Today I played.Okay, I also read things and took a nice long (FREEZING, BRRRR) walk with Spouseman, but mostly I played with my new Instant Pot.I had some perishable foods I'd been neglecting because March totally got away from us, and we scrounged for meals several nights I planned on cooking. The list"

• a full bag of yummy Yukon potatoes on the verge of going sprouty.
• too many sweet potatoes because I kept forgetting I still had a couple and bought more every time I shopped.
• Cream cheese & Greek yogurt tipping past their best-by dates. Ditto some eggs.
• Some bell peppers I had to turn into something before they got soft spots.
• various "'I'm tired of this variety but there's a couple left in the bag" apples going wrinkly and soft.

So there was that, and when I went to the desk to write Scooter looked at me from my chair with this LOOK that said, "Please no, Mom, I'm comfy here," and I needed to take my brain mostly offline for a recharge today anyhow.So. Playtime. I rummaged around the pantry & freezer, set up the Instant Pot, and Kitchen Magic happened. The pressure cooking function meant I could do a lot of slow-cooking dishes...fast. I didn't use any recipes, exactly. The Instant Pot came with a little recipe book, plus I hunted around for ideas online. Various blogs helped me cobble together an estimate of  how much pressure-cook time each food needed , plus I learned how to use the steamer rack that came with the pot.The peppers joined forces with chicken tenderloins from the freezer, canned tomatoes & tomato paste, plus some garlic to become italian-style chicken for tonight and tomorrow plus a batch for the freezer.Butter plus the aging dairy products & potatoes transformed into a big 'ol batch of cream-cheese-golden mashed potatoes. Again, some for now, the rest for later. Big win!(Yes, I know it's weird to eat chicken in tomato sauce with mashed potatoes, but I like mashed potatoes with everything, and Spouseman prefers it to pastas as a sauce base.)Apples got fast-cooked to soften, and then slow-cooked with the lid off to become smooth, sweet, delicious applesauce. There's always a use for that.  And the sweet potatoes got steamed and then peeled once they were cool. So now I'll have sweet potato mash available for reheating at lunch time all week.Also, while grabbing the chicken from the freezer, I found blueberries from last summer and some bananas. Well. Couldn't ignore a hint like that, could I?  Of course not. I turned those into blueberry banana cake and baked it while one of the other things was working up a head of steam in the pot.Because why NOT make cake too, right? Of course right.Today was about letting the brain rest, for tomorrow, it's back to the hard stuff. Revisions & additions.  It's also the fun stuff, but still. W-O-R-K.Until later.