Not Quite an Instant Pot, but Close Enough

I've been wanting an Instant Pot. A few years back, I mentioned it to my husband and he reminded me that we already have several pressure cookers I don't use. Those are his toys, not mine.

 Something must have changed, because for Christmas he ordered me a Zavor LUX LCD multi-cooker. Its not an Instant Pot, but his research convinced him that it was a better option. I don't know why. I just want to be able to dry beans and make a roast in a hurry and make a cheesecake. This will do all of that, plus a bunch of other things, so I'm happy.

In the week since Fedex  abandoned the box on my doorstep, I've used it to cook a batch of rice and to cook dry beans that I then used in taco soup. Next on my list of things to try are baked apples and French dip sandwiches.  I used the Kohl's Cash that we got when we purchased the cooker to buy a bundt pan and a spring form cake pan, which increases my options even more.

The only thing I don't love is that I can't find an online forum  or any videos about this particular multi-cooker. I want someone to hold my hand and show me which buttons to push. Do any of you have a Zavor brand multi-cooker? Or, regardless of what brand you own, do you have a recipe or technique I should try? 

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {1/4/19}

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules: 
Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned,  as long as it's about baby quilts. You're welcome to link to baby quilt posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post or picture more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Inlinkz Link Party

{I've Been Reading} The New Maizie Albright Book

NC-17 by Larissa Reinhart

I waited what felt like forever for this book to come out, then life got busy and it took me almost a month to find time to read it and I loved every page...and now I'm back to waiting impatiently for the next book to come out.  I can't tell you what I loved most about the book without spoiling the plot. It has almost all of the things I loved about the previous books (and the one that's missing is missing for a good reason) and it's also got teenage Youtubers hunting for Bigfoot and their missing friend and a slightly sinister wellness retreat with way too much barbed wire around the garden. Poor Mazie is not doing well at all, but she's trying her absolute best to solve two different cases and deal with her difficult mother and not violate the terms of her probation.




How to Knit a Murder by Sally Goldenbaum

All the Seaside Knitters really know about Rose Chopra is that she entered the yarn shop at the right time to save the inventory from a broken pipe. She's silent about her past, but she's a competent handy woman  and they all like her. Even when a member's husband turns up dead at a house Rose was doing repairs to, they want to trust their new friend.

I didn't realize when I picked this one to read that it's the thirteenth book in the series, but I wasn't left wondering what was going on between the characters. Even though there's obviously backstory involving the relationships and details I didn't know, I was able to thoroughly enjoy the mystery without wondering about what I'd missed in the previous books. There isn't a whole lot of knitting on the pages, but the details of the coastal town made reading it a vicarious beach trip. I'll be looking for the earlier books in this series once I've pared down my to-be-read list a bit.

Disclosure -- I was provided with an advance review  copy of How to Knit a Murder. I bought NC-17. 

Safely in My Comfort Zone

Looking back, it turns out that I spent 2018 hiding out in my comfort zone.

I didn't get the sewing machine fixed, mainly out of fear that I could spend the money and still be stuck right where I am right now. I didn't pull out one of the vintage machines and figure it out. There was barely any sewing.

My socks were all stockinette and k2p2 rib, except for one pair which barely counts and Finding the Yellow Brick Road, which I've been avoiding as much as humanly possible. Those closed cables aren't even hard, they're just fiddly.

I got more adventurous with the shawls and I successfully cross-stitched a couple of things without gridding my fabric first, but basically I spent 2018 doing lots of things I'd done before. Without realizing that I wasn't trying anything new or different.

So there's my goal  for 2019! And I've already started in on something very new and different and maybe a little bit intimidating. I'll tell you about that soon.

What are you working on in 2019?