Monthly Archive for March, 2009

I love my rice & veggie steamer.  My husband and I were trying to remember how long we’ve had it, and we can’t.  We think we got it when we moved to the apartment in this (then new) state, which would make it 10 years old, but we may have gotten it when we moved into this house, which would make it eight years old.  Either way, it’s been with us a long time, and we love it.

It makes a perfectly fluffy batch of rice.  Asparagus are just the right amounts crisp and tender.  Our special recipe of chopped red potatoes with peppers, onions and carrots come out perfect every time.  We’ve experimented with various spices, and it’s one of those appliances that we use at least once or twice a week.

A couple months ago, I was going to make rice with dinner, and I was so proud of myself for getting things ready on time.  For once, I wasn’t scrambling!  Then, my hubby called to tell me he was going to be a little later than anticipated, and after I got off the phone with him, I fretted about the food getting cold.  For once, I’d not needed to rush around, but wouldn’t you know it?  I’d have things done too early.

I sat at the table reading a magazine while Claire played, and I decided not to worry about it.  I could hear the rice steamer just tick-tick-ticking away, and I decided not to worry about cold rice.  We could always reheat it.  The steamer dinged, and I went to stir it up.  (I often mix a beef bouillon cube in with it, and I wanted to be sure the flavor was well mixed.)  I was careful to open the lid so as not to be burned by the steam, only what greeted me was not what I expected.  It was soupy!  The water I’d added to the special rice bowl was still there, and the rice wasn’t cooked!  What had happened here!?

That’s when I realized that the steamer wasn’t plugged in.
Doh!

Click photos to enlarge.

This is the super-helpful timer that works even when the steamer doesn’t.

Note to self: The timer will tick-tick-tick away, and the dinger will sound when it’s done, but that doesn’t mean the device is actually on!  I hadn’t noticed that the steamer wasn’t actually steaming!?  You’ve got to be kidding me!

So, I quickly plugged in the steamer and reset the timer.  I couldn’t believe that I was going to be rushing around after all!  (Needless to say, the rice wasn’t too cold before he got home.)

Since then, I’ve realized how pesky that steamer can be, and I’ve been sure to keep my eye on it.

Another quirky caveat to our steamer is the instruction manual.  If you’ve never used a steamer like this before, it can be daunting.  There is an inner level of water you need to fill, depending on what you’re steaming.  There is tray with a space for spices that you set above this reservoir.  Then, you put the main compartment on top.  Inside this compartment you put your food to be steamed, or if you’re doing rice, you insert the special rice bowl.  Capping all of this is the lid.

This instruction manual has seen better days.

We know how to assemble the steamer, and we could do that in the dark.  But, it’s the intricate details of water level and timer settings that we never remember.  The manual also offers great suggestions for spices to pair with each food item.  You can see by the photo above that the book has been used so much that it has a perma-fold where the good info starts.  We keep it in the cupboard next to our cookbooks, and we couldn’t live without it.

Or, so we thought.

Look what I found on the back of the steamer!

I cannot tell you how many hundreds of times we’ve used this steamer, and neither my husband nor I knew this was on the back of it!  I just happened to see it on Sunday night as I was reaching to get it down off the shelf.

So many meals start with me grabbing the book, folding it over to the page I need, and setting the steamer up accordingly.  I’ve often wondered what would happen should something dreadful happen to the manual.

And, now I know:  Nothing.  Most of what we need has been on the back of the steamer the whole entire time.  (Granted, not everything is on the back, but enough to get by in a pinch…)

All this time I thought I was relatively observant.  Meanwhile, the steamer has been gathering information to prove otherwise.