Who knows why a “bug” gets into our heads and convinces us there is something we just must have or do. My husband just loves it when this happens–NOT! My new “bug” was buying a rice cooker. We don’t eat much rice. It’s not that we don’t want to, I just don’t like “instant” products and haven’t been super successful cooking rice on the stovetop. Soooo, I got it into my head that I MUST have a rice cooker after seeing one in a cooking show. The hunt began.
I don’t (usually) just go to the store and buy a product. I (usually) research first. I don’t have excess moolah to throw away on products that don’t work for me. But I got in a hurry this time and didn’t quite finish my homework. Bed Bath & Beyond had a beautiful Cuisinart model that beckoned me. Buy me! I’m the one! So I did. Before unpacking it I went online to read the reviews. OUCH! Bad, bad choice! It went straight back to the store and didn’t even see daylight.
After paying the price for my erring ways, I googled, amazoned, and looked at any website I could find with info and reviews on rice cookers. I knew I wanted electric. I knew I wanted a good-sized one since I like to cook in bulk. I knew it had to cook brown rice–I learned in my research that not all of them do.
The number of products out there was astounding. I tend to go with established brand names, but the offerings ranged in price from $30 to $475! Wow! I had to decide if I needed one with fuzzy logic or not. Well, I really didn’t have to decide because the budget dictated that decision. I had finally narrowed my choice down to 3 brands in the mid-range price category.
After research, my next step is to locate one locally. I am a have-to-look-at-it kind of gal. I want to take it out of the box and inspect it. I want to read the instruction manual. I want to read every piece of text on the box. Wouldn’t you know it? No one around here sells any of them. I looked everywhere. I am a bit leery about ordering online if I haven’t seen the product. I was about to bite the dust and do just that.
This decision coincided with my hair appointment. I figured since I was at the mall, I’d check out the only department store I hadn’t called or scoured already. Hmmmm….Dillard’s had a big rice cooker with a brown rice setting. I had seen the brand name, Aroma, but didn’t know anything about it. On the box was a big gold starburst sticker that touted “The Best Selling #1 Rice Cookers in America.” Ok. I am interested. I did my thing, took it out of the box, looked at the manual, etc. etc. and thought, “I think I’ve got something here….” But alas there was no price to be found. (Why is this????? Major pet peeve.) FINALLY a store clerk came to help me and had to go to the other side of the store in the dress department to scan the thing for price. This is where the universe all came together–the rice cooker that met all my requirements and was ON SALE! I got this for less than $40 including tax. I figured that if I tried it and found I needed something more, at least I would know and could later save my moolah to buy a fancy one (after I get my VitaMix, that is). Success!
I love this machine and am still experimenting with what it can do, scouring the Internet for rice cooker recipes, which includes casseroles, soups, steaming seafood, you name it. It will even bake! As Alton Brown of Good Eats teaches us, every tool in the kitchen has to be a multitasker. Rice cooker–check. I will be using this a ton and will greatly prefer it to my slow cooker–fast instead of slow. More to come later.
