I made rice last night, using a beautiful half gallon of top-notch stock, painstakingly made by peeling chicken feet, until it was thick and rich: incredibly nourishing.
And I forgot about that pot of rice, and let it cook not 45 minutes but three hours. (Once I left the frigid motor home kitchen, I had little thought to leave the warm trailer again, and our hunger pains were assuaged without the rice.) While the charred flavor is not intense at the top of the pot, it is present in every kernel. What a waste.
My first thought on waking was, "Buy a rice maker!" This seemed prudent, so I began looking at options.
It was not easy to find one that is not nonstick. (I do not trust DuPont when they say that their nonstick coating is harmless. I wore out several pans early in marriage, and I am sure those nonstick chemicals are lurking somewhere in our bodies. Nasty!) Hours later, I finally found one. But I'm not positive I want it (as apparently, without a nonstick surface, the rice sticks and burns anyway, which doesn't seem much different than what I'm doing now, except it would turn off when done).
Then I went to look for our books on cordwood construction. While I have always loved the polka-dot look, Phil has never been terribly enthusiastic with cordwood as a building material: as an engineer, he views them as giant drinking straws, sucking water into the house from the outside. But maybe he's changing his mind. We certainly have plenty of trees that we could use.
But after opening dozens of boxes, each pulled from the depths of our storage area and labeled "Homestead," I could find no books. Another hour or two later, and out of options, I reordered. (Especially frustrating as I found plenty of books I didn't need to have bought, or really care if I ever see again! Argh!)
Later, I went to make dinner, and I had put a binder of recipes ... somewhere. It has had a set home for months, but in my last cleaning, I must have moved it, to an unremembered destination.
Some days are like this, I suppose. Blah.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
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We have a rice maker, not non-stick... I think it's aluminum? It's from the 70s (handed down from my mom!) and we love it. Hitachi brand. We have no issues with burning rice, and though it can be a little sticky at the bottom if you leave the rice in too long, it's really not that bad. I say, go for it! We use it for steaming veggies and dumplings, too. No non-stick yucky metallic taste here! :)
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