Are there any household gadgets you found unexpectedly useful after you'd gotten them?

IonAddis@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 194 points –

I was thinking about how I missed having an indoor thermometer that measures humidity. It's such a small specific thing, one I'd never think of getting unless pushed to it (which I was by one particularly dry winter). But I like having one now.

What are your small, "random" or "junk drawer" type of gadgets that you actually use or like having around?

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What can you do with those?

  1. Put a layer of frozen meatballs on the bottom. I use Trader Joe's party sized balls.
  2. Add dry pasta
  3. Pour sauce over dry pasta.
  4. Fill sauce jar with water and dump that in.
  5. Put the lid on set it to go for 8 minutes on high pressure. Wait for it to finish and then release the pressure.
  6. Yum yum in the tum tum

8 minutes? Damn, it takes me that long just to boil water on the stove

As u/usernameblankface said, 8 minutes is the time it cooks while fully pressurized. It can take anywhere from a little over 5 minutes to a half hour or more to heat up everything inside enough to generate the steam necessary to pressurize.

Setting for 8 minutes means that it will heat up, build pressure, then start the 8 minute timer. It then beeps loudly when the time is up, so no need to set a separate timer or keep track of the thing.

We mostly use ours to make rice, potatoes, and artichokes. Not all at once but I guess we could. Oh, and for hummus we get the perfect chickpeas in like 45 minutes from dried. It's amazing.

On top of the other reply, soups, chili, ribs, whole chickens, the filling for chicken pot pie, pulled pork, shredded chicken for tacos, and so on.

On top of the other two replies: Mine has a setting to make yogurt. You just add milk and about a tablespoon of active culture yogurt

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