Pampered Chef Rice Cooker

I've never done a cookware review before on this blog, but I haven't cooked anything new to this blog lately, (it'd be repeat recipes) and I wanted to post a fresh post.  I thought, hmmmm...I made rice today and I LOVE my rice maker.  Why not write about it?

I didn't even want the Pampered Chef rice cooker, but I had a party for my friend Jenna who sells it, and I got a bunch of free stuff.  I had to pick something in the range I had coming and she recommended it.  I didn't even use it forever, because I thought how silly to use a microwavable rice cooker to do what I can do in the same time, basically, on the stove.

Boy was I wrong.  This little, black, three piece cooking vessel is nothing short of a miracle in the microwave.  It makes rice all by itself.  No hassle, no mess, no over boiling, no problem. 

All you do is put the right measurements of rice to water, usually 1 to 2, with salt and olive oil or butter, stir, seal it with the two top pieces, and then put it in for 15-20 minutes depending on your microwave intensity.  Then let it rest without opening it for 5-10 minutes and voila!  Magic rice.  Perfect, like the restaurants make it.  I eat it all the time.  It's so good I could eat it by itself.

Why is it better than doing it on the stove?  No temptation to stir.  No burned bottom if you don't have the good simmer setting on your stove.  No overboil sticky mess to clean up.  And the dish cleans up without any scrubbing at all.  Just run your soapy sponge over it and forget about it.  Oh, and it's better than an electric rice cooker because I can put it in the frig when it cools and keep my rice in there, or even add other ingredients to it while it's hot and store it in there.

If you don't have one, get one.  You will love it.  I've actually thought of getting a second one for days when I've already used it and I need more rice. 

Pastorelli Sauce

I haven't done a product review on my blog before, but I'm going to start today.  I haven't cooked in a few days so I have nothing to add.  It was my birthday and we went out, but I already reviewed the restaurant.  Today's my dad's birthday, so I will be eating at my parents' house.  I thought I'd write about the putanesca sauce I'm using in my lunch.

I'm making spaghetti putanesca and I could make it from scratch easily, but today I went with the jar and a quick boil of pasta.  Easy, fast, and good.  Pastorelli sauce is sold more widely than when I first used it.  I first found it at a specialty Italian food store, Tenuta's in Kenosha, for about $3 a jar.  It's so good, like I made it homemade, and nobody can tell the difference in a pinch.

This jar is called "zesty putanesca" and it lists the ingredients.  What I like about the sauce, other than how great it tastes, is that the ingredients are natural and I can read them and know what they are.  Literally:

Tomatoes, tomato puree, onion, artichoke hearts, black olives, capers, extra virgin olive oil, portabello mushrooms, sea salt, sugar, garlic, basil, spices and crushed red chili pepper.  That's it!  No weird gums or colors or preservatives or things I can't pronounce.  It's made in Chicago.  Go figure.  I love Chicago Italian food, and I love my Chicago Italian too.  No surprise I love their sauce.

I've used their other sauces too.  David likes the Garden Marinara when he makes himself dinner.  I love the Spicy Sicilian Arabiata, and I use it for baking pastas.  It all bakes well, coats the pasta well, and doesn't need a thing to doctor it up.

It only has 70 calories in a half cup too.  Great stuff.  Grocery stores around here are starting to carry it for over $5 a jar.  If you can get to a specialty store, you might get it cheaper.  I still pay $3.19 at Tenuta's.

P.S.  I viewed the website to get the photo, but then I got lost in the story of the company history, which is a family history.  Amazing story.  These folks are responsible for Roma tomatoes, Contadina (though they sold it off years ago), jarred sauce after WWII when brides were still working, and several other food icons in America.  Shows what a little passion and ambition can get you.