It always sounds ridiculous to say “I won’t ever do it another way again!”, but Instant Pot mashed potatoes are the best texture and flavor I have enjoyed in....I dunno how long.

There is really nothing to it, like most everything in an IP. The reason they are awesome is that they *pressure steam* instead of boil, so there is no extra water introduced to the potato watering down the flavor and texture, nor in any way breaking down the potato before you get to mashing it. If you're used to pouring cubed potatoes into a colander and watching them start to fall apart already you know what I mean. In the IP, they come out quite firm, mash up as chunky or as smooth as you want to, and the flavor is so robust. And you can let them rest as long as you want without overcooking them and/or making them gluey or mushy. So you can "hold" this dish for hours and still have an amazing result.

1. Peel and quarter russet potatoes or red potatoes (not cube, quarter; and you don't even have to peel if you like skin on/chunky mash potatoes--so simple) 
2. Put metal rack or steamer basket of choice into pot, add 1 cup water 
3. Close, seal, and set to steam 5-8 minutes (I do more if I am making a bunch, but do 5 for a couple russets) 
4. (really, 3a) If you are of a mind to add other flavors, like garlic, you can heat some butter in a small pot on the stove while the potatoes are busy and add some crushed garlic cloves to it. Sautee a little until garlic smells rock your face, remove cloves, add milk/cream to it to heat through. This step is not one I usually do, but sometimes is fun for a flavor boost. 
5. Remove steamer with potatoes, place potatoes in bowl or back into dry liner (like I do) and mash along with whatever you like. I almost always do butter, cream, and salt/pepper. Sometimes I will add some sour cream, parmesan, and/or a dash of nutmeg. 

Some cool things:
* you can natural release or quick release, it has made no difference for me
* you can let them just sit in there a bit if you want to. We were in the middle of a campaign board game the other night and we left them in their unmashed state for about an hour and it still came out awesome
* I have read over and over that some people mash it all up then put it back in the liner in the pot, put the lid back on and let it sit for hours on the "warm" setting and they stay amazing. I haven't tried it, but it seems to be a thing.

BONUS - COOK AND FREEZE MASHED POTATOES
So apparently mashed potatoes (with butter/cream aka plenty of fats) hold up really well to freezing and thawing. So you can make a big ol' batch of mashed potatoes, portion them as you like, freeze, and have them at the ready all month long.
Two methods:

Method A. Cool the potatoes enough to portion them into ziplock bags, flatten the bags, and freeze in convenient stacks.

Method B. Portion them into one cup mounds/pucks, freeze on a parchment paper lined tray until hard, then toss into a ziplock bag such that you can pull out as many one-cup portions as you like when you're ready to heat them back up. So handy! And if this method appeals, you can make "party pretty" versions of these thusly:


BONUS PARTY-PRETTY OPTION - MAKE-AHEAD DUCHESS POTATOES
If you want to make Duchess Potatoes--which is how I discovered IP made the best potatoes--make sure you use cream and add 2-3 egg yolks to your mash stage, depending on the volume of potatoes you are making.

Using a spoon or fancy-pants frosting piping bag, make mounds of potatoes on a parchment-paper lined baking sheet.

Freeze and then toss frozen potato mounds into a ziplock bag to store.

When ready to cook, place desired number of potato mounds onto lightly greased baking sheet, brush with water/egg wash (some people use butter, but it can burn at high temps), and bake in a 375 degree oven for 20 minutes or until golden brown and warmed through.

If you want to bake them the day you made them, just give them a little time in the fridge to firm up, then brush and bake.

This is a hat pattern I have made many many times as gifts for friends and for myself. I went looking for the pattern today and the website is gone. I was able to capture the pattern from a Wayback Machine impression of the old website, and am posting it here to preserve it! Credit to the crafty gal who made it, Jessica Suzanne, and is a modified version of Bobble Beauty by Dot Matthews.

I made mine with Bernat Alpaca and a J hook. This yarn doesn't seem to exist any more, so substitute whatever works for you!

Puffy Slouchy Hat
Bulky weight yarn, size K hook. For Worsted weight use a J hook

The numbers in the [] say how many stitches there should be.

Puff stitch: (YO, insert hook in next st, YO, pull up a loop) 4 times, YO, and draw through all loops on hook. (Here’s a video)

You do not have to join rounds, and this will create a spiral, and there will be no seam. Use a stitch marker if you do this, and keep the stitch count the same.

1: ch 4, 12 dc in first st, join in ch. (Just grab one loop from top of the chain. This makes the seam less visible, and this will make a circle.) [12]

2: ch 3, work 1 dc where chain is (in same st as join - ch3 counts as first dc), 2 dc in each stitch, join with sl st (remember, the ch counts as a st!). [24]

3: ch 3, work 1 dc where chain is, (work 1 dc, 2 dc in next stitch) around. Join. [36]

4: ch 3, work 1 dc where chain is, (work 1 dc in next 2 sts, 2 dc in next st) around. Join. [48]

5: ch3, work 1 dc where chain is, (work 1 dc in next 3 sts, 2 dc) around. Join. [60]
6-8: ch 3, 1 dc in each st around. Join. [60]

9: ch 3, puff st in same st as join, dc in next st, (puff in next st, dc in next
st) around. Join in top st of first puff. [60 sts: 30 puffs, 30 dc]

10: ch 1, (sc in top of puff, sc in next dc) around. Join. [60]
* It will look like you are skipping stitches here, but you aren’t. Just
remember, sc in top of puff, skip spot, and sc in top of dc post. Make sure you have 60 sts here!
11: same as row 9. [60 sts: 30 puffs, 30 dc]
12: sc around, same as row 10. [60]
13: same as row 9. [30 puffs, 30 dc]
14: sc around, same as row 10. [60]

15: ch 1, sc in each st around. [60]

16: ch 1, (sc in next 3 sts, dec over next 2 sts) around. Join. [48]

17: ch 1, sc in each st around. Join. [48]
18: same as row 17. [48]
19: same as row 17. [48]
20: same as row 17. [48]

21: ch 1, (slip st in next st, ch1, slip st in same st) around. Join in first sc.
Fasten off, weave in ends.

NOTE: As I mentioned in my original craftster post, I had intensely studied a pattern online. I don’t have a printer, so I tried to visualize it as a crochet chart. I have an insane memory, and graduated with a 3.98 GPA by only reading the texts the night before the tests. When I made this hat, I thought I was only being inspired, but I essentially recreated the hat. People have pointed it out, and I am very disappointed that I wasn’t being creative, I was just recalling it. SO, all accolades should go to the original author here: http://patternsbydot.blogspot.com/2005/11/bobble-beauty.html. My sincere apologies. I know it’s hard to believe, but it wasn’t intentional at all. I posted this at craftster, but I never got around to posting it here. :/

So it turns out Winnie. LOVES. clothing. 

Considering an entry into the VR space? We ended up with PSVR...

For us, we don't PC really, and weren't interested in getting a dedicated gaming PC and set up and the extra $800+ that would cost us. We also have a small living room so a large surround-experience footprint wasn't going to fly anyway. So we got the PS VR and have been loving it. The titles are more limited, naturally, because it is only titles developed for PS4 can make use of it. That isn't to say the catalog is small, but it is small-ER than you will get with Oculus. The price point of entry for us was more accessible, and we knew we'd get lots of use out of our PS4 in general (I still hadn't played Fallout 4 or the newest Uncharted, for starters). The demos that pushed us over the edge were Star Child and Moss. I think Playstaion has a thing on their website or in their app where you can do a search for places that demo the rig nearby, so you could go check it out if you haven't before.




Just had two girlfriends over last night for a 4 hour VR play session where I introduced demos and full games to friends with little to no VR experience. Tons of fun. Only complaint: the Playstation has user profiles built into their system which is supposed to customize the experience for each player, but this causes issues when you want multiple people passing the headset around. For instance, we were playing SuperHot and I realized it had my saved data from past games, so I had to go to settings, find the local saved data, and delete my saved data so my friend could start at the beginning. There was no option for setting up a new player in game in any way. The only other option is to set up a guest account for everyone and go through the tutorials and calibration for every person who wants to play, and then switch between profiles with every switch of the headset. No thanks. No idea how Rift or Occulus handle this kinda stuff, since I have only played demos built to be limited and reset, never played in a home environment.

Was musing on the idea of reverse racism the other morning and woke up to pen this...

Reverse racism doesn't exist for the same reason reverse sexism does not exist: they are not opinions or attitudes; they are ingrained systems in our culture which favor one group or class of people over another. It is an imbalance in power such that if you are a member of the group in power, you enjoy certain levels of respect and accommodation that is not available to those that don't look or live like you do. You are subtly favored--through no direct action of your own--over and above others. From birth. It can have effects over where you live, how you are schooled, the quality of health care you are offered, types of jobs you are considered for, and much much more.

Anyone can have prejudice, but that isn't racism. Racism is prejudice + power, and therefore only people who possess that power can be racist.

Repeating for those in the back row: There is no reverse racism (meaning black people CANNOT be racist against white people in our society). There is no reverse sexism (meaning women CANNOT be sexist against men in our society). This isn't a preference, it's a system that is all around you; and whether you want to or not, you are a participant in this system. What you do with your role in this system is vital, and telling... Where you focus your thought, your means, your energy dictates whether you empower this system or help to dismantle it.

I am far from perfect. Like all of us, I was born into this same system, and I also happen to be on one of the higher rungs of this ladder of power. I grew up surrounded by subtle and overt messages affirming my place of power, as well being reminded of all the rungs above me by people who can and have tried to reinforce my "place" on it as a woman, as a member of the middle class, etc. I wasn't always aware of what tools were given to me and not to others, and I like to believe I am on a path to better understanding these tools and how I can use them to help people on the lower rungs get a leg up. Not because I am a savior, but because fuck that ladder...

Makes 1 gallon

INGREDIENTS

• 10 tea bags (remove tags and tie stings together for easy removal)
• 8 cups water
• (1 cup of sugar for sweet, or less to taste)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Place all ingredients in pressure cooker pot.
2. Lock the lid lid and set valve to sealing.
3. Press the manual button, set to high pressure for 4 minutes.
4. When done, quick release pressure with a set of kitchen tongs.
5. Stir well if you added sugar.
6. Remove tea bags with tongs.
7. Place 8 more cups of cold water/ice in a 1 gallon pitcher and then add brewed tea.

I made mine with my daily-drinker, Yorkshire Gold tea, which has no strings. I just used a slotted spoon to remove them, pressing another spoon on them to press out any retained water in the bag itself. I also love making tea with different flavored teas, like using Earl Grey, or an herbed tea, etc I saw one recipe call for putting some peeled slices of two apples in before pressure cookin', which would be a great natural sweetener. I could see that with a little cinnamon and lemon for a unique iced tea experience, or substitute different natural fruits such as mango or peaches!

Lovely day at ComicCon, and then ended strange and sad. We came home via Uber, and there was a black car parked in the street, still running with lights on, in front of our neighbors across the street. We assumed it was another Uber picking up or dropping someone off, so we thought nothing of it.

About 15 minutes later I notice it's still there, still lights on. Strange, but..they aren't breaking any laws so *shrug*. An hour later it is still there when my neighbor gets home--dogs barking, go to look, car is there and neighbor is kinda looking at it strangely, but the windows are dark, so you can't tell if anyone is in it. I ask Chris to go out and get the license number in case it is an abandoned car. We can call the police and inquire.

Did you know Monopoly was originally invented by a woman?

Ah the fun of being a woman in the board game world!

Often there are discussions opened which explore the experiences of women in the world of gaming. I see these across the spectrum--in video games, console games, and board games--and there is always this impressive push back from a certain segment of men. I don't know why it is such a hard concept to grasp: that women are as varied as men and that your limited experience with women and gaming isn't representative of a whole. But also, there is a social construct around gaming in our world that has been developed over generations, and conversations like these are a way to call the status quo into question, and hopefully steer this ship on a different course. This should be welcome to anyone who truly believes gaming is for everyone and gaming spaces should offer equal opportunity. And yet I see men talking out of both sides of their mouths constantly. The old "You say women like all games, but in my gaming group, only a few show up and they only like lighter games. So that proves women don't like gaming that much, and they only like simple games." trope.

I dove into one discussion recently, and decided I would share my thoughts. This was in a thread started, innocently enough, by a father who had blogged about his daughter being an avid gamer. He speaks of how important it is that she be welcome in gaming, and how she and girls like her are changing the landscape. You can read his blog here. To catch up on the discussion I was participating in, here is a different man among the participants in the discussion:

"...Here's an idea- start a meetup group, with a focus on games that women might like. One of the more successful ones in my area blended a women's get -together with a board game meetup group. Some nights I go there, and the women outnumber the men. They are playing TtR, Roll for It, Splendor and Rack-O. I know that unless some of the guys show up, that lighter more social-oriented games will be on the agenda. I am OK with that. In fact, last Monday they had five playing TtR and I was late, so I coached the 3 new players (all senior women). I enjoyed it, too, even though it was not ASL or Terraforming Mars.

That's what they play when I get there. I have another mixed group that plays heavier stuff, but the Women's open Meetup plays lighter games. Please chicksplain what led you to believe I was talking about all women."

A little "chicksplaining" for ya' (not a thing, by the way, just like reverse racism isn't a thing):

I mean come on, now...

Here's the funny thing about stereotypes and social constructs: they tend to create a feedback loop. Girls are told all their lives "this kind of toy/game is your kind of toy/game", then some women grow up believing they would only be good at a certain kind of games. Meanwhile, little boys grow up with these same kinds of narratives, believing the spaces they occupy with "boys' toys and games" are their sole domain. They curate this space with that in mind. When women grow up with this consistent narrative, they subconsciously gravitate toward what they were taught and modeled; and in turn they then become the example that other people point to and say, "See?! Women only like those kinds of games. " Meanwhile, men continue cultivate their male-dominated spaces, content their point is proven and their assumptions are safe, and so the wheel turns.

What is great about the world we live in today is we are many of us, men and women alike, pushing back against those stereotypes and rewriting the script that little girls and boys will hear. Right now we have a culture around gaming which doesn't fully understand women in it because it hasn't considered women part of it much in the past. Don't forget we have generations of men and women--alive and well today--raised in a culture where women were breeders in the kitchen, and "game night" was a beer and poker game where women were invited only to refill the pretzel bowls. For decades (centuries?) men built gaming spaces that are expected to be just for them because that was the accepted stereotype, and now that women are entering them, there is some push-back. Whenever I go to PAX and I get treated like the wife/girlfriend who tagged along instead of the actual person who bought the tickets and dragged her SO along, I am reminded. When at ComicCon they hand him schwag left and right and I have to stand there staring for a minute with my hand out to make sure I get some for myself. Hell, this whole discussion, every time it comes up, amply demonstrates the misconceptions about women in gaming which we are fed from the time we are young.

Kids learn young. The Glass Ceiling: The Game!

But listen to the women talking to you now, right here, with their lived experiences. We are telling you that what used to be true is NOT always true any more. So when you use your language to describe what you are experiencing, consider the importance of couching it with "in my limited experience..." or "the people I game with tend to...". Most importantly, remember you are seeing a tiny sliver of the gaming world, and in that world there will be many who grew up with the old script and don't have a new script. When we ask our fellow gamers to try and make a gaming environment more inclusive, we aren't asking you to make it "easier" or to bring children's party games to the table to placate us. We're asking you to take a look at the new script--that women gamers are as diverse as men gamers and we want you to treat us with fairness and respect--and help us in handing that script out to other women who haven't gotten the memo yet.

How can you do this? When you see newcomers to a gaming group, what do you do? If you see a guy walk in, do you stare him down? Do you automatically assume they wouldn't be interested in the game you're playing, hand him Connect Four and sit him down next to another new guy and tell them to have at it? Because if you don't do that with men, don't do it with women! Invite them over, ask them if they have played a certain game before, and offer to teach them if they haven't. If they demure thinking it's too complicated or heavy or intimidating in any way, (and it sounds like in your sliver of the world, many will--remember that pesky *old* script?), respond with encouragement. "Nah, give it a try! You might love this. I've been playing this game for years and my favorite thing about it is..."

I appreciate that not all games are for all people. I am not a huge 4X fan so don't seek them out, but if I walked into a game shop and someone offered to teach me, I happen to LOVE learning new game mechanics and--should the invitation be in good faith--I would enthusiastically say yes. According to you, if I walked in you'd hand me Roll For It and send me to the ladies table without much consideration. That is the change in the script we are asking of you and men like you--don't assume. Give opportunities. Be welcoming. ACTUALLY WELCOMING. For heaven's sake, I don't know why that is such a hard thing to ask of other humans, yet it seems the uphill battle in the gaming world.

Some further reading:

Playing Safe: Making Women Feel Welcome