Putting All My Eggs in One Basket

I thought the easiest thing to start with would be hard-boiled eggs. I love them, for one thing, and it made sense to try something really basic for my first attempt. Plus I found this article, which listed eggs as one of “the first seven things to make with your new Instant Pot.”

I have learned some things about myself today.  First, I’m really impatient and should read instructions.  I didn’t know, for example, that after pushing a function button, you have only 10 seconds to adjust the timer.  I couldn’t figure out how to get the $*&% thing going and had to resort to…well…reading the manual.

Then I thought I’d followed instructions. I put four eggs , which I’d gotten to room temperature per suggestions I’d read in the Instant Pot Facebook Community page,into the steaming basket that came with the pot. I added a cup of water, per instructions. I put it on the manual setting and set it for five minutes (as the “first seven things”) article specified.

Then I waited and…nothing happened. The second thing I learned about myself is that I’m not very intuitive and my instincts are nearly always wrong.  The “first seven things” article said “Close the pot” (check), “close the vent valve…” and…um. I didn’t know which way to close the vent valve, which is on the top of the pot. There’s a setting for venting and a setting for sealing.  Since it said “close the vent valve,” I assumed that meant “turn the valve to venting.”  WRONG.  Again, reading the (not very clear) manual made this more apparent.

Now I’m on Round 2 with the eggs. The valve is set to “sealing.”  It beeped three times after I set the timer for five minutes.

And…I realized that I set the timer for five hours, but it wasn’t doing anything anyway. I canceled the job, and now I think I’ve killed it. It won’t turn on at all!

EDIT:  OK, haha.  It’s not dead. I just managed to knock the power cord loose in all my flailing around with the lid.  I gave up on the eggs and have moved onto my Super Bowl chili.  See next post.

So far I seem to be better at blogging than the Instant Pot. WordPress is pretty easy to use!

Stay tuned…