Leave some moist cooked pasta in a tightly covered pot in a warm place for a week. Skip lunch on opening day.

As for slow cookers, commonly called "crock pots" over here, I've got one but haven't used it for years - just not my style of cooking. I like to stir stuff and taste it.

On the other hand, I found it is the one and only way to cook octopus. Best octopus you will ever taste. Slice the cooked tentacles and marinade in an Italian olive oil and lemon juice dressing. Yum! Oh, Yum!

Maybe 25 years ago when I worked in an aerospace factory the office had a pot-luck lunch for Christmas or something. Workers there were quite conservative and I was considered a little weird, so I decided not to let them down.

I made the octopus (this was long before sushi bars got people used to eating creepy-crawleys). I was careful to let everyone in line know what it was and figured that way I'd have plenty left for a second helping.

Boy, was I wrong. It was wiped on the first pass. I mean Wiped! - not so much as a sucker disk left! Jeeeez Louise.