Anthropologie Crock Pot Makeover

January's Eat from the Pantry Month (aka Eat This and Give Me Back Cabinet Space/No Way I'm Driving To the Store in Sub Zero Cold and Snow Month) was a success! I reclaimed some shelf space, rediscovered my tea collection, and fell back in love with the slow cooker by creating new recipes like my Slow Cooker Mexican Beans and Beef recipe (you can read about it on Lazy Budget Chef.)

Aaaaaand the loose handle finally snapped off the lid of the crock pot.

Because we are not allowed to have nice things.

An futile attempt was made to glue the plastic handle to the screw in the lid. FAIL.

Buying a new crock pot was silly because it works fine otherwise. We muddled through by popping the back of a serving spoon under the lid to remove it. It was kludgy but it worked, sorta.

I found the answer to my crockpot problems when Husband kicked me out of the house because a recent cold and Cabin Fever was making a less than pleasant person to be around. He said I needed Me Time to become human again. I ended up at Anthropologie (no big surprise) where I found the fix for my broken crock pot - an Anthropologie cabinet knob.

When I visit an Anthropologie store, I always drool over their cabinet hardware. I'm a fan of their black and white checked cabinet knobs and almost put them in my kitchen before I got a better idea. Once I realized the knobs match my slow cooker, are wood and won't conduct heat ,I bought one to fix my crock pot. 

I removed the old screw, rubber washer, and nut from the top of the lid. I threaded the cabinet knob through the hole in the lid. The thread of my cabinet knob is thinner than the screw to the original lid. To keep the knob from flopping around the hole, I threaded a metal cabinet washer, the original rubber lid washer, followed by the second metal cabinet washer, and nut onto the cabinet rod and tightening everything into place with a wrench.

Reusing the original rubber washer keeps everything nice and tight.

Next, I shortened the cabinet rod with my Dremel (learn more about it here) and a cutting wheel. I knocked down the burrs and sharp edges of the cut threads with a Dremel Aluminium Oxide Grinding Stone.

This quick fix took all of 15 minutes and most of that was taken up withs hunting for the Dremel I put in a "better" and "more organized" spot in the garage.  

I suspect the new crock pot knob is not dishwasher safe since it is wood but I don't mind since I usually hand wash my slow cooker and lid anyway.

Now that I have a working slow cooker, do you have a good crockpot recipe to share?

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