A Favorite Piece of Cookware

Okay, so negatating my anti sales party blog...here is one of my most favorite kitchen pots. It is a microwaveable Pampered Chef pot.

My favorite use for it is to cook ground beef or sausage in the microwave. No splatters, no separate strainer, no melting RubberMaid...it's all here.

You can start from frozen meat...run it through the defrost cycle first...just prop it in the pan, no lid. Once defrosted enough to break in half, remove from packaging and put into a couple big chunks in the pan. Microwave for about 3 minutes with the lid on. Have an old coffee cup handy...when it's starting to cook soft, time to tilt the pan toward the coffee cup, lid on. All the grease, unsightly juices and slimey stuff runs right out into the cup between the lid and pot...ah, no mess. At this point, I chop up the meat with a spatula, or sometimes even more finely with a potato masher or bread kneader.

Depending on how much beef you have (generally 1-1.5 pounds at a time in my house) microwave 2-3 minutes if still VERY pink, 2 minutes if pretty pink, and one minute if still a tingle of pink. (If I were going three minutes more, I'd stir it half way through to distribute heat evenly and avoid scorching the edges).

The beauty to this is, you only get one pot dirty, you don't have grease popping all over yourself and the cabinets and the stovetop, you don't really have to watch it that close, no grease fires, no overdone meat.

Today, I did my own version of "once a month cooking" with it! This week I had bought the cheaper bulk pack of ground chuck at Wal Mart. Cooking it all today. I'll freeze it in freezer bags.

In 20 minutes now, I can easily plan for Tacos & Burrito night, Sloppy Joe Night, chili or soup.

I'm figuring with six hours a week drama practice, I'm going to need some advance planning on the 'ole grub.

So, the next time you are invited to a Pampered Chef party, invest in the large Micro Cooker.

~Me!