Weekend Cooking

I bought a pressure cooker close to two years ago and for the first year or so of owning it, it sat unopened in the box, down in my basement. Part of the reason for not using it was due to fear. Actually, all of the reason for not using it was due to fear.

I was afraid, first and foremost, that it might burn my house down. I had images that when I would turn it on, it would be like a scene from one of those old cartoons where the character lights a long line of gunpowder, watching as sparks fly all the way along the line until it finally ignites the powder keg. This, I expected, would be exactly what my old wiring would do.

My other fear was that assuming the wires didn't catch on fire beforehand, I figured that when the pot eventually reached pressure, it would simply blow up - much like the aforementioned powder keg in the aforementioned cartoon.

Why would I buy a pressure cooker I was afraid of using? Good question. My not-so-good answer: It was such a good deal. I would have been crazy not to buy it. 

So the pressure cooker sat down the basement, still unopened - until some at point well into the pandemic. That's when I finally decided to bite the bullet and haul it upstairs. I figured, a) if I don't try and use it now, I probably never will, and b) we're months into a pandemic with no end in sight. What more do I have to lose?

Well, I'm happy to say that since then, despite having used it almost every weekend for months, so far it has not yet set my wiring on fire - or burned down my house. This is especially good news since the end of this current pandemic is hopefully in sight.

In fact, this weekend, Sam and I used it twice in one day. 

The first time was because we were making something called Chicken Shawarma Rice. This recipe was not only new to us but it was also presented as a so-called "Mediterranean" dish. We decided to make it anyway. 

(Side note: My spelling for "Mediterranean" was so far off, spell check had no idea what word I was trying to zero in on. So I went on the internet and found it right away - along with this interesting fact: As of this moment, the Mediterranean Sea has a 4.6 star rating based on an average of 36,513 Google reviewers. I don't know if this makes it the highest rated sea on the planet or not, but I'm guessing it's right up there.)

Anyway, being a Mediterranean dish with a LONG list of spices, there was a reasonable chance that it may not be our cup of tea. Sam and I decided that we should also make a backup dish we were more familiar with, just in case. We opted for good ol' American Taco Pasta!

In the end, the Shawarma Rice and Chicken came out a little spicy (despite having cut the amounts of cayenne pepper and pepper flakes in half), but it was a hit! At least, that's what Sam said. Though now that I think about it, I seem to be the only one eating the leftovers while "someone else" is sticking with the taco pasta.

Yum.

Almost yum.