When our 18 month old GE top-loading washing machine broke, and the parts and labor to fix it would have cost more than the washing machine itself, we went shopping…

We ended up getting a whirlpool duet front loader and I was skeptical – the cost jump from top loaders to front loaders is still a bit big and I was worried that it wouldn’t be worth it.

But it is! Most definitely worth it. Clothes that I thought stained and dingy beyond repair are now clean and fresh looking again, and after just one run through the new front loader. It’s also a lot quieter than the old top loader!

Photo by Editor B

When I was asked to test out the new Rice-Plus™ Multi-Cooker with Fuzzy Logic Technology, I never expected it to do so many things!  When you think of a rice cooker, you of course think only of rice.  But that’s not true with the Rice-Plus™ Multi-Cooker with Fuzzy Logic Technology, not only does it cook rice with preset modes for many different kinds, along with presets for oatmeal, and risotto also, it also works as a steamer, a slow cooker and more!  You can even sauté in it.

Chef Keller's Brazilian Chicken and Shrimp Soup

It’s easy to clean, with all removable parts being dishwasher safe, and the cooker is even portable.  I made Brazilian Chicken and Shrimp Soup, a recipe created by Chef Hubert Keller, one of the top three finalists in Bravo’s recent Top Chef Masters,  especially for the Rice-Plus™ Multi-Cooker with Fuzzy Logic Technology, to take to my family’s on Thanksgiving, and it was so nice to be able to transport it right in the cooker with no spills, and keeping it hot!  It’s great for buffets, like we do on holidays, because it also has a keep warm setting that will keep your food hot for up to 24 hours, and a reheat function, in case it’s a long drive, or the reheat leftovers.

My family enjoyed the spicy, bold Brazilian chicken and shrimp soup, and it was so easy to make in the Rice-Plus™ Multi-Cooker, I didn’t even have to dirty any other dishes, it handled it all, from sautéing the peppers and onions to simmering the soup, and cooking the rice to serve it over.

It also comes with great recipes, in the back of the manual, that are for lots of one pot meals and side dishes.  Along with the soup for Thanksgiving, I also made a traditional rice pudding that everyone loved, and that was so easy to make – considering I’ve never made rice pudding before.  All I had to do was dump all the ingredients into the pot, set the cooker to the risotto mode and wait for it to beep, how much simpler can you get?

Where was this when I first got married and knew absolutely nothing about cooking?  The Rice-Plus™ Multi-Cooker with Fuzzy Logic Technology, and all the one pot recipes would have come in quite handy being a lot easier, and a lot healthier, than all that boxed stuff we lived on!

I can finally make the kids favorite vegetable, broccoli, without them complaining that it’s too mushy.  I can finally make the kind of rice they like – the sticky white rice like you get from the Chinese restaurant, instead of the boil in bag kind, that they turn their noses up at!  I’ve even made steamed apple dumplings in it!

All in all, the Rice-Plus™ Multi-Cooker with Fuzzy Logic Technology gets two thumbs up from my family; we’ve used it nearly every day since we got it!

So for the first time (and last) we bought Crest Pro Health Toothpaste… It was horrible… It didn’t (for lack of a better word) foam or lather up like most toothpastes while you brushed… It was so runny that if you left the cap open half of the tube ran out and made a mess all over the place… Even when you didn’t leave the cap open, it still ran out because the cap didn’t snap shut tight after the first time it was opened… Think toothepaste in your hairbrush just because it got left on the bathroom counter… Even in the medicine cupboard we had toothepaste running everywhere, covering everything…

Crest Pro Health is now on our list of things never to buy again! Has anyone else ever tried this brand? Did we get a bad tube, or are they all like that?