I’ve been meaning to buy a slow cooker (a.k.a. a crockpot, although I think that’s a brand name) for a while now. It’s actually a long story as to how I got to this place, but suffice it to say that I feel like I’m advancing up the cooking tree limb by limb, and even with a few falls on the way, I think I’m doing pretty well.

The branch structure I’ve decided to explore (because man, you could spend your whole life learning how to cook, and maybe I will) is what you might call “quality easy” — lately, I’ve been trying to come up with some easier ways to make food that’s usually tougher to do. For example, instead of deep frying things like fries or buffalo wings, I’ve been working on baking them. I’ve been buying premade ingredients, and cooking and mixing them together in new ways. And I’ve been slowly incorporating and getting myself familiar with more actual chef’s tool: For a while there, I was on a stir fry kick — just a wok-style pan and some oil — but then I realized I had an oven in my kitchen, and started using that. I had lasagna tonight, and I’ve baked chicken, baked potatoes, cooked veggies, made some bacon wraps, and so on. I still don’t think I’ve fully explored the oven and all of the things it can do, but I think I’m ready to move on to another appliance.

And the one that I’ve landed on is the slow cooker. I’m kind of excited about it — I work from home but usually have my attention focused on work, so my plan is to wake up and add ingredients on the various times I take breaks throughout the day. I’m not quite sure what you cook in a slow cooker besides chili (which is what I’ll do first), but I’m sure I can come up with some things. Meatballs, right? Some kind of roast, I know that (though traditionally, I’m not that into roasts, but I’m open to ideas). Oh, and there’s probably some kind of awesome BBQ I can put together, no?

Clearly I’m taking my sweet time with this. I’m sure, just re-reading that last paragraph, that some of your are already pasting your favorite recipes into your email, thinking I’m crazy for not knowing 50 things I can make in a slow cooker. How can I be a meat eater and not know the paradise of slow-cooked BBQ pork, you’re thinking. And if you do send me recipes, I’ll appreciate it, and when I have a chance, I will try to cook what you send.

But really, I’m not too bothered. Cooking, for me, has become much less about the mastery and more about the experience. When I was younger, I would try to make cookies, and I would make a mistake somewhere in the mix, and when the batch was ruined, I would get discouraged and never make the same thing again. But lately, it’s much more about the iteration — I enjoy thinking about the recipe beforehand, and even as I do it, I think what else I could do with it. “This recipe is good, but next time I’ll try some oregano.” Half of my thoughts are on what I’ll do next, so when the final product comes out less than exactly perfect, it’s ok — I’m already thinking about what I’ll do differently the next time. And by the third or fourth try, I’m finding I can make stuff that’s really good. The iteration is the thing, not the instant mastery. Which is the way it should be, I think.

So that’s my plan with the slow cooker — take it easy, experiment a lot, and hopefully through some trial and error, come up with something I like that’s reasonably good for me. And then make that a few more times just for fun.

I’m no chef, obviously. But lately, I cook like the guy painting the sunset at the park with a canvas paints — the painting may not be very original or good, but I’m happy just to be out there watching the sun go down anyway.