Cooking with a crock pot saves energy

By Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Slow cooking in a crock pot saves energy (and time) and that all year round. It is, however, really is nice during those cold months when you come home from the cold and a warm meal is ready for you.

I have got two slow cookers, aka crock pots. One a rather old British made one that I was given by someone who could not really get on with it and one that I reviewed for Lakeland. Although I must say that I have not used mine for a little while now it has been a very busy little person during winter. But you can also use it at any time of the year.

If you eat meat – I do – and like it the Greek style, as in Kleftiko, which is a case of not so much of the meat falling off the bone but rather the bone falling out of the meat, then this is the way of cooking it. Instead of having the stuff for hours at a low heat in the oven – electric or gas – have it in the crock pot. It will be cheaper. The only cheaper way of doing it is if you have a wood cook stove and use the oven in that one.

The nice thing about using a crock pot, aside from the fact that you can put your dinner on the night before and when you come hone the next day from work you can sit down to dinner without having to do any further work bar laying the table and dishing up the food, is that it takes so little energy.

While I have not have had a way of testing it it is said that a crock pot uses about the equivalent in electricity as does a light bulb, and I believe word has it that it is a 60W light bulb they were talking about. While still a bit on electricity it is in no way the same as a couple of kilowatt, like an electric oven might use.

Stews and the great majority of one-pot meals all do very well in the crock pot though the taste, it has to be said, it a little different to what you get when you cook the food in a different way.

One of my favorite dishes to make in the crock pot is a sausage casserole with onions, apple, potatoes (and I often add carrots and something else to it) and, oh well, obviously, sausages.

There are many recipes in special books for the crock pot but the majority of those recipes can nowadays be found online and they all are delicious, but I like to play with things, so to speak, and experiment with putting things together at a rather regular basis. They all, so far, have turned out great.

I can recommend having a crock pot and using it to everyone, but it is a definite godsend for the Mom that goes out to work or the Mom that is very busy working at home and from home. Put everything in and let the thing get on with it and the result; a great meal for the family.

© 2011

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Dish washing by hand – vs – dishwasher

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

In an article that I read recently the comparison was made of washing dishes by hand versa the dishwasher and it was claimed that a dishwasher was more environmentally friendly and had a smaller carbon footprint than doing the dishes by hand.

To be perfectly honest my response to that is “duh?” This article must have been written by someone who is getting some kickback from the dishwasher manufacturers for sure. There is no way, at least not that I can see, where the dishwasher could be more environmentally friendly than hand washing the dishes. Before I would and could take that as gospel, however, I would require a lot of convincing.

For some reason it just is incomprehensible to me that washing dishes by hand should be worse for the environment than using a dishwasher. Excuse me please but every time a dishwasher runs a cycle, and there are a couple of them during its operation, it does heat up another, fresh, load of water. Unless you use a commercial dishwasher that uses the same water all day long keeping it constantly heated. That too would not make sense to me as regards to energy efficiency and all that. So, where precisely, are the savings and where is it better for the environment if we use a dishwasher instead of washing the dishes by hand?

Right, so, every time it does a cycle the domestic dishwasher heats the water to a relatively high temperature. Now, if I do my dishes in a bowl in the sink I use a certain amount of hot water from either the tap or other means and then with that water I do glasses and cups, followed by plates and such, and last by pots and pans. All in the same water, with occasional rinsing in hot water of certain stuff. I am sure that I do not use as much water or as much energy, nor as much detergent, as does any kind of domestic dishwasher.

In my book washing dishes by hand is the environmentally friendly thing to do in the same way as is line drying ones clothes, as and where possible. I once tried using a dryer but gave that up as a bad idea. Someone gave me that dryer but unfortunately they did not also leave me a legacy with which to run it. When a pair of jeans needs over four hours in a dryer to get dried then, I am afraid to say, I rather stick it on the radiator and run the heating for a while – if it is not on at the time anyway. While it may take a little longer on the heating it will get dry nevertheless and I do not have to waste four hours of electricity at about 2KW, both in terms of environmental footprint as well as in terms of finances. Four hours at that rate is a lot of money when it comes to the electricity bill, money that I ca n use much better elsewhere.

However, as far as the dishes are concerned, I am sure that washing them by hand is much better for the environment and for my pocketbook, so I shall continue to wash them by hand. What about you?

© M Smith (Veshengro), June 2008

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Lights Out!

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Think about your sleeping schedule and how it effects your power consumption.

While it is certainly true that late at night power is usually at less demand, that is to say, after a certain watershed when everyone else has gone to bed. However, would it not be better to use less electricity yourself?

Tailoring your sleeping hours and sleep pattern somewhat closer to those of Mother Nature – the way She is in your region – would be a very good way to go. That way your lights will be on less and you will make larger use of natural light and unless you live in a bunker where natural light does not penetrate or, like me, live deep amongst trees where natural light too is not always that bright, your energy bill and your impact on the environment will be much less.

It will also benefit you personally in the way of health as our bodies – well those of most of us – are programmed in such a manner as to work with daylight and sleep when it is dark. I know not every body seems to function in that way but most of us are hardwired to follow that pattern.

© M Smith (Veshengro), June 2008

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Kill those Lights!

Such or similar was the call of the ARP patrolling the streets of the cities, towns and villages during WWII.

Whenever a light shone through a window his shout of “turn off that light” or even “kill that light” could be heard.

Maybe today we need a similar kind of patrol, the officers of which would shout out such slogans wherever lights are being left on unnecessarily, especially in factories and offices, but not only there.

The worse case to my mind still is the abandoned school somewhere – I must admit I have forgotten where – where the council leaves on all the lights at night just in case a burglar enters and hurts himself and then might decide to sue the local authority responsible for the building.

We are always told to turn off lights that are not needed at a particular time, as well as appliances, etc. but those that should be, and we are always being told are, at the forefront of the fight against climate change and who are prepared to fine householders for excess refuse themselves seem to apply a completely different criteria when they think that someone might (have a right to) sue them if he breaks into an empty disused council owned building and hurts himself in the dark. I always thought that any self-respecting burglar would bring a flashlight anyway. This is litigation culture gone wrong. But I digressed.

Kill those lights...

The same applies for the appliances left on unnecessarily, whether the PC monitor while the PC is not in use for a while – I do not, necessarily, advocate turning off the PC every time because powering it up, so I understand, takes more power than it would just left idling when not in direct use for a while. The monitor though should be turned off, and I mean, turned OFF. It has a switch; USE it!

Kill those lights...

The amount of them left on unnecessarily just drives me somewhat mad, and the main culprits are not the ordinary householders, though they are bad enough, but industry, retail and even, and especially, government, local and central alike. While, as said, they preach at the general public, that is you and me, to turn off our lights, to take appliances out of stand-by, etc. and even threaten to fine us for leaving lights on. That is a threat that is being talked about in the same way as they talk about fining people for producing too much rubbish, they themselves do not seen to be subject to the same rules.

Kill those lights...

© Michael Smith (Veshengro), December 2007

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Kill those Lights!

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