Bobby, I'm sure you will have a great time with Cathy on Tuesday. Kevin and I are thinking about a trip to Florida ourselves because he has a friend in Tampa he went to graduate school with, and she has been begging us to visit and stay at her house. I think it would be a nice trip, but as Gina noted before, there aren't good flights between L.A. and Tampa, and so we thought we might fly to Orlando, rent a car there, and then drive to Tampa. I have no idea when we will get around to this. I have to say that I am extremely careful about pot placement on my induction cooker, and so it is always centered in place. The PC pots are exactly the right size for this burner, and so I have not been concerned about the control buttons, but I will keep that in mind. I do love the timer, and yesterday I cooked a bunch of potatoes with some onion plus one cup of water. I closed the lid, set the cooker to #10 (highest heat) for two minutes and then turned it down to 250 degrees on the temp scale and set the timer for 10 minutes and let it go. I was waiting for sausages in the smoker, and when they were done, so were the potatoes, and oddly enough, there was no water left. I think it escaped as steam when I opened the steam valve. That was a new experience for me! So we only had potatoes and sausage last night, but we also smoked a large boneless turkey breast that I will use for sandwiches, etc. We also assembled our Big Green Egg (much more of an ordeal than we expected, partly due to insufficient/faulty instructions) and put up lights in the pergola. I can see that we will be spending a lot more time in the pergola, now that it is properly lit. I'm looking forward to cooking more things in the PC! I really like the conbination with the induction cooker, since it will turn off from the timer, and so I can sort of forget about it once it is set. Lars

I was a little nervous about pressure cooking and started out with an electric one, but it was very limiting. It was very slow to heat up and I was unable release pressure quickly. It died within a year of purchase and was replaced, only to die again...I gave it up and went with a stovetop, and have been much happier with it. They are much easier to use, and much more flexible than the electric models. I can make things that only take a few minutes, like corn on the cob. I can bring the pressure up fast, cook 5 minutes and then quickly release the pressure in the sink with cool water, no overcooked mush and no vat of boiling water to deal with. I have two Kuhn Rikon pressure cookers with the turn tops. I like the turn tops because it's very easy to see the pressure level, and you can park it in the 'up' position to release the steam. I made a rump roast in one the other night that was beautifully tender in less than an hour. They're great for stock, too. My crockpot now only comes out to keep the potatoes warm during Thanksgiving. :-) Cj

I have a Kuhn Rikon pressure cooker that works on induction. My favorite way to make rice is to bake it: Preheat the oven to 350. Put 1 cup jasmine or white rice in 9x9 glass baking dish. Add 1.5 cups hot water and a tablespoon of oil or butter. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes before fluffing and serving. If I'm having the rice as a side dish, I use chicken boullion in the water. If I make a double batch, I use my Dutch oven or a 9x13 glass pan. The pan goes right in the dishwasher and the leftover rice doesn't get hard in the refrigerator. This is my adaptation of allrecipes classic rice pilaf recipe.

I have a simple Indian low tech pressure cooker. Mine is aluminum but they also come in stainless or nonstick. I use it for stock and lentils or beans, of course. If I remember right, the instructions say never fill it more than a third full for beans or lentils etc, to avoid blocking the valve. Otherwise there's not unreasonable risk, as long as you don't fill it so much that goop could clog the valve. A lot of other things we take for granted are riskier, like um, driving, for example. Another use I like is for porridge, which I don't like to cook in an open pot because I have to keep stirring and it still sticks or burns, and I like my porridge fairly stiff. So I put an inch of water in the bottom of the pressure cooker, and then mix up the dry porridge and measured water and anything else in a steel dish, and float that in the water in the pressure cooker. Bring it up to pressure and then turn it off and leave it till it cools, and the porridge is cooked fully every time, with no risk of sticking or burning. And no pot to clean.