Instant Pot Chicken Soup and Rice During The Shelter In Place Order

Being stuck at home amidst the "Shelter In Place" (stay at home) order in Illinois, my wife said, "Let's make Instant Pot Chicken Soup with Rice"!  So that's what we did!

We put chicken breasts cut into squares and potatoes into the pot and seasoned it with salt, pepper, oregano and other seasoning.  The potatoes were placed in aluminum foil inside the Instant Pot to keep it from falling apart during the pressure cooking and then added into the soup after the pot was done cooking  I cooked the soup using the program button labeled "Stew" for about 35 minutes after the pot hit pressure and then manually released the pressure after 5 minutes.  After removing the aluminum foil for the potatoes, I added frozen peas, two cans of corn, two cans of mushrooms and one can of kidney beans along with corn starch to thicken the soup a bit.  The soup was then heated up again with the Saute button until it came to a boil.

Scooping the soup over some rice made it complete.  Tasted great!

Two Pork Butts For Pulled Pork During The Covid-19 Coronavirus Order To Stay At Home

 

 

While it was tough walking with a cane to set up my 18.5" Weber Smokey Mountain smoker, it felt good to get out and finally do some smoking!

I have 13 lbs of pork butt on the smoker to make pulled pork to last us for a while. I went to Costco today at 8 AM for the early shopping reserved for those 60 years old and / or disabled (I qualified for both) and purchased the meat. Wow, the line to get in was out the door and all the way down as far as you can go! The Costco building is the farthest building you can see in the photo.

I rode my own mobility scooter this time because it moves a LOT faster than Costco's scooters. Besides, I figured there might be some in this group of people who might need it and my own scooter is always in the trunk of my car.

It was the first time I wore an N95 mask (it fogs up your glasses when you try to breathe!) and I wore disposable gloves. I got in quickly as the line to get in moved fast and I was one of the first to get out too in the checkout line (no waiting) since I was zipping by everyone faster than they can walk and I knew exactly what I needed to buy.

The pork butt on the top grate finished in 6.5 hours... cooking mostly at 220 degrees and then ramping up the temp to 300 degrees at the tail end. Wrapped at about 3 hours into the cook. Placed in an aluminum pan with some apple juice for moisture. The pork butt in the middle grate was moved up to the top grate. I find that middle grate meats always cook slower. It took about 9 hours to finish cooking.

Pizza From A Kit

My wife doesn't like cheese, so we made only my side of the pizza with cheese!  The kit includes the crust and sauce only.  We had to add our own cheese and pepperoni.

She did not like this pizza because she said the dough tasted too "yeasty".  She also thought the pepperoni that was purchased had some kind of after-taste to it.  For me, I was fine with all of it.

Banana / Chocolate Chip Bread

My wife and I are stuck inside as we go through the 2020 Covid-19 Coronavirus "Stay At Home" order by the Governor of Illinois.  So, to make things more tolerable, she made Banana / Chocolate Chip Bread!  Tastes great!