This is an excellent article that compares various styles.
https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/r...toaster-oven/#

My wife will be the first to admit she is not a great cook, doesn't always follow directions, doesn't pay close attention to cooking times, and often substitutes items. She cooked chicken covered with some coating she read to use. It looked burnt and bad BUT after scraping of the coating it was Very Good. She thought maybe she should have used chicken with the skin on rather than the skinless. I'm sure there is a learning curve. We don't have the counter space for anything other than the pod style, plus we already have a microwave and separate small counter toaster.

 

I ate a ton of soup over the last two weeks. It hit the spot when I wasn't feeling well. Rick made a big pot of meatballs and homemade sauce (known as gravy in some circles). We had meatball subs last night for dinner and I must say, they totally hit the spot.

Baked chicken and a carrot and turnip mix this evening. I think I enjoy meatball subs better than the healthier option we are dining on this evening.

 

The chicken and dumplings turned out nicely. We had for dinner the other night and then finished it off at lunch the next day.

Tonight is Instant Pot shredded pork tenderloin. The loin has been marinating in a BBQ rub (smoked paprika, brown sugar, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper). I'll brown it in the instant pot, then add chicken broth and homemade BBQ sauce and pressure cook for ~40 mins. Shred it and put on buns with more BBQ sauce.

Not the same as when I smoke a pork butt, however, it's pouring rain and dinner will be ready in an hour. As opposed to ~8 hours in the smoker...

 

Dave, you have to remember that an Air Fryer is just a miniature convection oven. I have good luck with ours, but find that it tends to cook faster than the recipes/directions say.

 

Thanks, Dave. I think that Donna sounds like a good cook. She adjusts recipes to suit herself. That is what good cooks sometimes do. Please tell her that I am giving her that compliment.

 

Ha, ha, ha .. thanks Sue. I doubt we will get much use out of the air fryer .. .. we don’t buy fast-food so we don’t have left over fries, pizza, chicken wings, fish sticks, and the like to toss in it. We have microwave for heating left overs and counter toaster for bread. It will likely find its way back to my son's house.

 

I do not really know much (or even anything) about air fryers, but do not people use them to cook meals rather than just to heat up leftovers, etc?

I am sure there are lots of recipes for air fryers on the internet.

 

I know some folks use the air fryers to cook things like veggies and potatoes in a healthy way. We never bought one. We just kind of eat the usual same old same old......Just easier.

 

A fitting choice for my last night at work tonight I got to take home 2 of my favorites eggplant Parmesan and tortellini.

 

So this is a part time gig you are leaving? What is your usual gig/bill paying job?