I’ve never been a gadget person. Oh sure, I have a stapler. But mostly I avoid gadgets in general and kitchen gadgets in particular. That’s partly because I don’t want any more clutter in my kitchen. There’s already a toaster, a radio and three weeks’ worth of junk mail on my kitchen counter. I need to keep some space clear for preparing food and stacking dirty dishes.
I also avoid gizmos and gadgets because they can be so complicated. At least electronic and electrical ones can be. I know my way around a spatula and a wooden spoon. And I get along fine with pizza cutters and carrot peelers. But if there are a lot of buttons to push and multiple settings to choose from, I get so overwhelmed. I have to stop and rest and dinner never gets finished.
It doesn’t help that I have issues with instruction manuals, the main one being I hate to read them. They’re boring and confusing and written in type the size of ant feet.
Knowing how I feel you’ll be surprised to learn that I recently purchased a brand new, fancy air fryer. For those unfamiliar with them, let me explain. Air fryers are like those hair dryers at the beauty shop, except they’re way hotter and you won’t find anyone’s hair in them, which is a plus.
Cooking with air fryers is quick and healthful because it doesn’t require oil. Still it had never occurred to me to get one despite the recommendations of several friends. I figured it was just another fad. They’d been equally excited about multi-cookers, bread makers and slushie machines that now sit gathering dust in their pantries.
But then fate intervened. One of my brothers and his wife had decided to get a new air fryer and were passing their old one on to another of my siblings. They left it with me because I would see the new owner before they would.
It sat on my counter taking up space for a few days. And then one day in a rare bout of culinary daring I decided to try it out. The instruction manual was long gone but that was okay. I wouldn’t have read it anyway.
I still managed to make some chicken using a recipe I found online. And it only took me one frantic phone call to the fryer’s former owner to do it.
The next day I tried some potatoes and later some steaks. And by the time the air fryer’s new owner came to pick it up, I was considering hiding it and telling him we’d never received it.
Instead, my husband and I went shopping. And just like that we joined the estimated 60 percent of American households that are now frying with air. And we didn’t just get an air fryer. No, we got a Cadillac of an air fryer because my husband is not intimidated by buttons and instruction manuals. Unfortunately, he doesn’t do the cooking.
Our air fryer is complicated. It has two baskets so I can cook chicken and potatoes at the same time. Or destroy them at the same time.
And it not only fries, it dehydrates, warms, roasts, bakes, reheats and broils—theoretically anyway. I haven’t tried any of those settings yet because that would require reading the instruction manual.
But I have managed to air fry all sorts of things and, with the exception of some pork chops that resembled used kitchen sponges when they were done, it’s all been edible. Just think what I could do if I read the instructions.
Dorothy Rosby is the author of I Used to Think I Was Not That Bad and Then I Got to Know Me Better and other books. Contact her at www.dorothyrosby.com/contact.