It's a Tie

I didn't kill it, and it didn't kill me. All in all, not bad for my first pressure cooking experience. I certainly didn't keep my cool under pressure: having heard several horror stories about exploding cookers, I was a little on edge. I called my parents no less than 5 times while pacing around the perimeter of my kitchen -- a safe distance from the hissing, shaking object on the stove -- and telling them that I was certain to be blown up any second.

Turns out that the little jiggly thing on the top didn't work so great -- it didn't jiggle to let me know that the cooker had reached pressure. After about a half hour of nothing happening, I poked it gently with a spoon and it started spinning like crazy. So I shut the cooker off, depressurized it, and opened it to find some very well-cooked beans. Thankfully, nothing burned, and next time I'll know to check the pressure after about 10 minutes.

I think that I'll give this recipe a try tomorrow. Green peas for the yellow, water for broth, add some cauliflower and carrots and maybe part of a can of tomatoes. The more that I use the cooker, the less scary it will be! (Yay for kitchen desensitization therapy!)