P'let's Instant Pot and Cooking Adventures

 Beautiful soup. I made it for John, since he'd just had mouth surgery.  But he didn't stay long today.  Wanted to beat the weather (didn't succeed, but tried). So, pork soup. Made soup today. Chunk of pork, a yellow onion, two potatoes, two packets of pork gravy mix, half an acorn squash, a grind of black pepper, and enough water to cover.  Set it in the crock pot on medium for 6 hours.  Nothing is mush, but everything is super soft.  It worked really well.  I just wanted to make sure I put the ingredients down on 'paper', so I don't forget it.  I almost forgot the dash of hickory liquid smoke.  not sure of amount.  Just a bit.   So yummy.  I'm glad that the veg didn't mush.  It is so nice. 

 I looked up how to make potato salad, using the IP today. I followed the recipe, as one does when one is a beginner.  I used this recipe: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/instant-pot-potato-salad/ It turned out pretty good.  Letting it chill in the fridge until tomorrow, for lunch.   Gonna grill some burgers and see how it goes with that. the hard boiled eggs were SUPER easy to peel.  I'd like them to be slightly more done, but for the purpose, they were good enough.   This was a nice recipe.

 This was YUMMY I did add some ham.   I think the next batch will have some smoke flavoring, too.  

 Which is to say that I'm PROMOTING!!!!! Herbivorous Butchers is opening a Vegan Fried Chicken Place!! Totally exciting! Herbivorous Butcher Herbie Butcher's Fried Chicken They're saying late spring.  :D

 I made (not in the instant pot -gasp!) liver and onions for dinner tonight. Turned out delicious, if you're John.  Turned out slightly less than "meh" if you're me. Either way it LOOKED quite lovely on the plate.   John had a lot of the onions.  I'm mostly an 'onion ok' sort of person, not a 'please smother it' person. So... qualified success.  Especially since I pretty much made it for him.  I just hoped that I'd be able to eat it.  Which I was.   Live dangerously!  Try a new food, or an old one that you didn't like before.  You might like it, you might not.  But, to paraphrase Auntie Mame: Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death.  

 Much glee!!!! My dragon from my awesome guy! :D

 Plastic fork tender.   I used this recipe: https://recipes.instantpot.com/recipe/your-new-favorite-pot-roast/ I modified just a bit.  Neither John or I care for a lot of rosemary or thyme.  So I substituted McCormick's Montreal Steak seasoning. I also under salted it, but that's easy enough to fix.  Just a side of cottage cheese, to offset the meat.