Zojirushi Rice Cooker: Best rice ever!

Monday, I received the Zojirushi NP-HCC10XH Induction Heating System Rice Cooker. I’d been eyeing them for years; however, I did not purchase them since it seemed a bit”silly” to me to spend money on a rice cooker. Fast forward to now. My life is busier than usual, and I wanted a device to place my grains in and walk away.

Enter the rice cooker. Since I’m a loyal fan of Zojirushi’s products, I knew I’d buy that brand. Zojirushi is a Japanese company that makes top-of-the-line cooking equipment. I have several of their items, and I love them all. We mainly eat brown rice, and so I chose to cook that as my first selection. It wasn’t any old brown rice. I purchased this rice from Hmart, the Korean grocery store that I’ve been frequenting. At that store, they have an entire aisle dedicated to rice. Short, medium, or long-grain? Why yes, they do have that! Multigrain, brown, sweet, black, basmati, mixed. Yes, yes, yes, they have all those too! The challenge for me was deciding which rice to buy?

Although I make great rice in my pressure cooker, and on the rare occasion preparing it in a pot on top of the stove. The rice produced in the Zojirushi rice cooker is miles ahead of any rice that I’ve ever made.

Below, I’ve included two videos about the Zojirushi rice cooker, both were extremely informative videos about this brand.

Video from the Singing Cooking Man

 

Video from Appliance Buyer’s Guide.

 

That will be $750 and COVID update

Last month, while driving my car, I noticed that the air conditioner wasn’t working. It was in the ’70s, and I was headed home from work and would be on the road for at least 30 minutes, so the warmth was noticeable but tolerable. It’s not warm today. It’s about 50 F!  While I was hoping the issue was that my Toyota Prius needed freon gas, I was convinced it was the compressor after checking online. It turns out I was right. When I popped into the auto-mechanic shop on Wednesday, Pete (owner) called one of their suppliers to get a quote on the compressor. After he got off the phone, he looked at me and said, “You’re not going to like what I have to tell you!” I laughed and said, “I already knew it was going to pricey because of the look on your face.” My cost would be $750.

Although I wasn’t thrilled with the price, my local mechanic does excellent work, and his prices are always lower than anyone else in the area. Also, his turnaround time is fast. You usually have your vehicle the next day. My father uses them also, and Pete (owner) and many of the mechanics know him well. I dropped my car off last evening and picked it up about an hour ago. No complaints about the price/cost. I’m blessed that I have the money to fix the issue.

I’m still driving my 2003 Prius, and since I purchased it about four years ago, this has been my first high-cost fix. The front door’s power lock worked erratically shortly after purchasing the car, and the driver’s side completely stopped working a few years ago. Initially, I’d planned to purchase the actuator motor and fix it myself; however, I believe I’ll have my mechanic do that for me.

 

The second round of COVID shot went well.

My father’s second round of his COVID vaccinations went well. This past Sunday, I took him to Johns Hopkins for his second dose. I had my daughter accompany us. I dropped them right off at the entrance and parked my car at the garage that was right by the hospital. What’s great is, thus far, he has not had any side effects. On the day of his shots, my daughter and I stayed close if he did react. My mom was working that day, so that meant he would have been home alone. Since I’d read that some people do have side effects, it made sense for my daughter and me to spend the day with him to ensure that he was fine. Dad was a bit stubborn and told me repeatedly that he was fine; however, he did appreciate the concern and thanked me later that day. I had excellent role models. My parents did the same thing for my father’s parents when they were alive. My mother’s parents have been dead for several years. Since I’d already taken off the following day, the activities we’d planned to do Sunday, we postponed them until Monday. This past Monday, we went back to HMart and finally had a chance to see some Cherry Blossoms!

In other news…

I’ve been doing a lot of meal prep. I’ll have to post pictures of what I’ve been making. Later today, I do believe I’ll do some sewing and knitting, and tomorrow, we’ll be going to a local park that’s close to an airport so we can watch planes take off. We haven’t been to that park since my daughter was four years old.

 

 

Round two: COVID Vaccination

It’s been a little over three weeks since my father received his COVID shot. The day he received his vaccination, he told me that he was sleepy, and the remaining week, he had a sore throat, but other than that, he’s fine. Tomorrow, I’ll be taking my father in for his second dose of the COVID vaccination. Since he typically takes my mother to work (she’s a nurse), she’ll be coming along, and I’ll drop her off before we head on in for his shot. Dad’s appointment is at 7:30 am.

Immediately after his first shot, he told me that he did not need me hanging about for the second shot. But he changed his tune once he learned that his brother had a nasty reaction to his second dose of the vaccination. Guess what I wasn’t listening to him anyway. I still took time off work and told him I’d be hanging out with him to make sure he was okay. My brother was going to come down if I was busy. He’s not minding that I’ll be hovering about him. Since mom works tomorrow, it makes sense to be available if I’m needed. I’d taken off Monday also, just in case. However, my mother told me that she doesn’t work. However, I’ll stay off and plan to do things with my daughter on Monday.

Here in Maryland, they’re slowly opening up the vaccinations to more people. I find it interesting that while most people who work out of the home are eligible to receive the vaccination, not all are. What? If you think about it, that does not make that much sense since if you are working, your chances of being exposed to COVID are higher than those who are at home. My work is considered essential, so we were never shut down. However, even though we are essential personnel, we don’t meet the criteria for those allowed to get the vaccination. It’s a bit strange since I’m in an office setting, surrounded by many people.

I’m in no rush to get the vaccination. I typically have had nasty reactions to them and avoid them whenever possible. I most likely will be required with my job; at some point, I’ll choose the one that seems to have minor side effects. Currently, I’m still researching the ones available.

Credit Cards: Still a deadbeat and store credit cards

From my research on the internet, Deadbeat is a term used, by credit card companies, for those people who pay their credit card bills in full each month. I wrote about the term a few years ago on this website. I’m not too fond of debt, and so I typically pay my credit card bills in full monthly.

When I was furloughed because of the pandemic, I decided to carry a balance since I did not want to pull additional money from my savings. However, I paid more than the minimum payment monthly. Shortly after returning to work, I went back to having a zero balance on my credit cards monthly. I must say it feels great.

Last week, I applied and was approved for two store credit cards; Walmart and Target. I already have an Amazon credit card. I checked out the rewards, and the incentive offered using them at each store is more than I get from using my two credit cards. For example, Both cards offer 5% off purchases made at each store. I have a credit card that offers 5% cashback; however, the store cards also have additional perks for using their cards. So, it makes sense, to me, at least to take advantage of what the cards offered. Since I don’t carry a balance, there’s no risk of me paying any additional fees.

 

I don’t shop at Walmart too often, so that won’t get too much use. I mainly purchase items for my parents from this store.

However, I do purchase items from Target at least a few times monthly. I typically purchase my frozen fruit for smoothies from this store. With the Target card, I’ll have an additional 30 days to return my purchase if something is wrong with it, so that’s 120 days total. I rarely return items. However, that’s an excellent option to have.

I’ve never got caught up purchasing items that I could not afford, so there’s no risk of me going into debt because of my spending habits. I live well below my means. Paying with a credit card is more for convenience than anything else, and the protection that credit cards provide if my account has been compromised is nice also.

Back at HMart

HMart

This morning, my daughter and I returned to HMart, the Korean grocery store. We arrived at 9:45 and stayed about an hour. There’s so much to see in this store, and we had plenty of purchases to make.

A big bag of bean sprouts

They have large bags of sprouts! I don’t see that in the traditional markets, and so I bought one bag. I do make sprouts at home also. However, it’s been a while since I’ve done that. Purchasing the little containers at the regular grocery stores makes me think how much cheaper it is to make them at home; however, I’m not thinking about that at all with this oversized bag.

Large tubs of tofu!

They also had large tubs of tofu—another first for myself. We have a few tubs of the small tofu at home, so there was no need to purchase any of that today. However, when it’s needed, we’ll buy it from HMart.

Sea cucumber’s and fresh octopus

Since my daughter wanted squid, we went to the back, where they have their fresh and frozen seafood. They had live sea cucumbers and octopus here. I didn’t notice either last time, although my daughter noticed the octopus. I didn’t see them; I was experiencing sensory overload. The live octopi are kept in large aquariums. I must say I felt sorry for them, too bad I don’t have a large body of saltwater on our land. I’d have been tempted to purchase a few and set them free. We bought fresh squid at $8.99 apiece. I purchased two. The fresh octopus shown in the above picture alongside the sea cucumbers was (If I remember correctly) $5.99 each.

Some of our groceries

Once we were finished with the seafood, I stocked up on condiments; hot chili paste, bean paste, sour coconut paste, shrimp paste, linseed oil, fish sauce, more buckwheat noodles, and Chinese noodles. My daughter also selected milk tea and her much-loved bubble tea.

More groceries. I even bought a noodle basket.

They had noodle baskets at HMart, and I bought one of those. I had it on my wish list at Amazon; however, this basket was much cheaper at the store. Since I purchased many basic Asian supplies, I spent a lot more than I usually would. In total, I spent a little over $156. Last week, I spent a little over $70 at the same store. My weekly grocery bill averages $55. I have no regrets about either purchase, and I’m looking forward to returning to the market within a few weeks. Of course, next time, my purchases won’t be as high. I’ll just be returning for their vast selection of vegetables and whatever seafood my lovely daughter wants to try. Their prices are low, and the quality of their vegetables and fruit are amazing so that I won’t be spending much money.

Stir fry vegetables w/baby bok choy

 

After we put everything away, we prepared this dish! I used one of the fresh squids for my daughter’s portion, and there were plenty of vegetables sauteed and added to the dish to make me happy. We even had baby bok choy as a side dish. My daughter loved the flavors and is looking forward to making more Asian dishes.

Tomorrow, we’ll be choosing something from China: The Cookbook to prepare together. I found it at Barnes & Noble much cheaper than it was on Amazon. I’d wanted to get it at our local Barnes & Noble. However, it’s not available. We’ll be taking a road trip to another town, about 50 minutes away, to pick up another copy. On our way back, we’ll look at the cherry blossom trees.