Do they really work? Do you like yours? I am thinking about it. Working mom here and dinner is just tough. I try to do most foods from scratch as much as possible.
I have a crock pot, is the pressure cooker better in X way? Are there some thing better in the presure cooker than the crock pot? Which one would you recomend?
Thanks,
I have honestly never used one, but my grandma did. I did a quick search and found all kinds of useful information...and I think I need a pressure cooker too!!
http://missvickie.com/library/whyuseapc.html
I would NEVER go off away from home and leave a pressure cooker going. There is just too much risk with them. I know people who think it's okay to leave appliances on while their gone but a couple of my friends have left a fan going or a crock pot cooking and left to run errands only to come home to ruins. One friend, the one that left a fan going, heard fire truck sirens while she was at her kids ball game close to her house. She said a quick prayer that everyone in that fire was okay. When she went home a little later her house was gone, even the walls were gone. That fan had shorted out and blazed. She lost everything including their pets.
The other friend had to have an electrician rewire her kitchen because the crock pot shorted it all out. Luckily she didn't have a fire but did have a great financial loss.
I cook on the weekends and freeze stuff then just microwave it to reheat it. I have done this with lasagna, meatloaf, spaghetti sauce buy the gallons, cooked chubs of HB meat with no seasoning in it, and more.
I pop out what ever we're having for dinner and just add the next level. For instance, if I pop out some spaghetti sauce I start the pot of water on the stove to get it boiling for the pasta then get the baggie of sauce out. I cut the side of the bag and put the chunk of sauce in either a sauce pan (on low to keep it from scorching) or the microwave to just heat it up. I heat up the griddle when I put the pasta in to cook and start the garlic bread to browning, I use frozen Great Value Garlic Bread. It's easy and the kids like it.
If we're having taco's for dinner I take out a baggie of cooked hamburger meat and put it in the frying pan/sauce pan and add the water needed then get it hot. I add the taco seasoning to complete it.
While the meat is heating up I turn on the over for the taco shells, to heat them up, and I start heating the griddle up for the flour/corn tortillas.
While all this is going on I can also get out the bag of shredded cheese, salsa, etc...If they like fresh chopped tomatoes then do that while stuff is heating too.
Having the meat already cooked and in an easy portion to reheat is so perfect.
I have a pressure cooker. I use it a lot for mashed potatoes (done in 5 minutes). I also make ribs, mexican soup, corn on the cob, an occasional roast, beans and more. I have a crock pot too so if I had to choose I don't know, I probably use the pressure cooker more just for the mashed potatoes.
Gamma, I don't think anyone is suggesting to leave a pressure cooker on and leave. Yes, it needs to be monitered and that's easy, just set a timer. And then you need to be careful when cooling it down to not release the cap until the heat is let out.
Honestly the only thing I use my pressure cooker for is canning.
I love mine. I use the crock pot for some dishes, but the pressure cooker for totally different things. I use mine for canning, but also for cooking. I don't know a lot to do with it, but there's one recipe we like that I saw on allrecipes.com that is with a pressure cooker: pork chops, potatoes, saurkraut, brown sugar, and....i can't remember what else offhand, but you put it all in the pressure cooker and it's all done and delicious together in half an hour, start to finish. If you go to allrecipes.com and just search by "pressure cooker" it comes up with a bunch of recipes to try.
What I mainly use the pressure cooker for, ESPECIALLY when I was pregnant, working 7 days/week (2 jobs): I'd buy bulk chicken on sale, season it with a little of the main 3 seasonings I use for almost everything (Tonys, a little garlic powder, and either chili powder or poultry seasoning), and throw it ALL in at once (like 7lbs of boneless skinless breasts at a time). In about half an hour, I'd have 7lbs of chicken cooked and soft enough to pinch or shred depending on what I wanted to do with it. Then I could either put it in 1lb servings in ziplocs to freeze OR I'd go ahead and cook a bunch of meals in one day and then freeze them. The texture it all comes out in is perfect for BBQ chicken sandwiches, chicken/veg lasagna, chicken spaghetti, fideo, chicken salad, fettucini alfredo with spinach, king ranch casserole, soups/stews like white chili, gumbo, chicken & dumplings, chicken tortilla soup, chicken noodle soup (don't freeze the noodles or dumplings but the rest you can do ahead and freeze), etc, etc. I love that now, but it was especially helpful when I worked full time. It was a normal thing to have one dinner in the oven, one in the crockpot, and one or two in skillets all at the same time, much thanks to the pressure cooker.
pressure cooker is quicker but needs monitoring. crock pot is uber slow, and no monitoring. depends on what you prefer.
we have a crock pot. hubs uses it for soups and stews, good for chili, pasta sauce, certain indian dishes, things like pulled chicken, beef, etc.
Plop some frozen veg in the steamer over the rice pilaf or pasta when it is cooking, and dinner is done.
best,
F. B.
I have a pressure cooker. The only thing I use it for us to make candy or soup. I don't even know where the lid is. I can tell you that you can not leave the house while it is cooking
