Yes! Get a pressure cooker

I'm glad to see enthusiasm for pressure cookers is coming back in this country. Kathy, you won't be sorry! Like any new cooking technique, you have to learn it; so at first, just keep it out on the stove and no matter what you're cooking, think "pressure." You'll be amazed at the variety of things you can fix. They are not only fast but they save fuel (a GOOD cooker will hold its pressure so well that you can do the major portion of cooking many foods with no fire on at all, once pressure has been reached). They are often faster than a microwave, especially when doing large amounts.

As for brands and prices, I have an old Presto canner, a couple of Kuhn-Rikons, and a T-Fal. They all work! The Kuhn-Rikons are my favorites because the pressure gauge lets you easily cook at 8 or 15 pounds of pressure. The best pans are aluminum core for fast even heating but stainless on the outside for easy cleaning and stainless on the inside so they're not reactive.

$100 is a lot of money but pressure cookers are heavy duty, well built pans and worth it in fuel and time saving alone. Keep it in a handy place and you can use it for things besides pressure cooking too. I use mine as ordinary pots when I don't need pressure, simply because they are so much a part of my cooking life that they occupy front space in the pot cabinet.

Under pressure, you can cook hard boiled eggs, custard, cheesecake, and a whole lot of goodies besides the traditional meat potatoes and soup most people think of for pressure cookers. I make batches of mint flavored tea for iced tea in mine, too. Takes merest minutes for lovely deep flavored tea which holds up well to ice.