If you have pizza dough on hand, it takes less than a half hour (half to heat up the oven to 400F) to make your own customized personal pizza. Faster than most deliveries, and tastier than frozen.

For folks who want Instant Pots but can wait - the 6-qt Duo model has gone on sale for $59 on Prime Day for the past two years.

I haven't used my crock pot at all since I got mine last summer. It does everything the crock pot did, but better because it can be programmed more precisely. (Chicken in the crock pot was always a problem because it was basically impossible to not overcook it. If you have a fancier crock pot with better program/timer settings this may not be an issue.)

Indian food is probably the biggest selling point - every single recipe in Maddhur Jaffrey's "Quick and Easy Indian Cooking" requires a pressure cooker. And this butter chicken recipe is just about the most delicious thing ever.

Last night we saw 2Cellos in concert at Radio City Music Hall - they're a rock cello duo from Croatia, and they are AMAZING. D plays cello in the school orchestra and one of his friends introduced him to their YouTube channel, so we got tickets for the whole family + D's friend.

Today is all about house-cleaning even though officially it's National No Housework Day. But we have guests coming next weekend, so it must be done.

Homemade pizza - this is the easiest pizza dough. You don't have to be nearly as finicky with the measurements as Serious Eats says you should, and it pretty much makes itself.

I'd use my InstaPot more if I could find a lot of low-carb recipes that don't involve tomato. Mr. Loomy is allergic to nightshades. But I am going to try making yogurt, and I just found a recipe for clotted cream (!!!).

I've only looked at one yogurt recipe and it seemed complex.

I, sadly, did housework today, too. I actually found myself with some motivation, and that's such a rare occurrence, I figured I better use it while I had it.

Laura, it's really not, even though it sounds like it is (this is assuming you have the yogurt setting). Basically, you want to make sure there are only good microbes, then give them a happy environment to do their thing all day.

Pour milk into the pot. Heat it up to kill anything in there
Let it cool
Add starter (i.e.-plain yogurt of your choice)
Set the pot to "yogurt"
Come back in 8-10 hours
Pour into colander with coffee filters or cheesecloth
Let drain in the fridge until it's the thickness you like.

(I have the temperature standards written down because my brain does not retain numbers)

It takes (mostly passive) time, but if you have a thermometer, it's quite easy and pretty forgiving if you're a little off.

I'll give it a try at some point, but remain skeptical. It is so easy to buy the little cups...

Timelies all!

Had my birthday party today.(There were no other good dates this month for it.) Three people showed up. Still, hadn't seen them in months, so it was nice to catch up.

Happy Birthday, Sheryl!