Used to be, if you had asked me which small appliance I could not live without, my answer would’ve been dustbuster, followed by food processor. These days, my answer would be a little tougher to formulate, because there’s a dark horse in the race: my George Foreman Grill.
Like the man, love the machine.
Dude. I know: these are designed for college students and senior citizens (presumably because it’s best if they have limited exposure to heating elements). But I’m starting to think I could host an entire Food Network show (or, perhaps more accurately, an infomercial) based on Foreman cuisine.
Why am I so hot on it? Because it’s not making me hot. When my thermometer is registering 95 degrees outside, the last thing I want to do is fire up my oven. And with my Foreman, I don’t have to. (See, can’t you just picture that on an infomercial?)
Today I looked in my fridge and identified a smattering of random ingredients… and the next thing I knew (seriously, in under 5 minutes), I was biting into a perfectly cooked chicken quesadilla with salsa verde. Sha-zam! (Side note: I decided that if I named this recipe, I would call it “The Messy Diaper” because the tortilla kind of looked like a diaper, and it had cheese and green sauce squishing out the sides. Perhaps more accurate than marketable.)
Also, as sad as it is to admit: I don’t own a toaster. Never have. In my old place, it was because I didn’t have enough cabinet/counter space to justify it, but in truth I’ve enjoyed not owning something that I tend to think of as a “crumb collector.” Tonight I was craving sliced manchego with honey on toasted crostini… and rather than lament my lack of a toaster or fire up my broiler, I spritzed George with olive oil spray and toasted baguette rounds on it… PERFECTLY.
I used to wonder how his wife agreed to let him name all their kids George. Now, I’m thinking I understand. If the man performs half as well as the appliance named after him, I’d probably let him call the babies whatever he wanted. In fact, I might rename The Messy Diaper in his honor… how about George’s Hanky?
pithypants 
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