Growing up my mother use to rave about her slow cooker. I still
remember her bright orange one humming along in our very brown
wallpapered kitchen. She tried to convince me of the wonders of the
slow-cooker and the thrill of knowing dinner was taken care of early in
the morning. I foolishly just smiled at her, but now I thank her for
her wisdom as I plug in one of my 3 slow-cookers.
I want to
describe to you my cooking style, or lack of cooking style. I often joke
I am a food arranger and not a much of a cook. I do things like put
yogurt and cottage cheese in bowls, arrange vegetables, put hot dogs in
buns. . you get the picture. My college roommate Sue told me her goal
in this life is to never cook a Thanksgiving dinner, and to that I
replied Amen! So when I talk about how I love my slow-cooker, you know
this is remedial cooking.
My favorite cook books are The Make it Fast, Cook it Slow, and More Make it Fast, Cook it Slow. Stephanie O'Dea, the author, also has a blog
with many slow-cooker recipes. Her recipes are gluten free, but can
easily be switched if you can eat gluten. I would recommend starting
with the book from the library and moving forward if you like it. We
have many picky eaters in our house and like that the recipes do not
have many ingredients. But, that may not be your thing. Currently, we
are partial to her Sloppy Joe recipe,since every single person in our
house actually eats it. We also like her Coq Au Vin, and spinach
casserole recipes. She has a section on slow-cooking to taste like
take-out. You gotta love that!
The other slow cooker book I am trying out is the Slow Cooker Revolution: by the editors of America's Test Kitchen. We love the other Test Kitchen books and like this one as well. Another good library book.
So to end, I want to share with you why I love my slow-cooker. You may hum a happy tune as you read.
1. In the summer it does not heat up my whole house.
2. I dump the ingredients in and they magically come out OK.
3. I smell dinner all day as I homeschool and know that it is taken care of.
4. It makes me feel like a better person in preparing healthy meals for my family.
5. It is not very messy.
6. Lastly, it is as close as a food arranger gets to serious cooking.
Happy Cooking!
Becky
Congrats, becky! Did you know you can line your slow cooker with these plastic crockpot liners? The cleanup is sooo easy! You just pull out the liner and throw it away.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I have seen this Lisa. I will have to look. Thanks for commenting.
ReplyDelete