Small Kitchen Appliance - This year's craze - The Instant Pot

I love a great kitchen gadget/appliance.  My favorite ones are the KitchenAid Stand Mixer, a powerful food processor and of course my beloved bread machine.  I have had these three tools for 20 years.  They get used often in my kitchen.  The bread machine alone is used twice a week!  Homemade challah is a weekly event.  No bakery challah for the Weitzman family.

Last year, a co-worker told me how wonderful Philips Pasta Maker is and I agree.  The pasta is amazing, and as the water is heating up I can make a fresh batch of pasta, which is better than boxed pasta.  And it is super easy to use (not super easy to clean).  Who knew!

The craze this year is the Instant Pot and friends who are not kitchen lovers began to rave about the Instant Pot.  I read many posts from people and I knew I had to try it.

I purchased the 6 quart pot from Amazon and used it the next week.

The first recipe was for Mac and Cheese and while fast and easy (once I figured out how to use the pot) it wasn't the best recipe.  The kids liked it but I know I can make a better recipe.  It is much faster than the oven version and isn't bright orange like Kraft Mac and Cheese.  The only issue was that using the timer was difficult. . . . instead of ten minutes, I think I originally set it for 10 hours - OOPS.  Luckily my son pointed that out to me.

The next recipe was risotto, and while my family loves risotto, it requires me to stand over the pan and stir constantly.  However in less than 30 minutes I had risotto that I did not have to stir constantly and one could not tell the difference.  The next time I am going to make a squash risotto.

And how do I know that it is a craze?  Today's Boston Globe Food section had an article dedicated to the Instant Pot.  It is a great article.

Tonight I am going to try a chicken recipe in the Instant Pot.

I can't imagine cooking in it every night, but I can add it to the rotation of small kitchen appliances to use.  And while I don't eat meat and milk together, I am hoping that the chicken dish tonight comes out delicious.  And I have joined the Facebook Kosher Instant Pot Group (and another relative sent me an article to kosher recipes using the Instant Pot).

Tomorrow night I will use the pasta maker.  I need to make sure all my gadgets are used often.