What not to do, twice

Thought of the Day…Making mistakes simply means you are learning faster. ~Weston H. Agor

The Offspring and I both love sweet potatoes. I know there are people out there who don’t like them… such as Hubby, but we love ‘em. For the last few years I have been using a pressure cooker to cook them. No problem…

…they cook quickly and don’t dry out… and don’t take too much time…

Well… tonight, as this post title suggests I ran into a bit of a problem…

For some reason the last time The Offspring and I bought sweet potatoes we bought big ones… these were over seven inches long and at least three inches in diameter. Actually, let me rephrase that… they were HUGE! What the heck was I thinking?!?!?

These were going to take a bit to cook… I figured 10-15 minutes. So I added 1 cup of water, set the timer for 10 minutes and went on fixing the rest of dinner. While I was outside checking the grill for the buffalo burgers I could smell the sweet potatoes… YUMMMM…

When I got inside I smelled something… a little bit of scorch… Oh NOOOOOOO! I dashed to stove and turned the heat off and grabbed the pot and took it to the sink for a quick pressure release by running cold water over the lid.

When I opened it… lifted the strainer out and UGH! The bottom of the pot was all black and crusted… UGH!!! (oooops… I’m repeating myself). AND… the sweet potatoes were FAR from being done! 🙁

The Offspring and I really wanted the sweet potatoes… so I cooled the pot down some more and reached for the Bar Keeper’s Friend* and a paper towel. I started working to clear out all the burnt yuck off of the bottom.

Baffled by the result, I grabbed the instructions for my pressure cooker and it reads that if you cook more than 10 minutes to use 2 cups of water. I was only cooking for 10 minutes… but then I put the strainer back in the pot and added 2 cups of water and set the time… again…

Just as the timer was going off I smelled scorch! AGAIN!!! UGH! GIVE ME A BREAK!! At least this time it’s not as bad, seriously this may look bad, but it’s not as bad as the first time… I didn’t think to get a photo – never thought I’d mess up TWICE!

To top it all off… the sweet potatoes … were NOT done! TRIPLE UGH!! The I did the unthinkable… well… at least in a Chef’s mind… tossed them into the microwave…

When I took the buffalo burgers off the grill… being careful to not over cook them… the weren’t done! Had to finish cooking them as well.

We ate dinner in courses… first the veggies…. then the burgers… then finally the sweet potatoes… Needless-to-say things didn’t go as planned. After dinner I dreaded cleanup… especially since I had already cleaned the pot once before tonight!

Once again, I grabbed the Bar Keeper’s Friend and to work I went…

Ahhh… now that’s better!

Thanks for listening to my whining! 😀

Lesson learned… don’t by monster sized sweet potatoes… or is it cut the dang things up into smaller pieces… or ?????

What lesson did I learn tonight???

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