TheBanyanTree: instant pot

[Gloria]

My 2 cents... I’m married to Mr. Gadget, the guy who thinks he needs to try
most every new-fangled time-saving kitchen gadget. Whether it saves time or
makes his life easier by chopping onions, dicing and slicing taters,
stirring and whipping eggs, or heaven forbid, do you know how many ways you
can try to perfectly poach an egg?

Our daughter bought him the Cuisinart electric pressure cooker for
Christmas in 2016. I don’t think Insta-Pot was on the market yet, but it’s
just about the same thing. I begged her not to buy it, which is probably
why she did. He has used it more than any other pot. For meat based meals
only, it seems. Yes, the meal cooks fast, but to me it’s just a slow-cooker
on steroids. And yes, the meat is tender. Haven’t experienced rubbery meat,
but sometimes I’m hard-pressed to know whether I’m eating pork or chicken.
Soup still gets made in the stovetop. I don’t know why, not do I care. As
long as he takes on the arduous task of figuring out what to make for us
and doing it cheerfully, I consider myself blessed. But damn, can he make a
mess! I’m on cleanup duty, so I struggle a bit with that, but all in all a
good system.

On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 4:28 PM Teague, Julie Anna <jateague at indiana.edu>
wrote:

> 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
>