Great recipies! I did something quite similar to what lillyjane did. I wanted something like Beef-n-Noodles and didn't find anything I really liked on Allrecipies.com. I had some cut up cross-rib and round steak I made into stew meat size chunks. I seasoned and browned the meat then tossed into crockpot. Then I added 2 cans of cream of celery, about 1 cup water and an envelope of brown gravy mix and about 1 T worchestershire. I added a green bell pepper cut into strips and about 2 cloves of minced garlic. Cooked on low for about 5 hours. Mixed all with cooked macaroni and it was polished off quick! I would have used egg noodles, but only had regular mac. The outcome was very tender meat and all was very creamy and simply YUM! Yesterday I did a crockpot of Red Beans and Rice (rice cooked on the side) and it was good. Soak 1 c. dried beans overnight, drain and rinse beans. Add to crock. Chop up green bell pepper, celery and onion (the Holy Trinity) and toss in. Add garlic, creole seasoning and pepper. If desired also add Crushed Red Pepper or Cayenne. Toss in a ham-hock if you have one. I usually do but all I had was bacon ends. If you have access to Andouille Sausage, slice into rounds and saute just a bit and add that as well. You can also saute the "Holy Trinity" with the sausage if you want or skip it (it's gonna cook all day). I didn't have any Andouille so substituted with chopped Turkey-Ham (this also gave the smoked flavor I missed not having the Ham-hock! Plus it's healthier!). Add about 3-4 c. water...just so beans are covered. Add a bay leaf. Cook on high 5-6 hours or cook on low for 10-11. Serve over rice and garnish with green onion. Note: If it isn't thick enough for you at the end, take a spoon and mash some of the beans up on the side of the pot and let it cook on high with the lid off for about 1 more hour. If it's STILL not as think as you want then you can go ahead and do cornstarch/water and mix in.

I'm bumping this topic because I need to bounce some ideas on buying a pressure cooker. Right now I have a T-fal that operates at a max of 12 psi and I'm looking for something that goes to 15 psi. I have the option of buying a Fissler Vitaquick for the equivalent of about 100$, but couldn't really find any info on the operating pressure (wrote them an e-mail, haven't heard back yet). Another option would be Kuhn Rikon, but from theamazon description, it also operates at about 12 psi. My husband did find another option that goes up to 15 psi - Beem. It seems a very good choice seeing that it has two pots (one 4L and one 6 L) and a basket, and it also has good reviews. But I don't know anything about this brand. What would you pick? I don't really want to go over 150 EUR, but if there's a very important reason to go over this amount, I could. Thank you! Edit: received an update from Fissler, all of their pressure cookers go to a max of 11 psi.

I use the crock pot as a warmer to keep things like mashed potatoes warm while I finish the rest of the dinner for big family dinners.They don't get scorched like they would on the stove. I also use it to keep baked beans warm that I cooked on the stove. They are great for keeping rolls and corn muffins warm when you making a lot for a big family dinner.If they get too moist then place a paper towel or napkin over the top. I rarely use it for cooking. We don't care for way the meat and vegetables turn out for stews.It does a good job on spaghetti sauce because you don't have to worry about it burning with a long cooking time. I like my dutch oven for stews.It does a great job on tough meat.After slow cooking it for hours, it will be tinder. I like to make chicken stews as well. A small dutch oven is great as a deep fryer.You don't need so much oil and it holds it's temperature well.You can deep fry donuts or tempera with great results.You don't need a deep fryer that you might only use once a month.

Chipshot, in our model, if you use regular rice you are supposed to measure with the clear cup, wash it, put it in the pot then adjust the water. For rinse-free rice you are supposed to measure with the green cup, put it in the pot, adjust the water and press the "prewashed" option before selecting the cycle. I believe when you prewash regular rice you are only removing starch and bran. But I'm not so sure with converted (parboiled) rice that the nutrients won't be washed away -- apparently the process is to heat the rice in a partial vacuum and then inject either water and/or steam, then dry the rice and remove the husk, thus driving most the nutrients into the rice and preserving them, but they are water soluble. I'm with you when it comes to white rice, I figure the actual food (except for starch) will have to come from the other dishes... as a matter of fact, for the longest time I worried that in America we were getting excess vitamins and minerals, everything seems to have "(7/9/11/15) essential vitamins and minerals" -- but lately, lots of news have been popping all over the place about people who have deficiencies that are unthinkable in a first world country (like the B complex of vitamins) and I discounted them as "they only happen to other people", until friends of mine were diagnosed with mild scurvy and/or Vitamin D deficiency; so many things are low/no fat, or are processed in such a way that more than just fat/sugar/salt gets removed and the doctors have not caught up yet, they still think that if you have a balanced diet you'll get all the nutrients you need; but who gets a balanced diet, I ask -- I had to pester the managers in my local supermarkets 'cuz every single yogurt they sold was "fat free", which simply doesn't work for baking, for example, not to mention that now one thinks one is eating actual yogurt but one is actually missing several of the key ingredients and nutrients. More news recently are popping up about how one of the vitamins in the B complex (niacin? I'm not sure) controls cholesterol better than the medicines given to people who have high cholesterol. The number of friends who are on those pills is a little disquieting and I figure I won't poke fun anymore, there'll always be other foods that are nutritious on my table, but I don't see why I should remove any nutrition from things I know people will eat no matter what diet they may be (rice, for example) even if they eat less of the rest of the dishes. Anyway, I just made some parboiled/converted rice today, used the clear cup and regular cycle and didn't wash the rice, and it came out OK, even if a tad harder than when I cook it on the stove, but still perfectly edible, so I won't worry too much about it, I may try the other cup/cycle options but it's perfectly acceptable as it is. I'll try the other white rices with and without washing and several options etc and see if there's any difference. If anything, it seems that the computer is compensating quite well for the differences and it might very well be that your model is advanced enough that it compensates fully for everything and you don't need to worry about it. My impression is that "mixed rice" might be like when you have a regular rice mixed in with some wild rice, for example, but it might very well be that it means rice with beans or peas instead. Lots of fun trying the different things, that's for sure. I have not had anything yet get the inner lid dirty (except for steam), but I continue to remove it and clean it every cycle. Maybe it only happens when one uses more rice/cereal and water? And I'm still a little surprised by the number of kitchen stuff (this rice cooker included) that is imported from areas that seem to care way more than we do about saving energy and resources but then manufacture things that are not dishwasher safe or, even if they are ostensibly made with materials that are traditionally dishwasher safe, tell us to wash the things by hand. All things being equal, using the dishwasher saves not only time, but also water and energy, and I vastly prefer to put things in the dishwasher -- so far, the only thing I don't care for in this rice cooker is the hand washing, everything else has been working better than I expected.