tonight.
This was kind of the main reason we went out. The wildflowers aren’t blooming everywhere – yet. Though as you can see, we found some big patches. These are Arizona poppies.
These tiny Desert Lupines are nearly impossible to photograph well, at least with the landscape lens I had with me. Even when they grow in masses next to the road, you see more green than the indigo from the blooms.
These fiery orange mallows will eventually be everywhere. This weekend, though, we only saw a few early patches, including this one.
We took a barely-a-road back to this mountain. From this angle you can see why it’s called Owls Head Road. There are actually three of these buttes, but imho this one is the most spectacular.
It was weird to me how my camera focused fine on the image in the mirror, but the mirror frame blurred. I didn’t photoshop it that way – though I did adjust the contrast a bit.
No sepia edits tonight, nothing arty-farty. I’m beat.
Lol. I was getting tired of all that sepia everywhere anyway 😉 But seriously, things like fields of blooming flowers in areas where they only appear briefly absolutely demand to be shot in color. The color on the dessert lupines in particular was striking, despite the challenges of the picture overall. Well done on the entire batch!
Fwiw, the camera is like your eye. When you look in a mirror, your eyes focuse on what’s being reflected, not the mirror itself or the frame. Same thing with a camera in autofocus mode. The *apparent* distance to the subject is what’s important, not the distance to the mirror. So if you wanted your car’s side view mirror AND the scene it’s reflecting to all be in focus, your lens would need to get everything sharp from several inches to several miles. If you know hyperfocal distance shooting, or had a REALLY fast lens, it might be possible. But otherwise, the only way you will get everthing sharp in that image would be to do a focus stack. And…I don’t think you should bother. It’s an excellent image as-is. The blurred mirror frame adds to the effect, not detracts.
Finally: for godsake, have I taught you nothing? ALWAYS add the yogurt at the very end, and off the heat! Sheesh. Newbies.
😉
I knew to add the yogurt at the end – only meant it to be on the heat for a minute. It WAS a rookie mistake on my part.
I had a sneaky feeling about the mirror snap – the reason I took it – even though I don’t pretend to understand the full science of how the camera interprets the image. We were simply jazzed to find a desert road we hadn’t gone down before!
There’s another route on our radar, too, an all-day drive on a dirt road through the mountains. I requested a day off mid-March, hoping the wildflowers are out in force by then.
https://www.arizonahighways.com/florence-kelvin-highway
Nice! I hope the area gets enough winter/spring rain to really make your outing a colorful one. Lol, I wanna go to the Tortilla Mountains! Although I suspect the name is not literal, sigh….
We’ve had an exceptionally wet winter – so even if we don’t get any more rain between now and when we visit, the wildflower explosion should be spectacular. It’s less now about the moisture and more about the timing, which can be finicky. This year has also been an exceptionally cold February. I hope March stays cool but not cold. It’s just as likely to go from a high of the 50s and 60s and jump directly to a high in the 90s (or higher)
The food looks and sounded delicious. The pictures are beautiful and it sounds like you had a great day.
Thanks, Terri! The food WAS yummy, and the photo day was long – but fun 🙂
As I am watching the accumulation of snow, flowers look amazing.
Food sounds good…may do something similar tonight. Or, at least with yogurt, heh.
A friend who is very much about the research got that very same air fryer! It is at her summer home (aka camp, which opens…consults calendar…in just over 40 damn days!!!!!!!!) and she and I are looking forward to using it again.
FYI, youngest is still taking pics when she can. I’ve shown her some of your shots for inspiration, repeating “…it takes practice…”, often. 🙂
I did my homework before buying the air fryer, for sure. But I also hesitated because I’m the world’s worst about buying gadgets I end up not using, or rarely using. I think this will get used, from my initial experience and the convenience of it.
And the temperatures here have been magnificent daytime. We enjoy it while we can – in a couple of months it’ll be too hot to do much outdoors.
I will say, she got it to replace the non-working oven in her trailer; it serves that purpose beautifully.
Yeah…outdoor heat won’t hit (for me…I like it no hotter than 70) til late June. I hope.