Happenings around here

Every time I think of doing a blog entry about our humdrum everyday life, it all seems so boring.  At my age, boring is a good thing, because most of the excitement in my life these days is usually caused by news from a doctor... not always good news, either!  But "normal" doesn't always make for interesting stories.  However, I will plunge forward.

Cliff purchased another tractor yesterday, a Ford 5000.  He hasn't brought it home yet, but will bring it home in a couple of days.  He bought it because "it's a good buy!"  I can understand this premise, since half my Amazon purchases are in this house for the selfsame reason, but I knew he didn't have enough money in his tractor fund to buy it.  I thought about resisting the purchase, but then reasoned that since he's starting his cancer-treatment journey, it'll do him good to have something to keep his mind and body busy.  Roger Welsch once wrote a book about how working on his first tractor project helped cure what ailed him:  Old Tractors and the Men Who Love Them.  How could I refuse my husband?  So I transferred enough of our vacation fund to his tractor fund to make up for what he lacked.  

Now, on the Tractor Tales message board I used to frequent, the guys would talk about the perils of a married man buying a tractor he doesn't need; they always got around to mentioning the S.E.T., which stands for Spousal Equity Tax, based on the theory that if a man is buying a tractor, the only way he will have any peace at home is to allow his wife to buy something she's been wanting.

Shortly after I started babysitting our little princess, my hair-shedding dog Iris ran away, scared by thunder, and ended up at the house of some people who loved her and wanted her.  She still lives there... happy, groomed and well-fed.  This was a Godsend to me, because all my attention was now on the human baby, and I had been dreading the day she began to crawl, knowing she'd end up with dog hair on her body and in her mouth.  The situation worked out so well, I never looked back.  I told everybody I didn't know if I'd ever want a dog again.

Our little girl is now four years old, and not a baby.  Once I voiced these words "we don't have a baby any more," I wanted a dog.  If you look around, you might have noticed that most women refer to their dogs as "my baby".  This goes a long way in preventing the population explosion that would occur if women kept having children to satisfy the desire for more cute little babies.  Dogs, unlike my feline friends, love to be somebody's baby, so it's a match made in heaven.

During these years without a dog, I made up my mind if I ever wanted one again, I'd get a Schnauzer:  I've heard nothing but good things about the breed from people who have them, and they don't shed.  The only negative thing I've ever heard is that they are "yappy".... they bark a lot.  Well, in my experience, all smaller-breed dogs are that way.  It used to be funny to me, and I'd actually encourage my dogs to bark out the window at squirrels and such.  Cliff never found it humorous, though.  So if a newly-acquired dog barks, we'll put up with it, but I won't encourage it.  

Schnauzers are expensive, like all purebred dogs.  I watched Craigslist to no avail (except for a scam), then went to Google.  There are breeders in the Kansas City area.  I found one north of the city who has one litter ready in three weeks and one remaining from the previous litter that, at eight weeks old, is ready to go now.  However, that one cost mores, I think because of his size and coloring.  His name is Gabe, although I'm not sure if I would keep that.  I should name either the puppy or Cliff's latest tractor "Vacation", since we're using a portion of the vacation fund to get them.

   
Cliff has his tractor secured, and I suppose for that reason, he must feel the need to take care of his S.E.T., because he's actually prodding me to go ahead and get this puppy, even though it's another $100 more than I'd pay for one in three weeks.  I don't care about registration, I don't care about color or size, and it seems ridiculous to pay even more money than I'd have to for registration papers I don't care about.  But something tells me I had better strike while the iron is hot.  Here's the puppy at five weeks of age: 

This means I need to find a pet taxi, a collar and leash, and be prepared to give most of my monthly allowance for the next fifteen or so years to a vet for routine maintenance and to a groomer to keep this "baby" handsome.  By the way, Cliff thought we should keep looking until we found a female, saying males are harder to housebreak.  I don't agree.  Most of the terriers that passed through our lives were male dogs, and Chip, the German Shepherd we had when the kids were small, was male.  He was one of the best and smartest dogs I've ever had.  Anyhow, I've only had a problem housebreaking one dog, a female Chihuahua.  I don't expect any major troubles in that regard.  I just take them outside often, and they soon learn.

The deal isn't secured yet, but I'm in touch with the lady and told her I'd probably commit to the purchase as soon as Cliff is awake so I can discuss it with him.    Our little princess will love having a puppy here to play with, since she already has her own dog at home.  My Facebook friends will be happy to see pictures of an energetic puppy playing, instead of pictures of my cats sleeping and eating (that's all they do).  

So it isn't a done deal, but a puppy is definitely in the works.  

Peace.

What I've learned about the Instant Pot

On all the Facebook Instant Pot groups, and on all the blogs that extol their virtues, I've seen the same old song when asked, "What's the difference between an Instant Pot and a pressure cooker:  They answer, "The Instant Pot IS a pressure cooker."

Well, I've used stovetop pressure cookers all my life, so I started out thinking I knew how long certain foods would take to cook in my new electric pressure cooker.  I was so wrong.  For instance, with the old model, I soak my beans overnight and then pressure-cook them.  Once the pan gets up to pressure, they cook in 3 minutes.  THREE!!!!  According to the book that came with the Instant Pot, if you soak your beans they will take 25-30 minutes to cook (or you don't have to soak them, just cook them five minutes longer).  Pressure cooker it may be, but it's way slower than the stovetop cooker.  And that doesn't count the time it takes to get up to pressure.  

I cooked a roast in the Instant pot today.  Now here's a strange thing... you will find people in Facebook groups and on blogs saying roasts cook anywhere from thirty to ninety minutes in the Instant Pot.  That's quite a range, so how is a beginner to know?  My first roast was good, but a little chewy.  I don't recall how long I cooked it.  We ate it, although I used the latter part of it in hash.  Today when the chuck roast was unsatisfactory after cooking 45 minutes, I ended up giving it another 45.  That's what it took to make it fork-tender and perfect.  Lesson learned.

I really like the perfect boiled eggs done in the Instant Pot, but I imagine most of you know you can get them perfect with no ugly green ring around the yolk just by not-boiling them.  You bring them to a boil in a pan, turn off the burner, cover them, and wait 20 minutes.  This is probably as quick as you could do it in the Instant Pot, although I will say I have a tendency to leave the stove while waiting for the eggs to start boiling on the stove.  So I usually end up with the green ring I was trying to avoid.  That's really not such a big deal, since I've been eating green-ringed boiled eggs most of my life and lived to tell about it, but I probably will be doing them in the Instant Pot. 

I'm very happy to have the option of poaching eggs in my new pressure cooker.  I don't have any other sort of egg-poaching pan, and I never mastered the method of dropping an egg in swirling water to poach it.  However, the poached egg will take ten minutes or more, total.  So you might want to keep your egg-poaching pan if you have one, because it's probably faster.  

I made some excellent macaroni and cheese in my new cooker, but we're trying to shed pounds, not gain them.  So that isn't something I'll make often.  The thing works great on steel-cut oats too, but takes about the same length of time as my double-boiler, if you count the time it takes to get up to pressure and then get rid of the pressure at the end.

Am I returning this new toy?  No way!  I can't wait to make a cheesecake in it (after we shed the pounds we gained eating my one batch of mac and cheese).  As far as time goes, I have plenty of time most days to cook meals anyhow.  I might still use the old pressure cooker for beans, though, since there is a huge difference in the time involved, 3 minutes versus 30.  And there's less things to wash when you're done.

I never was scared to use a stovetop pressure cooker, having grown up with one.  You have to stay in the house with them and keep the pressure regulated, but once you get it right, usually in the first five minutes, you don't have to touch it again.  But I still stayed in the house while it was in operation.  You CAN walk away from the Instant Pot.  You set it for however many minutes you want it to cook knowing it's safe, and it will turn itself to "low" when it's done.  

I've heard lots of people express their fear at using the Instant Pot.  Cliff and I agree that it would be almost impossible to get this thing to explode.  Safety is built in to it.  

Some of my boo-boos?  Forgetting to turn the knob on top to "pressure"; forgetting to put the ring in that goes around the bottom inside of the lid; and not having the ring all the way in place.  The last two of these are things I should have known, since I have pressure cookers.  But I get sort of nervous when I'm cooking with something new, then I get frustrated and it takes me several tries to figure out what I've done wrong.

The best thing I see about the Instant Pot is that you don't have to be afraid it's going to blow up.  Those who were terrified of the old-school pressure cookers need fear no longer.