Adult Culinary Peer Pressure...

As a teacher, I normally think of peer pressure in terms of kids- cliques, that sort of thing.  I have come to the conclusion that as an adult, peer pressure only gets worse.  When I was in high school, the pressure to stay in step was all about fashion.  You had to wear a Swatch with a contrasting guard, or multi-colored rubber bracelets to emulate the latest Madonna video, or neon shorts, or t-shirts with "Choose Life" written in large, bold font.

As an adult, the pressure to stay in step is massively more expensive.  A reasonably nice car, a master's degree, nicer, more comfortable shoes (a far cry from the jelly shoes of my youth!).  But the evilest form of peer pressure for me is... kitchen gadgets! In my defense, I come by this honestly.  My father was the ultimate kitchen gadget freak.  Seriously- he had EVERYTHING!  I inherited my Cuisinart ice cream maker from him, as well as my Cuisinart Griddler, and my Emeril 5 in 1 Stovetop Smoker.  The only thing I didn't inherit was a kitchen large enough to store all of it!

My husband, on the other hand, is anti-kitchen gadget.  He has shamed me out of several gadget purchases- the sushi bazooka (which the kids in my social studies class that year are probably still talking about), the cake pop maker,  the Stir-Crazy popcorn popper, and the list goes on and on. 

The latest battle-royale is the air fryer trend.  I have been itching to get one for over a year now.  It's been on my Christmas and birthday lists forever.  Finally this year, after not getting one for Christmas AGAIN- and enlisting the help of several of his teaching teammates who already have them and love them- I finally confronted him about it.  He told me he was not going to buy me one.  So, being the modern, independent woman that I am, I bought one for myself.

I did my research.  Initially, I wanted a basket model.  But after reading lots of Facebook posts and watching lots of Youtube videos, I decided to go with one that offers more versatility.  I bought one that has racks, a tumbler basket, and a rotisserie attachment.  In hindsight, I'm not sure why I didn't buy the Vortex model from the Instant Pot folks.  I probably should have.  For right now, though, this Power XL model seems to be doing just fine.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be doing some comparison cooking and I'll try to remember to post the results here.  This weekend I've tested sweet potato waffle fries- which were a HUGE success, and pizza toast- also very good.

Let's hope the bow to adult peer pressure turns out to be a good decision- otherwise, I'll never hear the end of it!