Work at the Big Corporation has been crazy lately — and last night was one of those evenings where I just couldn’t figure out what to do about dinner. It was hot — we’re having a heat wave — and although I have some gorgeous fava beans, I wasn’t inspired to do anything with them. And they’re too gorgeous to squander — so I rattled around in the kitchen trying to figure out what to do about dinner. I must admit, I considered all of the following: mac and cheese in a box, fried chicken from the grocery store, ordering a pizza. However, I came to my senses and went for Rice Cooker Dinner.

I have a very chintzy rice cooker that I love very much. Indeed, when my old one crapped out a year or so ago (after 10 good years) I scoured Bozeman for an identical model. I didn’t want a big rice cooker. I hate appliances in general and I just wanted a little cooker like my old one. Eventually I found it the one I wanted — for all of nineteen dollars.

So, last night I did dinner in the little steamer thingy that came with the rice cooker. Into the rice cooker part went the California Chinese rice, water, salt. Then I used a piece of foil in the steamer thingy, added a few frozen shell-on raw shrimp that were in the freezer, sliced up a baby red onion from the garden and some garlic chives, threw in a few slices of ginger, a sliced clove of garlic, and a splash of soy sauce. I turned the whole thing on, went back to  the tedious but important file-transfer project I’ve been doing for weeks now, and hit the little white switch.

Twenty minutes later, I had dinner — into a bowl went some rice, the steamed shrimp, and a dollop of Indian lime pickle. Nothing fancy, but better than mac and cheese, fried chicken, or pizza.