Fun with Pressure Cookers

I finally got my new pressure cookers on Friday and couldn't wait to try them out. Saturday I made some pumpkin custard for the Grand River Sailing Club membership meeting. We voted on officers and also had lots of good food to eat. Unfortunately the custard didn't look so good, so not many were willing to try it. But boy did it taste good. (if I say so myself --- but other said so too :) ) There was so much food that it didn't get eaten up there, but don't worry as Phil and I had it for dessert Sunday and today and now it's gone. Nice thing about this is it's low in calories and fat and makes up 4 services at one time. That would work good on the boat.

I also tried the pressure fryer feature - used tempura batter to fry boneless chicken thighs, thick cut potato strips and also a few brussel sprouts. Tasted good, but I wonder if I filled the cooker too full. Made WAY too much food - not an uncommon occurrance of mine - so we will have it for supper on Wednesday or Thursday. Even thought the guy who demonstrated it said that it wouldn't absorb too much oil if you have the oil at 390F - when putting it back in the bottles, a third of a bottle was used up - so guess we had way too many calories. I'll try it again w/o the batter coating and see how it turns out. If it isn't much better - than guess I won't be using this feature again as both of us don't need so much extra calories.

Today I made pinto beans, brown rice and smoked sausage all in one pot. Had some leftover salsa from GRSC meeting on Friday, so tossed that in with some tomato paste, onions and garlic. At first I thought that I had put in too much water - but then as it sat while we ate - it seemed to soak it up so now I think that I won't decrease the amount of water as much as I thought I would. Of course made way too much - so now have another meal for later in the week and froze 3 more. Another thing, is I'll have to increase the time that I cook it as the beans were too crunchy. Live and learn. Good thing that Phil not only will eat my experiments, but usually likes them.

This is part of my plan to try new foods with the cookware I bought - I'll have to decrease the amounts when I make this recipe on the boat, as we don't have much of a freezer (unlike now though it is very full) and even though Phil can tolerate eating the same food every day - I for one cannot!

Phil is still working on his plans for installing the autohelm. He's still thinking how to mount it.

BTW, we are having either sleet or hail this evening - as it was very loud coming down on our skylight in our back room. We are expecting to get some snow - hard to tell if the ground is cold enough for it to stick though have some predictions in the snow belt (where we live) of 1-2 inches. Just think - next year if everything goes well, we'll be down south enough not to deal with this.

Stay warm!