Yet another kitchen appliance bites the dust!

What the heck is going on here? Do we have a poltergeist in our kitchen? Actually this appliance has been on it's way out since it was only two months old. Last Christmas, Drew bought me an electric skillet. I use my electric skillet a lot, so I usually need to replace it every 3 or 4 years. He bought me one of the newer designs, were the top comes off the heating element, so you can immerse the whole thing to wash. I really liked it, but I noticed that not even two months after I got it, the non-stick stuff started wearing out. Not wearing off, just not working. I was really disappointed, but I was hoping to make it last as long as possible.

The last few weeks, it has been getting worse and worse. Of course, I've also been using it more and more since my cook top died. Last night I decided to make a version of hash or "padaydas" as my Uncle John used to call it. It took me forever to peel 10 pounds of potatoes, cut them and then boil them in two batches in the skillet because they wouldn't all fit in one batch. Then I had to cut them even smaller after cooking them for a little bit. I also had to cook a pound of bacon in the oven and chop that. I was glad I had already chopped the roast beef a few days ago. I was also really wishing Steven was home to do the chopping for me, since he is WAY faster.

So I got everything prepared and in the skillet, which I greased with a little of the bacon grease, sprayed with non-stick spray and added a stick of margarine, so it wouldn't stick. I started cooking the hash, hoping it would get all nice and brown and crispy. Well, it sure did get brown and crispy, but all the brown and crispy parts stuck right to the pan! I have never seen anything stick like that. It was like trying to chip a two inch thick layer of ice off the driveway in Chicago!
The hash was actually really good, but I was disappointed because I like it crispy. Everyone loved it, though, so it wasn't a total loss.

So, Jack and I headed off to Kmart today, to get another skillet, since all but one of the meals on my menu this week, require the skillet. I had to go there, anyway, since they had double coupons and I had coupons for a bunch of stuff that was on sale. We got a skillet, which looks like it will last longer than the last one, but was about the same price. We got the last one and the box was open, but it looked fine. I got it home, washed it out and realized that someone had put the wrong cord in the box. Ugh. Luckily Jack remembered that they had two on display and the cords for both of those were inside one of them, so he is going to take it back tomorrow and ask them to switch the cords. I hope that works out because I made the only non-skillet dinner tonight!