Instant Pot Electric Pressure Cooker

I was perusing Mother Earth News one morning and read a review for the Instant Pot. Have you heard of it? It is an electric pressure cooker. It is the only one on the market that does not use a Tephlon coated insert and instead has a stainless steel insert. Reading the review, I became intrigued. I own a pressure cooker, a stove top large one that I use for canning beans and stock. It is a pain in the butt to be honest. I have to closely monitor the pressure gauge so the idea of making beans or actually cooking in it has never interested me. Learning more about an electric pressure cooker, where like my crockpot I could set and walk away, I was intrigued. I began checking out the new model. Don't tell my husband but I decided to buy it as soon as I saw that it was a yogurt maker. This was prior to reading the reviews singing its praises. I ordered it from Amazon for $134 and tried not to wince at what I was spending on something I wasn't sure I would even use. (Did you read about my $94 chick? My recent spending was cramping my budget.)

The Tale of the Black Copper Maran

Golden Maran aka Brown Mama

When we first got chickens we got a mixed bunch. Then we tried some amazing eggs from Pete & Gerry - Maran eggs. The following year we decided to add a few to our flock and bought some of the Rare Maran breed from MyPetChicken. Of the four that we bought only one survived. Her eggs were amazing, as were the Welsummer chicken eggs. Still wanting to reproduce the eggs from Pete & Gerry we did some more research. From everything I can find, supposedly it does not matter the breed, only what you feed them. I think this may be true in theory, however I can tell you that the eggs from my Golden Maran are always creamier and a darker orange (not to mention tastier) than the Red Comets and most of the other eggs. Does that mean her diet is different? Maybe. Perhaps Marans seek out something that my other chickens don't. My Golden Maran is not the most dominant chicken in the flock so she isn't getting the best of the feed. I honestly don't know the answer. I do know that because she is a fantastic mama, she doesn't lay lots of eggs either, another good trait (the mama trait, not the lack of eggs one) we would like.  So we decided to add some Black Copper Marans to the flock. And it began.