I love cooking things from scratch and slaving away in the kitchen over pots. Really. But even more, I love my rice cooker. I put brown rice and water in it in the morning. Press the timer button and come home to perfectly cooked brown rice. Worth. Every. Penny.

French ovens are like dutch ovens but are enameled. The enamel makes them prettier, more expensive and harder to keep clean. Here is the rice cooker I have, a Zonjirushi brand induction heating rice cooker: This too was a gift and is a bit of a higher end model, but we use it all the time. Click This is the best brand and they make less expensive models that work great and have different controls for type of rice, how you want it to turn out and timers.