What to Know BEFORE You get a Pressure Cooker

Guaranteed you’ve seen people talking about pressure cookers. We know, we posted about them just last week. Most people love them. They rave about how amazing they are and how they’ve changed their cooking habits because of it. But, what about the things they don’t talk about? Or if you’re looking at getting one and want to know more about them before you go all in and spend $200 on a tool that might just end up taking up space. We’re diving into what you need to know before you hit that shiny ‘buy now’ button.  

Before we dig in, just what is a pressure cooker? Sure there are tons of different name brands, and these days many of them have 3 billion different functions. A basic pressure cooker though, that is a pot with a lid that you can seal and lock into place. The pressure within the pot is controlled by one, or multiple, valves that trap steam inside the pot.  

If you want  to learn more about pressure canners and cookers and their history, check out this article over at Foodal. They go into how the pressure canner and cooker got started and why so many of us have stories of  them exploding. 

It takes time and a lot of research 

As with any new piece of equipment, it takes time to learn about it. Read the manual end to end, and then once more for safety’s sake.  The booklet that came with your pressure cooker is not only going to be your best friend, it’s also going to keep you safe. On top of that, finding what ways you  can use a pressure cooker for your family is going to be different than anyone else. Some people use them just to cook components for a meal, some people use them to cook the entire meal. Figuring that out is going to be a labor of love. (As many people have pointed out, make sure to have a backup meal and keep notes as you go. ) 

Things to try and figure out ahead of time:

What would you use it for most? 

Size- They come in everything from a 3 qt size to a 12 qt size. Consider the space in your kitchen as well as the space in your sink. (Nothing is worse than trying to clean a pot you can’t fit in your sink in the first place. 

Functions - What functions do you want on your pressure cooker? 

Brand- While we don’t normally suggest specific brands for small appliances, we know that people do have brand loyalty, and that some brands are more trustworthy than others. Consider this when you’re doing your research. 

There are many different brands out there, and you don’t want to waste money getting one that doesn’t fit your needs. 

It’s less a question of ‘can I cook it’ than ‘should I cook it’? 

The internet is full of curious, wonderful, inventive people. They’ve found all sorts of things that you can cook in a pressure cooker. The question comes down to should you. Will you like it, will it taste good? We don’t have all the answers. What we do know is that all sorts of things have been discovered to be possible and that it’s up to you to find out if they work for you and your family.

The ‘exploding pressure cooker’ has become  a thing of the past, mostly. 

We say it this way because there are two things that no amount of engineering can get rid of. 

1. Accidents happen. Distraction, clogged seals, overfull pot, all of these things can contribute to having a lid go flying. 

2. People have heirloom pots. You know the one that your great grandmother passed down? Yeah. They work great, but if you’re not paying attention, they are far more likely to go off than the more safety conscious ones of today. 

It will continue cooking even after you turn the heat off. 

As with all foods, unless you stick them into an ice bath immediately after removing them from the heat, they are going to keep cooking. This is especially true for pressure cookers, both of the stove variety and the electric variety due to the pressure. As Clotilde of CnZ points out, consider removing yours from the heat a few minutes before the recipe is officially done cooking. 

The cooking time doesn’t begin the minute you turn on the pot. 

Like cooking in the oven you have to let the pot reach the ideal temperature and pressure before the actual cooking time begins. It’s a small thing but one we wish we had known for our first cooking attempt. 

You don’t only clean the pot, you also need to keep the sealing components clean. 

It’s not enough to just wipe down the surface of the sealing components and be done. Today’s kettles are built so that if all of the pieces don’t align properly, the unit won’t pressurize at all. It’s a safety feature, but one that means you have to be very thorough in what you’re doing. 

You might not like it. 

Even after everything. All the researching, all the testing. You still might not like it as was the case for Rachel, the blogger of Feast and Farm. That’s ok! As she points out, there are other ways to cook fast meals and not lose out on the flavor. 

So, do you think that you’ll still get a pressure cooker? Let us know in the poll over on Facebook, we’d love to hear from you. Remember that if your larger appliances are giving you trouble, reach out and we’ll be happy to help. We want to help all of our clients in Dallas and surrounding areas to keep your homes running in tip top shape even during this chaotic time.

The History of Tile in 5 Stops

Look around your kitchen or bathrooms, or those in magazines, and you're likely to see tile of one variety or another. Used to bring color to a room, to draw your eye around a space, or just to create a stunning mosaic, tile is a versatile decorative art.  Today we're going on a tour around the world, exploring some of the oldest and most beautiful examples of ceramic tile work. We'll travel around the globe to Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Rome and Byzantium.

Ancient Mesopotamia 12,000 BCE

Currently the oldest known glazed bricks (the predecessors to tiles) are those in the Elamite ziggurat of Chogha Zanbil. These date back to the 13th century bc. While they were 'only' glazed kiln fired bricks, it's still the oldest example of advanced pottery that archaeologists have found. An amazing example of this is the Ishtar gate that's been partially rebuilt at the Pergamon museum in Berlin. It's thought that the kiln fired bricks (an upgrade from sun-dried bricks) were developed as a protective outer coating for the more important buildings. Examples here include temples, gates, walls, and palaces. On top of being more easily decorated, kiln fired bricks were also extremely durable and made the structures stronger. (Just think how far we've come! From making buildings more durable to decorating our homes! Although those bricks would still be nice if you were building a custom outdoor kitchen. )

Egypt: 4,700 BCE

Photo Belongs to Hannah Pethen

Ancient Egypt is our next stop on this journey, as it's where tile work seems to have originated. The technique is called "faience," and it can be either translucent or opaque. Made of sand or crushed quartz, it was primarily used to bring shades of green, blue and turquoise to pieces. Tiles spread from being used to coat the homes and tombs of the wealthy to also being used for pottery and jewelry. (Of course the pieces were much smaller when they were used for the latter two.) We think these tiles would be amazing in the bathroom, and so soothing as well.

Rome: 200 BCE

In Rome we see something new: the concept of using multiple tiles to create a larger image, the mosaic. While this had been done before with pebbles and chips of stone, this is where mosaics started to be crafted out of tile.  Instead of every tile being carved and painted individually, smaller tiles were created to be brought together into great mosaics that covered the floors of the wealthy, or the public spaces across the empire. Known as opus vermiculatum, one of those that championed this art-form was Sorus of Pergamon , "whose work, especially his Drinking Doves mosaic, was much copied for centuries after." This was also the first time that colored grout was used to match the colors of tiles. Mosaics are still very popular today and can be utilized all over the home. Take a look around your home and consider where you might put a painting and then imagine a mosaic instead.

Byzantium: 400 CE

Photo Belongs to Pallas Web

Skipping forward in time and moving eastward geographically, we come to the Byzantine empire. Here, mosaics and tile work were elevated even further. They were used everywhere. From sacred spaces as the Egyptians had done, to covering public spaces as the Romans had, to using them to depict their rulers, such as Justinian I. Of course, no discussion of the artwork surrounding ceramic tiles would be complete without touching on the Hagia Sophia. The ceramic tiles there have been added to and preserved over the centuries and are truly a fine example of the beauty of tile. Here we combined the artistry of mosaics with the glazes and fine drawings from both China and Iran to create some of the most well known examples even today.

China: 2100 BCE

As we head to China we also head back in time. "It is believed that, like so much in building technology, the use of baked clay tiles stemmed from China." While using baked clay tiles might seem more humble than some of the other masterpieces we've seen, never doubt that even the most simple of objects was ornamented. Even the first examples of pottery drainage pipes had geometric patterns carved into them, according to records from the time. As the technology continued to advance, beautiful pieces were created such as the tile ends that are traditional in a Chinese roof.

With five stops we've traveled around the world and through history, seeing how we went from glazed bricks to thin tiles like we use today. Whether you're looking to do a tile backsplash in your kitchen, or a floor for your bathroom, consider the history of tile. It might help you bring some interest to your home in a way you hadn't thought of before. Or you can just appreciate how far humanity has come as you admire your new subway tile. 

Thank you for joining us on this trip! Did you find it interesting? Let us know over on our Facebook, we'd love to hear from you. 

Do you have another example of home decorating arts that we can explore? Tell us in the comments and we'll be happy to look into it. 

And remember, if your appliances are giving you trouble, or they've broken down, give us a call and we'll set you up with one of our technicians. We're rated one of the best in Plano for customer service and appliance repair and we want to be there for you. 

How Do They Do Laundry In Space

Have you ever thought about how laundry is done in space? 

We hadn’t either until a client brought it up, wondering just how it is that astronauts deal with their dirty clothes in space. Digging into the material, we found that there’s a lot that goes into dealing with laundry, and none of it is what you think. 

At the moment, when astronauts go to the International Space Station, they bring clothes for their entire stay with them. With tours lasting up to six months, that can easily add up to 900 pounds of extra weight to the typical space launch!  And that’s for only six people. 

According to NASA the dirty clothing presents multiple problems. 

• Where to store the dirty clothes

• It’s still 900 pounds of weight 

• Lint from the clothes can clog filters 

• The SMELL.

And even though they’ve brought clothing, they can still end up wearing clothes for days on end before they can change.  Living in that way can spread germs, which actually multiply faster in space, and makes the astronauts susceptible to getting sick. 

Why Can’t They Do Laundry Like Us? 

Well, the short answer is that scientists and engineers, for all the amazing problems they /have/ solved, haven’t figured out how yet. 

The longer answer is that gravity and how water works doesn’t let them. On Earth water flows and falls to follow gravity until it hits something it can stick to via water tension.  In space, while water tension still exists, the water floats around in globules till it hits something. You can imagine that having the water and clothes floating around in your washing machine would make things difficult. Since water weighs so much and costs even more to transport than the clothing, it doesn’t make much budgetary sense to find a way to do laundry.  (Water costs $10,000 per pound to get to the ISS! Talk about being worth your weight.) 

In order to ensure that they have ‘enough’ clothes astronauts have to wait a week in between changing their underwear and even longer before changing their outer clothes. How long do you think it’ll be before their clothes develop the ability to move on its own do you think? 

What Do They Do Then? 

At the end of a long day, working out, studying space, and breaking ground for humanity, you want to change into clean clothes. As we’ve discussed though, astronauts only have a limited supply of clean clothes. So what are they supposed to do?

Astronauts have three options as of right now:  

They can wear the same clothes again

They can turn it into a fireball (our personal favorite) 

Use it to grow plants? 

So the first one is the most straight forward. Wake up the next day and wear the same clothes again. Repeat the process until you reach your next ‘clean clothes day’ and really celebrate when you do. Since the ISS is so  strictly monitored for temperature, the astronauts don’t sweat much, unless they’re doing their mandated workouts. 

Second up is the fireball! The majority of the shuttles that go to the ISS are non-reusable. The Russian Space Program sends up unmanned Progress shuttles that are only good for a one way trip.  This means that once they’ve made their trip up, they have to be disposed of in some fashion. What astronauts do is to load all of their trash, including their now (sentient?) clothing into the shuttle and sending it back to Earth. The course they set it on ensures that it burns up in the atmosphere rather than making it back to Earth whole. So the next time you see a shooting star, it might actually be a shooting shuttle? 

Last but not least is the curious experiment of one doctor, using his shorts to grow plants. Science Officer Don Pettit wanted to grow plants aboard the Shuttle to see what would happen. Unfortunately he didn’t have any soil. He took what he did have though, which was a pair of folded up underwear and ‘toilet paper’ to make a planter. “The toilet paper isn’t what we think of it consisted of two layers of coarsely woven gauze, 4 by 6 inches in dimension sewn together at the edges with a layer of brown tissue sandwiched in-between.” After solving a problem wherein the seeds were still too cold to germinate, Pettit managed to get both tomato and basil seeds to grow.  

If these three methods aren’t appealing, we have to say we understand. Fortunately there are scientists who are looking to find ways to keep astronauts and their clothes cleaner for longer. 

If you have other questions about things are done in strange places, you might check out this post from our favorite guest writer Todd, Who In the World Repairs Appliances On A Plane?

Did you learn something new? Do you have more questions? Tell us on Facebook! We’d love to hear from you. If your washing machine here on Earth is busted, or any of your appliances,  make an appointment with one of our technicians today. We want to keep your home in tip top shape. 

Additional Reading

How To Hand Wash Your Clothes

Remodeling Your Kitchen Guide: Part One

Have you ever looked around your kitchen and thought “I hate the way this looks. I really need to change it,”? 

It’s not unusual to have that feeling, whether you’ve been in a place for a while, or after you’ve just moved in. And certainly many of us have been staring at our walls long enough that we’re starting to daydream about ways to change things up. 

This poor man is bored silly.

Starting this week we’re going to be walking you through how to plan a  kitchen remodeling project. 

Before you get to start tearing out cabinets or painting walls, you need to create a budget.  After all there’s no point in picking out tile if you only have the funds for replacing cabinets and painting.  It’s also a good idea to prioritize. 

Start by taking a look around at what exactly you want to change. Make a list.  Do you love the window you have but want to re-frame it? What about new cabinets and appliances? Or are you looking even larger and wanting to take the room down to studs so you can expand or shrink it?  Or change it from a galley kitchen into something like a U shaped one?

This is where you start, by figuring out what all you want to do, and how much of it needs to be right now vs what you’d like to do in say 10 years. 

Based on the numbers prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus, a major remodel should be roughly 15-20% of the value of your home. So if your home is valued at $300,000, you should be setting aside something between  $40,000 -$60,000 for accomplishing this. Making this type of investment in your home can see a return of up to 85%. 

We took a look over at Lowes.com and found that they had a breakdown on doing a Refresh, vs a Minor Remodel, vs a Major Remodel. Many of the items repeat at every level because what changes is not what you are doing (say replacing a sink) so much as the cost of what you’re purchasing (such as that all granite sink.)

Refresh $1,500-$10,000 

MAY INCLUDE:

• Painting existing cabinets

• New cabinet hardware

• New countertops and backsplash

• New sink and faucet

• New lighting

• New window treatments

• One or more new basic appliances

• Painting your walls 

So if you're wanting to do a weekend project, this is what you are going to be looking at spending.

Minor Remodel $10,000-$25,000

MAY INCLUDE:

• New window treatments

• All-new budget-friendly appliances

• New countertops and backsplash

• New lighting

• New basic cabinets and hardware

• New ceramic tile or laminate flooring

The first three on this list would be able to be completed in a weekend, either by yourself or with someone else installing them. The second four though, unless you have someone installing them, are not going to be done in a weekend. 

Major Remodel $25,000+

MAY INCLUDE:

• Mid-level or premium cabinetry

• Professional-style appliances

• Stone countertops and backsplash

• Apron-front sink and pull-down faucet

• New island

• Stone flooring

• Multilevel lighting

• Designer window treatments

• Tearing out walls

• Redesigning your kitchen's layout 

Again, the first four are going to be something that can be done in a weekend. The remaining six not so much. These are ones that are going to take far more planning.  

According to Architecture Design Pro, 

" Costs of American kitchen remodels are as varied as the styles of homes across the nation. Spending ranged from $1,024 for a single replacement to upwards of $19,000 for a full remodel, with more than 48% of respondents indicating they spent over $15,000 on a complete renovation. If you're wondering what your fellow homeowners are splurging on, the study found that 48 percent of total spending went to appliances and cabinetry, whose average costs are $3,995 and $3,903, respectively. Some things are worth the investment."

The thing is you don't want to cut corners, but you also don't want overspend if you don't have to. Why pay someone else to paint your walls if you can buy the paint and get it done on your own in is how we look at things. By that same token though, and to continue the analogy, you don't want to buy the cheapest paint you can just to save money because it's going to look terrible not long after the paint dries.  It is a delicate balance that you have to consider when you’re organizing a project. A poorly done remodeling job doesn't just look bad and reduce the price if you ever decide to sell. They can also land you with structural problems for your home and expensive safety hazards that you then have to pay to have repaired. 

So, while you are considering your project at this phase, also look into these important questions. 

-Do you know the entire scope of what you're wanting to do? From the budget, to the materials needed, to the codes that your city and state requires? 

- Do you have the skills, knowledge and tools that are needed for every stage of the job? 

-Do you have the time needed for the project? 

-Can you deal with acquiring permits, licenses and having people do inspections? 

If the answers to some of these questions are no, that's alright. There are plenty of skilled tradesmen who are willing to take on the project for you! We commend you for knowing when you cannot do something yourself, and when to call in others. We'll circle back around in a later post to cover how to find contractors/builders/designers to help you in your remodel. 

If you answered yes to all of these questions, consider checking out this free printable from Lowes that covers everything from what layout you want to why you're doing this project and how you can pay for it. 

Thank you for starting this journey with us, and we hope to see you next time when we'll be talking about inspiration, layouts and features. 

If you have any questions, please, let us know either in the comments below or over on our Facebook. Or if you have any suggestions or topics that you'd like us to cover in the future, let us know about those as well. 

If on the other hand you need help with your appliances now, go over to our scheduling page and set up an appointment with one of our technicians. We're here to help for any all of your appliances and keeping your home running as smoothly as possible.