Appliance Love of the Week: Rice Cooker

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I love rice. More than bread, more than pasta... it's my carb of choice and when asked what the one thing I could survive on for the rest of my life would be... easy. Rice. But made stove top is just a giant fail for me. I cannot get it. There's too much rice, not enough water, too much water, it's burnt, it's bland, it's turned to mush. Fail.

So can I tell you how much I love my rice cooker? It's seriously the easiest appliance I own, and while you may be thinking that it's an unnecessary waste of shelf space, I make it work and I have a NYC sized kitchen (read, tiny!). If you cook rice a lot, or couscous, or quinoa, or even like to steam veggies you should seriously look into one.

I have a Cuisinart 4 cup stainless steel. It's so easy to clean (starting to see a common theme with my appliances?), it's fairly compact and it's fairly inexpensive, at $40-50 for this model. There's also an 8 cup for the larger families out there, but mine has worked just well for company and dinner parties. It's quiet, it cooks up rice quickly and you have to try really hard to mess it up- just follow the ratio instructions for whatever type of rice or other grain you're cooking.