expectations

I have a love-hate relationship with my crockpot. When I’m making chili or soup, my crockpot is my friend. When I come home to a pot of chili, I’m in love. Suddenly, I want to make everything in my crockpot! So I search for new recipes and I try them…and…well, they never live up to my expectations.

When my husband and I were dating we read this book, “Too Close, Too Soon,” by Jim Tally and Bobbi Reed. It’s a great book and was a real help to us in managing our courtship. (Actually, I think my husband—then boyfriend—managed it. Remember the “Tallygraph” honey? Don’t you wish we still HAD time alone together? ☺ ) Anyway, one of the basic premises of the book was this: “unrealistic expectations can destroy the natural progression of a relationship.”

And that’s exactly the way it is between me and my crockpot. Yesterday I tried to cook a chicken in it, excited because I had a new recipe promising me a deli-like roasted chicken. Just crumple up foil in the bottom of the crockpot, rub your bird with olive oil, sprinkle with seasoned salt and let it cook on high for 4-5 hours. Sounds easy enough, right? That should have been my first clue. My second clue? I hate chicken cooked in a crockpot. The flavor is always bland and the texture is, well, it’s “crockpot-like.”

I think it was the crumpled up bits of foil that threw me for a loop. Why would someone go to the trouble of publishing a recipe that specified CRUMPLED UP FOIL if it didn’t make a difference? It’s all about expectations.