> > D.Currie wrote:
> >
> >> Not having ever owned or used one, I guess I don't know what I'm
> >> missing. I mean, I have a stove and oven and pots and pans that get a
> >> lot of use. Is there something the electric skillet is particularly
> >> suited for that I can't do as well on the stove or in the oven? Is it
> >> worth having one, or is it a waste of space?

Molly Katzen has published two or three cookbooks for children, and she
swears by them. It's supposed to be a good way to let four year olds
cook. Safer I guess. But she has no recipes for frying... instead it's
things like carrots cooked in butter with cinnamon and brown sugar, or
"zucchini moons" - rounds of zukes, which the kiddies cut with dinner
knives and your help, cooked in the electric skillet and then tossed
with parmesan.

I considered buying one, then thought I'd wait. Now the whole teflon
thing has me concerned. (I don't have teflon otherwise).

But we did have an accident with a splattered butter pat in the cast
iron skillet - two kids, two pats of butter, Kid One tosses his in,
stands there watching while Kid Two tosses *his* pat in, which
splatters the first, melted pat into Kid One's face. Oh God I felt
terrible about that mishap. He wasn't seriously burned, but he could
have been. This would have happened even with a "safer" electric
skillet - Mom was just not able to foresee the problem. Two kids are
more than twice as hectic...

L.