Power Cooker

I've mentioned my pressure cooker in a post before, and since it came to my rescue this morning, I thought it was time it got its own post!

I'm making Chicken Chili for dinner tonight, which requires Chicken stock..no problem we always keep tons of homemade in the freezer....except we ran out and I never noticed. YIKES! We never keep the can stuff in the house, and I didn't keep the car today. Time to rethink dinner, but I've already got all the chili fixings prepped so what do I do with it all? Thankfully I've got a 10 lb bag of leg quarters sitting in the fridge waiting to be bagged up, so I can start more stock but it'll take HOURS on the stove to get a good delicious stock. Here is where the pressure cooker comes in. I just tossed a few quarters into it, some carrots and seasoning and put it on highest pressure setting, and set it for 30 minutes. I'll stir it once that 30 is done, and reset it for another 30 and it should be pretty good by then. *I did start some of the stove, and I'll taste test tonight and see which tastes better*

I really wish I would have had this pressure cooker when D was a newborn. You can make all sorts of meals in it, it takes so little time, and its a 1 pot cleanup! Last week I made a small batch of pinto beans in it, if I had read the directions correctly the first time I would have noticed it said to turn the pressure up, and it probably would have been done after the first 30 minutes but I didn't notice so my beans took about an hour total, but they were still delicious and done in time for my lunch, I didn't even have to soak them! We make a yummy  dish called Bacon  Braised Pork pretty often in the pressure cooker too. I'll share that recipe next time I make it (probably next week). I've read you can also make yogurt (I always do mine in the crockpot, but I'm interested in trying it), cakes and can your fruit/veggies. You can make rice and "slow cook" with the one I have too. I have only tried out the slow cook method once, and my food was cooked in about 3 hours instead of the 6 the recipe called for in a slow cooker.


This is the cooker my entire family has, my parents loved theirs so much they bought us all one!

Uninspired

Sorry I've been slacking on my posts. I've felt so unmotivated lately. I've read many articles that I've thought, "Oh! I could post about that..." but then I sit down at the computer to blog, and nothing comes to me.  We've had a bit of a stressful few weeks, my van died on us so we've been dealing with that. Thankfully we have a second vehicle, but using it requires me to take S to work, which is sometimes an issue because D isn't always sleeping through the night so I have just been taking S back to work after his lunch break so we can take care of whatever we need to in the afternoon, but that interferes with nap time so it can be an issue either way.

I haven't really been cooking anything new or exciting recently. I am cooking Shrimp and Grits, and Baked Mahi for dinner.  I made a big batch of pancakes for the freezer earlier this week, and about to start on a batch of waffles for the freezer as well. I came across this recipe for Sugar Cookies   and I think we may try them today as well.

These suckers are HUGE!!

**Editing to add, I'm eating one of these cookies right now. Its huge, and delicious!!* 2nd edit - after getting through the whole cookie I find its a bit salty, and a little heavy on the baking soda taste. I will be making another batch tomorrow and cutting back on both ingredients. *


I'm starting to make a list of November crafts for D to work on. Lots of Thanksgiving/Fall ideas. I'll try to make sure to get pictures so I've got stuff to post about this month!


Happy November!
Kay