To buy or not to buy

I’m thinking about buying a 3-quart Instant Pot for cooking in our motor-home. After spending too many hours reading reviews (I usually start by reading the one- and two-star reviews and then move up to the higher ones if it still seems like the product might be worth it) I’m starting to think I am over-thinking this!

Of course, I don’t want to waste money or throw away food if it ruins something. But my time and energy are worth something too. It is draining to spend this much effort and time considering all the options. Shopping on-line means I don’t have to spend hours driving all over town, but how much have I gained if instead I spend twice as long on the computer reading all the reviews?

One gain, if you can call it that, is that I’ve learned that there seems to be an endless variety of one-pot cookers out there—even ones that look like little ice chests. I was particular interested in a couple of Crock Pot brand cookers I discovered during my researching instant pots. One is a 2.5-quart Crock Pot slow cooker that looks like a pretty oval casserole dish. Another is a slow cooker that has a metal pot that allows sautéing first before slow cooking. It also can be used as an extra oven.

It struck me this morning how ironic it is that I, who am trying-to-overcome-perfectionism, am driving myself nuts trying to make the perfect choice about which cooker to get.

What am I afraid of? Wasting money for one thing. Maybe one way to help battle that fear is to buy all three at once, there by “wasting” all the money right off the bat.

I’m also afraid that it will just be another big thing making more clutter and that I won’t use it enough to make it worth it. So, buying all three at once and increasing the clutter even more will certainly confront that fear too!

I am also afraid that it will make cooking more challenging and frustrating. After all, I have gotten along all these years without it and I know how to cook fairly well with the simple equipment I already have. Why mess up a good thing? Of course, cooking in our motor home is already more challenging than cooking at home so maybe one of these tools would really make life on the road easier with just a little effort to learn some “new tricks.”

And true confessions: Since all cooking lately feels like a frustrating waste of time maybe trying one or all of these devices will stir up a sense of adventure or will at least help me appreciate and even enjoy regular cooking with my simple methods again.

So what will I do? I don’t know. We'll see…