Not just for rice - does SO much more!

This little appliance does so many foods! I do not know what I would do without this as part of my appliance collection (and I do not have many). Over the years I have tried many, many appliances and have narrowed my collection down to just a few prized pieces and this is one of them.

First, this does do a good job with cooking white rice. I did not find that it did a good job with basmati or brown rice. The basmati rice came out very sticky but did better if I toasted the basmati first then cooked in the rice cooker. The brown rice just does not get soft enough for me but that could be and probably is the nature of brown rice. White rice comes out nicely cooked, fluffy and not like mush. This cooker makes it super easy because you follow the guide that comes with this and start by placing water up to the line according to the servings you desire and then place a specified amount of rice (depends on how many you are serving). After that you just flip the switch to cook, cover and let it go! The cooker will automatically switch itself over to warm when the rice has finished cooking.

Now, for the good part of this cooker! In between moves we were staying in a small studio type apartment for about a week. I had mistakenly packed all of my cookware so off to the store we went. I found this and said I could use this to cook rice and steam veggies and that would be good for a week. The next morning we really wanted some eggs -- hmmm -- no skillets -- I decided to use the rice cooker to make some scrambled eggs. It cooked the eggs perfectly. I did not leave the cooker I just placed it on cook and stirred the eggs with a spatula until they were done then I switched the cooker over to warm manually and the eggs stayed warm throughout breakfast.

The next morning I tried making oatmeal and again it did a great job. For the rest of the week I had fun trying all sorts of things. We heated soup and kept it in there on the warm cycle and it did great -- we did the same thing with chili and stew. I also fixed macaroni and cheese! I let the pasta cook like the rice and then drained and added the rest of the ingredients! We also used this to cook veggies and it did a great job with that as well. Now I use it all the time to reheat soups, chilis and stews. I also use this to fix veggies. What I like most about this cooker is that it reheats VERY fast and the food stays hot! unlike when you reheat in the microwave. We actually got rid of our microwave as this does a much better job. We purchased a toaster/convection oven and between the two we found we no longer needed our microwave and food taste sooo much better when it is not nuked!

I recommend this little cooker for everyone! Especially those just starting out as you can do so many things with this. It is also super easy to clean because the holder pot within this comes right out and you can practically just wipe it down with a paper towel and go but I wash it in warm, sudsy water, rinse and dry. I have yet to have anything stick to this and we've had it about 8 months now.