Rice Cooker

Left home, missed the convenience of a REAL electric rice cooker, but this is the SAME THING!

Pros: Cooks rice without me having to worry about burning it on a stove. It's just the same as a rice cooker...you measure rice, water, put it in the microwave and forget about it. I guess the only extra steps you do have to worry about is that when it's done, you do have to go close the steamer lid and wait a few more minutes.

Cons: Virtually non-existent...but I must list them anyway. It is slightly a pain to clean the entire thing when I'm done compared to an electronic cooker. The lid comes apart in two pieces and I have to clean that too. (I don't have a dishwasher so that's why I mentioned this). For some reason, my little veggie bowl does not look like the one in the picture. I haven't used it for veggies or pasta yet but mine is shaped more like a bowl. When you first take it out of the microwave, there will be some water settling on the top and might get it on yourself. It may scald you but...not badly since it's just a little.

This cooker replaced the National fuzzy logic that I had used at least 3-4 times a week for 5 years. With all the new rice cookers on the market it was hard to find one that had the features that I wanted, without a bunch that I didn't need. I really don't need to bake a cake in my rice cooker!! What I use the most are the slow cooker options and the rice options. I mostly make short grain brown rice and this model cooks it much faster than my old National. I also loved that this cooker came with an extra pan and lid for the slow cooker...which makes it a great value.

If it is important for you to know the length of the cook cycles, I suggest that you time them the first time you use them because the instruction booklet does not give the times for the cycles. My old National would show the length of the cycle when you started each cycle, i.e. when using the regular cycle it would show 43 minutes on the clock. This cooker only shows the time left when it gets down around 15 minutes. The brown rice cycle cooks in 75 minutes. I cooked quinoa on the quick cycle the other day and it was done in approximately 30 minutes.