Pre Kaia’s arrival, Sunday was always the day I did most of the cooking for the week. We’d usually never go anywhere or make plans that day unless it was near home, and I’d focus on food for the week. Then, I’d usually experiment with something new, project-type cooking that would require lots of different ingredients sourced from all over the place, lots of steps, and potentially take hours if not all day. Not much of that type of cooking has happened since she was born, but today almost felt like it. I finally decided that since I saw beef chuck on sale at Whole Foods that I would get to making beef rendang with Auria’s spice blend. I’d had so many rendang packets accumulated, but never got around to making it because I knew that even though she simplified the process by putting all the necessary spices in one pouch, it would still take hours of nursing over the stove and stirring every ten minutes. I decided this was the weekend. I put the oil, water, coconut milk, and spice blend in the Dutch oven. I let it come to a bubble, then added the beef chuck chunks, and then simmered… for FOUR hours. I had to stir it periodically in the beginning, then the last hour, stir every ten minutes, but the result was worth it: it tasted restaurant quality, and it was HOT. I just added some extra sliced makrut lime leaves and salt to the adult portion, and set aside a small bowl for Kaia’s meals this week. I knew it would be good, but I didn’t think that much about HOW good it would be.

On top of the beef rendang, which was already a project, I also made pumpkin spiced mini muffins, quinoa with homemade frozen stock, as well as pessarattu (spiced whole green moong dal pancakes) for the baby, plus white jasmine rice to go with the rendang. That’s five different things in a single day! This was almost like pre-Kaia Sunday cooking, except this time around, I was way more tired. I did all this in between feeding her, pumping, and cleaning. This is really what multi tasking looks like now as a working mom.

I had my friend come over for dinner on Tuesday night so that we could spend time together with Kaia. With a baby now, it’s easier just to have friends come over and hang out. Not to mention with my pumping schedule, I now pump right at dinner time, so it’s harder to go out in the evening. I prepared most of the food the day before, but I got annoyed with my packets of organic chicken thighs from Costco when I realized that my approximately two-lb bags seemed more like they were 1.5 lb. The total packets are supposed to be about six pounds total, and I’m pretty sure this total was less, which was why this packet was so small. After I prepared Tuesday night’s butter chicken, I looked at the pot and saw how little chicken there was, especially since meat always shrinks after cooking. There was no way we’d have any leftover butter chicken after my friend left! I thought. Plus, with my nanny eating some of the food, setting aside a small portion unsalted for Kaia, and the three adults, there was… just a lot of butter chicken sauce and some diced bell pepper left. I felt so disappointed at the end of the night, seeing how little leftover food we had.

That’s the thing about Asians who cook: we aren’t like most Western people. We get excited when we have leftover food. When it’s from a meal out, that means the cost per meal goes down. When it’s from food that you cook, it maximizes the time that you spent cooking that dish. Oh well. Now, I just need to know to double the butter chicken recipe next time and remember to use more chicken.

A few months ago, I discovered I made the biggest screw-up in my kitchen: I accidentally melted the side of my Instant Pot pressure cooking lid, which basically rendered the entire device useless outside of steaming, sautéing, and reheating. I was so angry at myself: I had made endless delicious meals in that Instant Pot over the last nearly four years, and to see I had completely ruined it steamed me to no end. Luckily for us, we had gotten it for free with Amazon credits, so it wasn’t the biggest waste, not to mention I had used it so much that I definitely got my money’s worth out of it.. even when it was free! So Chris suggested we upgrade to the Instant Pot/Air Fryer combination when Prime Day rolled around. Well, that happened this week, and so I decided to get the Instant Pot Duo Crisp.

The new Instant Pot Duo Crisp, which actually isn’t new, just new to me, has a lot of enhanced functions: of course, there is a second lid just for air frying, broiling, dehydrating, baking. The steamer rack has been improved in its design and sits up better; it just feels sturdier. And perhaps the greatest new feature is that the venting/sealing knob has been streamlined: now, the knob automatically sets itself to sealing (previously, you had to manually set it, and well, people forget…), and it allows you to push a button to vent. You also have the option to turn it to stop the venting completely. This prevents overcooking and allows you to control when you can safely open the lid. I didn’t completely appreciate this until I saw it in action, but it’s a really great step up. It simplifies the use of the Instant Pot even more and makes it more dummy proof.

The instructions are also a lot clearer if you choose to read them. They have charts describing what exactly is happening in the pot and when, depending on what setting you use. They even have cute little sayings in the manual like, “Turn on the Instant Pot. Go ahead: don’t be afraid! You can do it!” They do this because they know a lot of people are so excited to buy the Instant Pot, but when they finally take it out of the box, they are so scared of blowing up their kitchens that they let it sit there for weeks on end with no use. In the back of users’ minds, they are thinking of the pressure cooker that blew up someone’s kitchen counter or sent an innocent user to the emergency room.

Anyway, I’m so happy to have a working Instant Pot again. I’ve already done the water test, made dal, and steamed sweet potatoes in it just in the last two days. I feel like my kitchen is whole again.

Ever since going back to work, I’ve been thinking more about how to get dinner on the table in the quickest way possible while also eating tasty but nutritious food. Most of what I’ve been thinking about as of late has been around one-pot meals. Ever since baby’s arrival, it’s not like I’ve had all the time in the world to tinker with recipes and research new foods to make, but I hope to get back to more experimental cooking soon.

I was preparing orechiette pasta with hot Italian sausage and broccolini on Wednesday and wanted to slice some garlic cloves for the sauce. I took a garlic bulb and tried to split it with my hand as I normally do. Somehow, out of nowhere, I felt pain in my thumb and middle finger, as though I had cut myself. I put the split bulb down and looked at my fingertips… AHHHHHHH. I had multiple tiny cuts in my thumb and a long slit in my middle finger on my left hand.

Seriously? Garlic bulb skin can cut you???? The middle fingertip cut looked like a papercut, but the tiny cuts all over my thumb tip looked miserable, like tiny wrinkles and broken blood vessels.

I usually use my instant Pot a lot, as in probably every other week. However, since the baby has arrived, I really haven’t used it that much. I made a lot of things that were ready to eat and placed in our freezer before the baby came, and a number of those things were actually made in the Instant Pot. During this time, I also made food that was pretty simple and quick… At least, by my own standards. Most of those things did not involve the Instant Pot. So I’ve had the Instant Pot sitting near the window by the stove, and occasionally, I would put the lid on the counter right by the stove. Usually, I will try to be careful and will make sure that the lid would be on the counter. But occasionally, I have left the lid on the stove and I never really thought that much about it. 

That is…. until today. I got everything ready to make a dal in my Instant Pot, and I realized that for some reason, the lid was not fitting onto the top of the pot. It was just not clicking shut. I even got a little notification on the Instant Pot screen telling me that the lid was not secure. This was very strange. I had never encountered this issue before. I removed the lid and inspected it on the inside and out. Oh crap, I realized. I noticed that one part of the lid had actually melted, and it had melted in such a way that the lid would no longer fit on the Instant Pot. And even if it did, it would not close. And if the pressure cooker were on, an explosion would probably happen. But well, Instant Pot is super safe, so the pot would never get to that point because it would not turn on for safety reasons.

We contacted their support, and they offered a 20% discount, but their lids are all out of stock. What the hell am I supposed to do now?