I had always wondered why there were so many infomercials on television in the middle of the night. There are a number of 24 hour shopping channels, but in the middle of the night, infomercials are EVERYWHERE. It always seemed strange to show them at a time when most reasonable people were fast asleep. I now understand the logic of this phenomenon.
When we are overly exhausted, sitting on the sofa at 1am too tired to get up and go to bed, our inhibitions are down. Those walls of skepticism (and logic) that we keep built up as we navigate our way through the labyrinth of marketing ploys that barrage us every day are thin and weak when we are not thinking clearly. So when the infomercials start up, it is hard to believe how we ever managed to live our lives without the wonderful products displayed on our screens.
We were hooked in the first few minutes. The Nuwave Nutripot™, the enthusiastic hosts explained, would prepare a full, healthy, delicious meal in mere minutes. Just toss your frozen meat, chopped veggies, and sauce of choice into this magical machine and set the table because dinner would be served in 20 minutes. No more piles of dirty pots and pans to clean up (a quick glance over my shoulder showed me a kitchen full of dirty pots and pans to clean up).
Long story short, after an interesting conversation with the phone operator taking our order (“I’m sorry but I only show the 6 or 8 quart sizes available in your area”) we were able to order our 13 quart Nutripot™ through the website. We were amused that when the operator wasn’t able to sell us the large pot, she still tried to convince us to buy the small one for now. Sorry, but with a family of 7, often increasing to 10-12 when we eat with the extended family, the 6 quart pot just wouldn’t cut it.
A week later, our pot arrived. I excitedly unpacked it and realized that I was going to have to clear off a bigger area of the kitchen counter than I’d planned. I knew that it would be big, and that I wouldn’t want to be pulling it out and putting it away each time I used it. This would hopefully become my main cooking appliance, so I wanted it out full time. We’d tried to imagine how big it would be. What we didn’t plan on was the extra girth of the outer workings of the pot… Looking at it in person, it was HUGE!!
I’m still working on the rearranging of my kitchen to accommodate my new “toy”, but for now I’m set to give this a whirl. All the recipes I’ve found so far online are for 6-8 quarts, so I’ll be adjusting to suit our monstrous family. Stay tuned for reviews of how it works!