New Slow Cooker

I've taken advantage of the Argos Sale and bought a new Slow Cooker. 

I got rid of my old 6.5 litre Morphy Richards a few months ago. I'd had it for years and, although it still heated up and cooked fairly well, the knob on the lid had broken off a long time since. This left the screw protruding that I had to use to very carefully lift the lid using a cloth or oven gloves as it got extremely hot. Also the heat settings had become totally obliterated, although as there were only 3 - high, low and off - I knew in which direction to twist the dial. The body and heating element were also pretty grotty after many years of spillage and scrubbing and with just 4 of us now I decided I could manage with my small 3.5 litre one so I binned the poor old 6.5 litre one.

I regretted it quite soon after and bought a second small one for just £15. Having 2 x 3.5 litre ones worked out okay most of the time, but I did think it a waste to have to heat both up to make large quantities to freeze and I could no longer easily fit a whole chicken, or more than 4-5 decent sized baked potatoes in a small cooker.  

And then along came Christmas. This year - shock, horror -  I had to divide my gammon joint into 2 as the whole thing wouldn't fit into one cooker. 

Then earlier this week I saw this at £19.99 in the Argos sale. 

I reserved one right away. It was out of stock but with more due in a couple of days and today I collected my brand new 6.5 litre slow cooker. This one has an extra heat setting, 'medium', so I shall have to peruse the booklet to see when that might be needed. 

I am ridiculously happy to have this new piece of kitchen equipment and I'll be trying it out by making a big vegetable curry tomorrow with enough to freeze for a second meal. 

I'll still keep my smaller cookers, somehow I'll find room for them all. In my humble opinion a slow cooker is the very best kitchen gadget I've ever bought. 

The last of my visitors goes home tomorrow. She's fitted in well with our mad family and will be missed (especially by DS2, of course, who won't see his new fiance again until the end of March when he can visit her in Virginia), but it will be nice to get back to normal after having had guests here since 13th December. 

Not that I can relax much; DS1 has an appointment with an organisation that will help him complete his PIP (Personal Independence Payment) forms tomorrow morning, and I have a dentist appointment on Friday morning. I need to discuss possibly having a crown fitted to the tooth I had re-filled before Xmas. There's not much tooth left for a filling to cling to so a proper crown might be the answer if I don't want to keep having it re-filled. I'll have to see what's involved and how much it would cost. If it's going to be too much trouble I'll stick with it as is. 

Just editing this to add that I braved the scales at my slimming club yesterday and despite eating everything under the sun over the past 2 weeks I have only gained 1 lb and I am still just within my target weight allowance. Hopefully returning to a more normal eating regime will get rid of that without me having to be too strict.

That's it from me. Sleep well, everyone. Love, Helen xx