Remember the Pocket Fisherman? The In-the-Shell Egg Scrambler? The Ginsu Knife? If you watched as much TV as I did when I was a kid, these amazing labor-saving tools will sound familiar.
There was only one time, though, a number of years ago, when I succumbed to a late-night TV ad. I think The Husband was pulling an all night-er trying to get our taxes done. I stayed up to keep him company, and groggily watched whatever was on TV.
At some point, I became intrigued by a half-hour infomercial about the…
!!!TURBO COOKER!!!
It was an amazing kitchen tool! A miracle worker that would cut my meal prep time in half! It came with recipe cards that would make meal planning a breeze! And the woman demonstrating its magical properties was such a friendly, motherly type. I knew I could trust her. Before I knew it I was reaching for the phone and digging out my credit card.
Within a week a brown UPS truck pulled up to the house and delivered my TURBO COOKER.
And here’s the weird thing – it actually was as cool as it looked on TV. I could cook an entire, very healthy meal in one pan. We tried quite a few of the recipe cards, so it gave us some new variety in our meals. It was a new cooking adventure – I did a turbo cooker meal two or three times a week.
And then, just like the bread machine came and went, I got a little tired of turbo meals. The cooker got shoved to the back of the cabinet. It didn’t see the light of day again until about a week ago when Middle Sister did a serious clear-out in the kitchen.
Meals are getting to be kind of a bummer around our house – usually only two to cook for, and one of those has to be crazy careful about her diet (actually I should follow her example but I haven’t gotten there yet). So last night I pulled out the trusty turbo cooker, gagged over the meal worm carcasses that had taken residence sometime in the last six years, disinfected it, and put it back into action.
Half an hour later we had a delicious, low-fat meal of beef stroghanoff and steamed broccoli on our plates.
Late-night TV win!
Mom Goes On 
Ah, the bread machine. I had to put it in the back of the cabinet because there is nothing more wonderful than a piece of freshly baked bread–machine or oven cooked. However, that one piece turns into the whole loaf.
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True. I’ve used ours occasionally in the last year or so, but I think once it’s just me and one daughter in the house we won’t bother.
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I still love ginsu knives. 🙂 and most of those “as seen on tv” products. Most often they do really help in the kitchen. I wonder if they still sell the turbo cooker, I might to invest in one when we return to the States.
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I hope you can find one – they’re a fun adventure!
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Loved this. I’m kitchen gadget queen and seem to have passed my ‘sucker for late night shopping channels’ on to my son. When he was about 5 we used to laugh so much at demands for a Vitamix, he had memorised everything it did and followed us around like Rainman telling us all of its features, the buying plan prices. One night I put him to bed and he started crying when I asked what was wrong he said “I don’t think anyone is taking me seriously we really need a vitamix mummy”. We got one and it was used like the juicer and steamer and slow cooker and rice maker and dehydrater and ice cream maker and smoothie maker etc for a couple of weeks. I’ve started using all of my gadgets more now though I must say, it helps me to add variety to meals. Where do those worm carcasses come from?
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That is a hilarious story about your son. I’m so glad you relieved his deep concern about the need to own a vitamix!
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I always wondered . . . Sound kind off awesome. Minus the mealworms carcasses of course :o)
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