Instant pot fails & success

InstantPot FAIL:  Sweet potato.  Takes too long.  It never got soft.  I ended up putting it in the microwave oven.  Ol' tried & true worked.  10 minutes (for the quantity I was making).

InstantPot FAIL:  Whole, intact head of cheesy cauliflower:  Takes too long, never got soft.  Finished it in the microwave oven.  Still wasn't quite right but it was edible.  Next time I'll either do the electric steamer or the wok steamer.

InstantPot FAIL: Meat loaf.  I meant to cook this in the instant pot. First off, I forgot the tomato paste & didn't have one in the pantry.  Secondly, I don't have a bottle of ketchup.  I was squeezing a million condiment packets.  Lastly, it was a really cold evening.  I wanted to turn on the oven.  What better reason than to cook a meatloaf in a loaf pan.  I've freeformed meatloaf before, but it still looked like a loaf.  Never had a round meatloaf before.  Anyway it stores better in the loaf pan.

InstantPot SUCCESS:  Kind sorta pozole.  I've never met a pork roast I liked.  I usually just eat the hominy out of pozole.  But if Mom doesn't eat this, I have to eat the whole thing myself.  My first/last attempt at pozole 25 years ago was awful.  This time, I used ground pork for that porky flavor.  I actually used spices this time.  I skipped ground coriander--don't have any, didn't miss it, but I added garlic powder.  I thought I had stewed tomato in the cupboard, but I didn't, so I substituted tomato paste.  It still worked out, love it!

WaffleMaker FAILs:  I found my waffle maker.  Blueberry waffles--meh, half-fail.  Tasted great, looked like a pile of shit.  I had one perfect waffle pair.  Tried cooking bananas.  They were too ripe.  Abandoned the mess after the first batch, went back to the skillet.  The waffle maker is non-stick, well greased, still crappy.  I still want to try a thicker waffle batter before I give up.  I seem to remember previous successes.

Kitchen SUCCESS:  Before the pozole, I organized my spice cabinet with 4oz, 8oz, & 12 oz ball jars.  What I had was a conglomeration of everybody's spices: mine, Mom's, my brother's, and now my Aunt's.  Got rid of anything older 5 years.  Yea, I know the limit is 2 years but peppercorns, bay leaves, & salt last forever.  Mom still had some spices dating back to the 70's (gone).  I had lots of opened duplicates like 4 cans of baking powder, 3 cans of salt, 3 cans/boxes of baking soda, 3 sources of pepper corn, 3 sources of bay leaves, 3 (open) bottles of olive oil.  I only kept what I cook with, with one exception: I kept Auntie's saffron only because it's so expensive.  No idea what to do with it, but I kept the dusty bottle of balsamic vinegar for 12 years (now gone) for no better reason.  I guess I'll be doing alot of baking this year.

NEXT is going to be a lemon cheesecake only because I miss my Aunt's.  I'm trying to figure out her recipe, which she claimed she got off a box of Philadelphia Cream Cheese when I asked for her recipe.  I'm leaning toward a no-bake cheesecake because it uses powdered sugar, which I don't know why I have a big bag.  I don't know why Auntie had so many boxes of powdered sugar.  I think it's for cheesecake.

I will attempt pozole again in a month.  I'm actually going to use a can of tomatoes and a can of chili to see if it's any better.  At lunch I had it with quesadilla's, perfect.  Tonight I had it with Tostito's  chips, which made the pozole taste like it needed more salt.

EDIT:  Chalk up another success:  Chinese cabbage.  I usually saute this vegetable dish on the stovetop because if you don't use a big pot, you have to cook down a batch, add more cabbage, cook it down, etc.  So I have the 6 quart Instant Pot.  I cooked down the stems first before adding the greens.  So nice to not have to stand over the the stove for 30 min.  Used quick (steam) release method.