TheBanyanTree: instant pot

[Teague, Julie Anna]

This is what I fear will happen, in a nutshell.  I know the basics of cooking.  For things that take longer, I simply cook them on the weekends, and rather enjoy the process.  For weeknights, I can generally crank out some kind of decent meal in half an hour.  It's not gourmet, but I'm also not the worst cook.  I've started looking at Instant Pot recipes and, well, I'm very unsure about this thing.  It seems to require learning a new way to cook, and I don't know if I need that complication right now.  I'm not a fan of chicken to begin with, and rubberized chicken is loathsome. 

-----Original Message-----
From: TheBanyanTree [mailto:thebanyantree-bounces at lists.remsset.com] On Behalf Of Laura Hicks
Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2018 4:23 PM
To: A comfortable place to meet other people and exchange your own *original* writings. <thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com>
Subject: Re: TheBanyanTree: instant pot

On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 9:56 AM, Teague, Julie Anna <jateague at indiana.edu>
wrote:

> But husband, anxious to make my every dream a reality (Damn him!  
> Where did I FIND this guy?) came home with an Instant Pot last night, 
> and now I must either learn to use it or return it before I even take 
> it out of the box.



I have a friend who absolutely LOVES his. He makes the most delicious looking meals with it. My Mom used to love her old pressure cooker, and used it often. I was debating about getting one, because like you, and I think pretty much everyone, I love the idea of making healthy meals FAST.
My Mom "paid" me for helping her one weekend, and called it my birthday present, and told me to buy an Instant Pot with it, that if it was anything like the old pressure cookers, I'd love it. I used that new, fancy pot nearly every day for two weeks. We eat a lot of chicken, and every single piece of chicken I got out of it was like a big (or small) rubber ball. I tried changing the settings. I tried using less time, more time, less liquid, more liquid, everything all the books and websites said to try. We never did get a good meal out of it. Apparently, I don't have the touch. I grew to hate the damn thing. The only thing I ever got out of it that we could eat was a brisket. I can make that in the Crock Pot. In fact, almost everything that's in the Instant Pot cookbooks I can do in the Crock Pot.
One evening, I was preparing the stuff to put in the Instant Pot in the morning, and I thought, "Why am I doing this? I can make this very same meal in my Crock Pot, and it comes out perfect every time. Why do I keep wasting food on this new thing?" So I plopped everything into my Crock Pot, turned it on, and woke up to a wonderful, edible, meal.I gave the Instant Pot and all the accessories and cookbooks for it to my son. I think it's still sitting in his pantry, unused. Obviously, I'm not a new-fangled pressure cooker person.

And get off my lawn. ;)

Laura
wolfljsh at gmail.com