Tag Archives: slow-cooker

Mar 22 2012

Corned Beef for St. Patrick’s Day

I was a day late getting it done (and several days late getting it posted!), but we finally had our corned beef. I found a recipe on Real Simple online that looked good. It uses thinly sliced Brussels sprouts instead of cabbage.

I got home at 11:30 from a trip to my parents house and immediately got to work. I figured I would need to cook it for about 7 hours on high in the slow cooker.

I used a 5 pound corned beef with seasonings from Costco, 2 beers, 6 whole carrots and about a pound of fresh Brussels sprouts.  Slicing the sprouts in the food process was genius! I plan to use that technique again stews and soups.  They cook incredibly quickly in the hot broth. Served it up family style of a big platter. It was a huge hit with our family that night. Even my picky kids ate the beef!

The recipe includes a sauce for the beef made of sour cream, fresh tarragon and whole grain mustard (I used regular Dijon). It’s a nice touch but not really necessary. The flavor of the beef and sprouts is so good, it gets overpowered by the sauce, in my opinion.

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Jan 27 2012

What’s For Dinner: My Favorite Appliance

In the final installment of the series author Kathi Lipp asks us bloggers to talk about our favorite kitchen appliance.  For me, it’s the slow cooker, hands down.

When it comes to taking the hassle out of cooking nothing beats it.  You don’t have to babysit it, just get the ingredients in there and go.  There are TONS of recipes available online and in print.  In fact, there are whole cookbooks devoted to it. One of my favorites is the Fix it and Forget it Cookbook. It doesn’t have any photos, which is a bummer when it comes to cookbooks, but has all the basic recipes.  It often includes several variations for each dish and I like to make up my own based on the variations.

If you have to get out of the house early in the morning I would recommend setting up everything in the crock the night before. This is especially true for recipes that involve browning meats.  I know I never had time for anything but dump and go recipes when I was working.

Crock Pots are relatively inexpensive when it comes to kitchen tools. The one pictured is only $44 on Amazon.  A good roasting pan will set you back more than a slow cooker. Although everybody should have a roasting pan…but that’s a topic for another day.  I choosing a pot, make sure you get one with a removable ceramic insert (most new cookers are like this) so you can clean it easily.  Also, consider the size of your family when picking a cooker.  They range from around 3 quarts to 7 quarts, and you need to fill it 2/3 full for it to cook properly. Mine is a 7 quart and I love it. We are not a big family, but I like to have left-overs and entertain so a big pot works better for me.

I hope you have enjoyed these posts. It has been a great week knowing specifically what we were having for dinner, in fact, I have several more days already planned! If you are interested in Kathi Lipp’s book, “The What’s For Dinner Solution” it is inexpensive and has great tips for cooking ahead, bulk grocery shopping and storage, using the freezer and a whole slew of recipes to boot!

What’s your favorite kitchen appliance? Freezer, food processor…or something else? Leave your answer in the comments below! I will pick a winner to receive a copy of the the book from among the comments from this week’s post. Thanks for stopping by!

 

About Kathi:
Kathi Lipp is a busy conference and retreat speaker of The Husband Project: 21 Days to Loving Your Man—on Purpose and with a Plan, The Marriage Project: 21 Days to More Love and Laughter, and The Me Project: 21 Days to Living the Life You’ve Always Wanted. She is a frequent guest on Focus on the Family and dozens of other radio programs.

Church leaders and women’s ministry directors rely on Kathi to help women move from living out of obligation to enjoying godly passion. She speaks to thousands of women across the US and Canada every year.

Kathi and her husband, Roger, are the parents of four young adults and live in San Jose, California.

Purchase Links

Amazon.com The “What’s for Dinner?” Solution

ChristianBooks.com The “What’s for Dinner?” Solution

BN.com The “What’s for Dinner?” Solution

Link To Kathi’s Reader’s Freebies Reader’s Freebies

 

 

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Sep 28 2011

Chile Verde Pork

I bought a beautiful large (5 lb) boneless port shoulder roast a few weeks ago.  It was on sale so I grabbed it and threw it in the freezer, not knowing what I would make with it. I took it out of the freezer four days ago to defrost.

This morning I finally decided to make chile verde.  I’d never made it before, but that didn’t stop me from trying.  In fact, I’ve become more adventurous with my cooking lately, trying lots of new recipes and creating some of my own for the first time.

I browsed several recipes online to get some ideas of how to make the green sauce. This is what I came up with, which is an adaptation of Chile Verde on Simply Recipes.

5 lb. Boneless Pork Shoulder (pork butt roast)

12 tomatillos

1-2 Anaheim chilies, or jalapenos

3 TBSP fresh cilantro

2 TBSP Olive oil

Salt & pepper

1 small onion, chopped

1 TBSP minced garlic

Directions:

  1. Remove husks from tomatillos. Slice in half crosswise and place on a baking sheet, cut side down.  Roast under the broiler for up to 10 minutes, as long as necessary for them to start turning brown.

    Roasted Tomatillos

  2. While the tomatillos are broiling, roast Anaheim chilies over an open flame. Place roasted chilies in a plastic bag and seal.  After a few minutes the blackened skin will peel off easily.  Remove stem and seeds.
  3. Place tomatillos, chilies and cilantro in the blender.  Pulse a few times to blend the ingredients into a sauce.

    Blended Green Sauce

  4. Cut pork into 1-2 inch pieces. Remove excess fat when possible.
  5. Heat olive oil in a large skillet and brown pork in batches.  Season the meat with salt and pepper.

    Browning Adds Flavor

  6. Place cooked pork in crock pot. Pour in green sauce.
  7. Saute the chopped onion and garlic in the pan used to brown the pork.

    Saute Onion & Garlic

  8. Add sautéed onion and garlic to the crock pot.

    Place meat, sauce & veggies in cooker.

  9. Add 1 cup of water. Stir and set to on LOW for 7-8 hours.

    Finished Chile Verde

This recipe will make a large batch-serves 8 or more people.  I used a 7 quart slow cooker for this large amount of meat.  To fewer servings use less meat – about 3 lbs and omit decrease water to 1/2 cup.  

Serve with warm tortillas, sour cream, guacamole and Mexican rice.

 

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Aug 24 2011

My New Crock Pot

Isn’t it great? My mom got me a new crock pot for my birthday! I cracked the insert for my nine-year-old cooker I received as a wedding gift.  I tried going online to order a replacement insert but unfortunately they don’t make the kind I had anymore.

I can’t wait to get something cooking in there.  It’s an extra big cooker – a 7 quart which will be great for making large batches of soups and stews.  It also came with the cute little pot on the left – for serving hot dips. I checked my bread pans, and one will fit inside so I may even try making some bread with it.

On my “to cook” list:

  • French Onion Soup
  • Beef Stroganoff
  • Chili
  • Apple Butter

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May 14 2011

Beef Stroganoff

I tried a new recipe for dinner and it was a big hit.  It was super easy using the slow cooker:

2-3 lbs. stew meat, cut into 1″ pieces
½ cup flour
2 tsp. salt
½ tsp. ground black pepper
½ tsp. coarse grind garlic powder
vegetable oil
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 pkg. dry onion soup mix
1 can sliced mushrooms
½ cup sour cream

Browning beef first adds great flavor.

In a resealable plastic bag combine flour, salt, pepper and garlic.  Shake well to mix.  Cut meat into small cubes.  Working in batches, add meat to the four bag and shake to coat.  Heat oil in a skillet. Add meat and brown on all sides.  Transfer browned meat to slow cooker.  Add one can cream of mushroom soup.  Sprinkle on onion soup mix.  Drain canned mushrooms and add to crock.  Stir and set slow cooker to low for 6-8 hours.  When cooking time is complete

Audrey was "helping" by stirring the beef.

stir in sour cream.  Allow a few minutes for the sour cream to heat.  Serve over egg noodles or rice.  Serves 4-6 people.

My notes: I used a London broil for the meat.  I trimmed the visible fat from the edge before cutting into cubes.  The garlic I use in all of my recipes is California Style Garlic Powder from McCormick.  It is a coarse grind and has dried parsley in it.  If you don’t have that I would recommend substituting ¼ tsp regular garlic powder.

Warning: this is salty!  When I make it next time I will be reducing the salt in the flour coating to only 1 tsp.  There is a lot of salt in both the mushroom soup and onion soup mix.

Sorry, no photos of the finished product – it was devoured by a hungry crowd!  But you all know what strogo looks like right? Good.

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