Wow...just as well no one answered my question about Abilify. Stuff costs $403.30/month. That ain't happening. And yes, that is "after" insurance (I have a deductible I have to meet first.

Have you checked Costco? My crappily-insured Mother finds them to be almost always the cheapest.

That should be easy, no? But I cannot consistently succeed with white rice.

I was having this problem for a while, but then I decided to go back to the cookbook, and discovered that the Asian method for rice cooking was different than the European method. So, operating on the presumption that Asia kicks Europe's ass in that particular department I switched to the Asian way and lo and behold, perfect rice every time.

I put 3/4 of a cup of rice in a 2 cup measuring cup.

Fill the rest with water. (So 1 1/4 cups of water.)

Let it soak.

Put it all in a saucepan, salt the water, and cover with a lid (the glass top lid actually works best because it helps to see what's going on).

Turn it on high until it starts to boil.

At that point, turn it to low, and adjust the lid so that it's allowing steam out. I guess it's only covering 4/5ths of the saucepan at that point? Anyway, you get the idea.

You let it cook until you get "pitting" in the rice. Little holes. Stir it, put on the lid, turn off the heat. A few more minutes and it's done.

Or, you know, get a rice steamer.

Brain picker. Oh, I'm sorry, you're a UNION zombie, you'll only pick LIVING brains. No dead brains for you, oh no. You want vacations and health care and a pension and only-living-brains to pick.

Ahem.

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night
not quite alive, you see
Says I "But Joe, you're ten years dead"
"Yes I died" said he
"I became a zombie"

Heh, tommy.

And standing there as big as life
and chewing on his eye.
Says Joe "What they can never kill
went on to terrorize,
went on to BRAINS! BRAINS! BRAINS!"

most awesome roller derby commercial ever!

Make rice pudding. Easy peasy and forgiving of timing errors. on the other hand LOTs of stirring.

How does that help my chili?

Normal white rice, Suzi. It should be totally mechanical, but I can't get consistent results. The recipe I'm going to use tonight, and I'm going to succeed with, involves washing the rice, heating the grains in butter, and then boiling and let simmer. Last time I don't think I let it come to a high enough boil, or simmer at a high enough recipe. Rice was just fine (very tasty, in fact), it just took much longer than it should have.

Have you checked Costco?

I checked with my prescription insurance and that is "their" price. So, not sure that Costco would make any difference. Apparently Abilify is a miracle drug that I will just not get the chance to experience.

ita - I follow a much simpler method than David. I typically use Jasmine rice.

1 part rice to 2 parts liquid*.

Put the liquid in a sauce pan (add salt as desired), heat it to boiling, pour in the rice, put on the lid, turn the heat down to low, set the timer for 20 minutes.

• I normally use water, but broth works great too.

I switched to a rice cooker a couple of months ago. Not because I couldn't make decent rice, but I just wanted to be able to put the water and rice in the pot and let it do its thing. Less standing around waiting for the pot to boil and switching temp settings, etc. Pour and go.

Saw my hematologist today. I am schedule for an iron infusion on Monday. They expect it to take 4 hours but they have WiFi, so I can bring my computer. Then I should see a difference in 2-3 weeks. Then I get my blood tested in early April and determine where to go from there.

I just hope it doesn't take a year to figure the best process like it did for getting my thyroid back to normal. I HATE missing karate. Actually, it boils down to missing the real me. I feel like a pale imitation of me.