Hi Janet-I don't use my crockpot much in summer-I tend to use our barbeque more. But I have an excellent crockpot cookbook-called "Fix-it and Forget-it".And I can share a couple recipes we like.
The first one is actually from Susan (oldest dd)-Salsa chicken & she made it when she was here.1pkg skinless, boneless chicken thighs(I sometimes just use regular ones);1 jar salsa; 1 can black beans or kidney beans-drained & rinsed;corn (I used a can of niblets corn)Put them together, mix gently
How funny that you would bring up crock-pots. Yesterday, I had a bag of onions that Michael had brought home from his volunteer day at the soup kitchen on Friday...someone got wild and crazy on donating onions and they were drowning in them, so the coordinator said each volunteer should reallllllllly take a bag of onions. So, I made French onion soup for lunch yesterday and there was some left over. I put two cans of cannelini beans in my food processor and then dumped that into the left-over onion soup. Added chopped celery, carrots, potato and cherry tomatoes (all but the celery from our garden), some extra garlic and some fresh thyme and rosemary (also from our garden) and made Tuscan bean soup which I poured into the crock-pot to cook merrily away without having the beans get yucky-scorched-ugh-mess on the bottom of a regular pot on the stove. Then I thawed out a small ciabatta bread, cut it in half and spread it with homemade pesto from the basil in my garden, added some mozarella cheese and heated it in foil...presto, voila, dinner! All for probably $1.29 a serving. I still have soup left, so that goes to work with me tomorrow - co-workers will eat their hearts out - LOL! I like my crock-pot a lot more now that DS has flown the coop...for some completely weird reason I will never figure out, he likes his food **separate** - doesn't like soup, stew, pot roast...well, you get the idea! He's gone, we eat what we like! Sue
I never got 'on the bandwagon' years ago when crockpots first came out on the market and because of all here who have touted its benefits I bought a crockpot a couple of years ago. Now I bought the biggest one around, I think, but a store's name-brand one rather than a company brand kind, (not sure if that makes any difference) and I have only used it a few times and still am not a big fan of using one, but there is more than one reason for that.
First, I wonder if the huge size of this pot is necessary - it seems that when I make a recipe that isn't involving a large roast or large amount of liquid, for example, the amount of whatever just sits on the bottom of the crockpot hardly an inch in depth! And I am not certain about the controls. It seems that the temperature control should go to the 'keeping warm' stage at the end of the cook time but I'm not certain it really does that. It seems to be still going at the cooking level after the time is done, or so it appears - but I can't seem to really tell, other than the food seems to still be 'bubbling' even after it should have ended the cooking stage.
I haven't made a whole lot of recipes. A few have turned out acceptably, but some I wasn't too keen on. I understand that you can't put herbs in for too long a time as their flavour dissipates over the long cooking time? I have so many tried and true 'regular' cooking recipes and to switch over to try a whole lot of new ones in the crockpot is more effort in its unfamiliarity. And adapting old recipes to the crockpot I'm not too sure how to do. (I also wonder if the taste will be the same cooked in this manner?). I don't think I've given my crockpot enough of a trial, to be honest. But because I haven't become more acquainted with it, I don't have an arsenal of tried and true recipes and maybe then there's the fact that I don't often have an idea of what I will make for supper early enough in the day to know what to start cooking in the crockpot that morning! Sometimes I leave the thought of what to make for supper to later in the day, and so I whip up something quick later as opposed to decide much earlier and then set up the crockpot, etc. etc.
Mostly I must admit it's because I haven't gone to the effort of familiarizing myself with crockpot recipes and actually remembering to try my hand at them most days (a creature of old habits I am?) that my crockpot sits in its spot in the cupboard day after day. (Not enough room on my counter to have it there all the time either).
Sue you certainly are a pro, throwing this together and adding a dash of that and voila, a super dish is created! After all these years of cooking, I am not so creative though I can to an extent create something from my knowledge base but I still like to use a recipe as a starting point. Sometimes I do take two or three recipes (of the same type) and change this one, adding more of this or not that and make my own creation from that, but being truly creative with food, I don't think I very much am.
Anyway I like the 'idea' of making a dinner in a crockpot - I just have to make a more concerted effort to try my hand at using it, I suppose.
I like using my crock pot too. The best part is having dinner ready in the evening without having to do a bunch of cooking at the end of the day when I'm tired. Although I do remember sometimes not enjoying the prep in the morning instead, like the smell of sauteing onions or something at breakfast-time!
I have a variety of recipes that I have made in the crock several times. And Nora's post reminded me that I have a copy of "Fix It and Forget It Lightly" that I have never used.
I make beans in the crockpot, especially "refried beans" except that we mash them in the crock so they are fat free. I also make Split Pea Soup, and a spicy Indonesian-type chicken thighs dish. I have 2 beef recipes that I haven't made in years (since Enrique stopped eating red meat to be exact!). They are a pot roast and a beef stew, the stew is very good. I've also cooked a whole turkey breast in the crock a few times, and as I recall I have a Chicken Cacciatore recipe too. Those are the recipes that come to mind but I may have more...if anyone wants them let me know and I will type them out.
Shirley, I have 3 crock pots! Yes that sounds over the top, but the size seems to matter. We got a "standard" crock pot as a wedding gift which I replaced after about 15-20 years because the bottom was rusting out, and again 2-3 yrs ago! I think it was 3.5 quarts. About 10 yrs ago I got a large oblong model, maybe 6 qts? for cooking larger things (like a turkey breast) or when I needed to make beans for 20 people. When the kids moved out I got a smaller one, probably 2.5 qt but turns out I don't use it much. They are all Rival brand and all very simple models in that the controls are Off, Low, and High. At least the crocks can be removed which was not the case with the first two I owned. The medium sized one is stored conviently in the kitchen, the big one in the garage and the small one is in a closet.
I think that they work best if they are fairly full and don't need much added liquid then. When cooking for just you and Ray you might do better with a small one but your big one could be great for when your sons come for dinner. The things that I cook in it are typically things that *can* fall apart without ruining the presentation when served so it won't matter if the food keeps cooking after the point of being done enough to eat. I've never had anything get dried out or tough in the crockpot and I've cooked things for longer than the recipe calls for. I prefer to use boneless chicken so I don't have to fish out bones and cartilage in the event the meat falls off the bone (and always skinless to keep down the fat content), if using red meat with big bones I guess that's not an issue, assuming you can fit the cut in the pot.
You DO need to be organized about starting the food in the morning, or the night before in the case of beans. The times that I use the crockpot are typically in one of those weeks when I've made a menu plan for the entire week and made sure that I have all of the ingredients on hand for all of the menus. Lately I haven't been so organized about my cooking and thus haven't been using the crockpot!
Speaking of pea soup..... I was wondering if people here are familiar with the whole dried yellow peas as opposed to the split pea variety? The reason I bring this up is that for just about all the years I've lived here (since moving here 10 years ago, that is) I have not had luck finding the whole dried yellow pea variety which is what I used when I lived out east to make pea soup. My mother used this kind, and she made what we called French Canadian pea soup (though it's probably not any different than most recipes for pea soup). And when I moved here I could only find the split pea variety which to me doesn't taste quite the same (not to say the split pea kind is not good but just not the same as the whole pea variety).
Anyway, there I was shopping in a grocery store in Montreal last week and I came across bags of whole dried yellow peas! Oh joy, I bought two good sized bags and brought them home in my suitcase. And this weekend I was out with my friend here in Calgary and we stopped in at Wal-Mart and we both needed a few things from the food section, and well...what did I see in an aisle? You guessed it...bags of whole dried yellow peas! Were they there all along, or did they just recently get brought into the store? I have to admit I don't shop hardly at all for food in Wal-Mart so what do I know? But I was amazed to find them after all this time!
So do you have those kinds of dried yellow peas where you are? Just curious.
I think I have seen them at a Middle Eastern market that I occasionally visit that has a large variety of legumes and grains not normally sold in the chain groceries. I don't think I have ever seen them at Von's/Safeway etc, or even the natural foods market where I normally buy from the bulk bins.
You guys are making me hungry. Someday I'll cook something that doesn't come out of a box.
When we had our big elaborate Halloween parties. I would make some really good chili. I made it in an electric roaster that I used like a crockpot, it is a huge thing. We would sometimes serve 50 people. Sometimes I make chili for just the two of us in a smaller crock-pot. Since I'm home all the time, I don't need to cook supper at breakfast time. Although that roast for barbecue sounds intriguing.
Ladies, you may not be surprised to know that I took my crockpot out yesterday and made a meal with it! LOL. All this talk about crockpots and I decided to take some chicken thighs and cook them in a kind of barbecue sauce in the crockpot. The dish turned out pretty good- Ray said he liked it. The meat was kind of falling off the bone, I must say, but what I have found (with my limited experience) is that in this case, chicken, cooked in a crockpot usually turns out like chicken that is stewed - no matter what the ingredients used with it in the crockpot. Should I be surprised by that...probably not, because it is essentially being stewed, isn't it? I'm not that fond of the sort of stringy-ness of the meat cooked that way, or so I found that that is how some of the meat was yesterday. Nevertheless the sauce was tasty and we enjoyed it well enough.
This morning I've got two pots of soup in the making. I kept bits of lamb and bones from two lamb leg roasts that I had cut up for cubes of meat for a souvlaki barbecue. I put the bits, etc. in the freezer and today with the weather being cooler now, I was inspired to get some soup made. I make Scotch Broth soup from lamb bits, one of my favourite soups that eats like a meal just about, it's so full of meat, barley, and vegetables.
I love this time of year when it gets colder out and the menu changes to warmer-weather foods - stews and soups and heartier fare! Now I was wondering, to those of you who live down in the U.S. south...do you get cold enough weather to want to cook heartier kinds of dishes, or do you just do that anyway, cold weather or not? Just wondering...
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Hi Janet-I don't use my crockpot much in summer-I tend to use our barbeque more. But I have an excellent crockpot cookbook-called "Fix-it and Forget-it".And I can share a couple recipes we like.
The first one is actually from Susan (oldest dd)-Salsa chicken & she made it when she was here.1pkg skinless, boneless chicken thighs(I sometimes just use regular ones);1 jar salsa; 1 can black beans or kidney beans-drained & rinsed;corn (I used a can of niblets corn)Put them together, mix gently
Sue
I never got 'on the bandwagon' years ago when crockpots first came out on the market and because of all here who have touted its benefits I bought a crockpot a couple of years ago. Now I bought the biggest one around, I think, but a store's name-brand one rather than a company brand kind, (not sure if that makes any difference) and I have only used it a few times and still am not a big fan of using one, but there is more than one reason for that.
First, I wonder if the huge size of this pot is necessary - it seems that when I make a recipe that isn't involving a large roast or large amount of liquid, for example, the amount of whatever just sits on the bottom of the crockpot hardly an inch in depth! And I am not certain about the controls. It seems that the temperature control should go to the 'keeping warm' stage at the end of the cook time but I'm not certain it really does that. It seems to be still going at the cooking level after the time is done, or so it appears - but I can't seem to really tell, other than the food seems to still be 'bubbling' even after it should have ended the cooking stage.
I haven't made a whole lot of recipes. A few have turned out acceptably, but some I wasn't too keen on. I understand that you can't put herbs in for too long a time as their flavour dissipates over the long cooking time? I have so many tried and true 'regular' cooking recipes and to switch over to try a whole lot of new ones in the crockpot is more effort in its unfamiliarity. And adapting old recipes to the crockpot I'm not too sure how to do. (I also wonder if the taste will be the same cooked in this manner?). I don't think I've given my crockpot enough of a trial, to be honest. But because I haven't become more acquainted with it, I don't have an arsenal of tried and true recipes and maybe then there's the fact that I don't often have an idea of what I will make for supper early enough in the day to know what to start cooking in the crockpot that morning! Sometimes I leave the thought of what to make for supper to later in the day, and so I whip up something quick later as opposed to decide much earlier and then set up the crockpot, etc. etc.
Mostly I must admit it's because I haven't gone to the effort of familiarizing myself with crockpot recipes and actually remembering to try my hand at them most days (a creature of old habits I am?) that my crockpot sits in its spot in the cupboard day after day. (Not enough room on my counter to have it there all the time either).
Sue you certainly are a pro, throwing this together and adding a dash of that and voila, a super dish is created! After all these years of cooking, I am not so creative though I can to an extent create something from my knowledge base but I still like to use a recipe as a starting point. Sometimes I do take two or three recipes (of the same type) and change this one, adding more of this or not that and make my own creation from that, but being truly creative with food, I don't think I very much am.
Anyway I like the 'idea' of making a dinner in a crockpot - I just have to make a more concerted effort to try my hand at using it, I suppose.
Shirley
I like using my crock pot too. The best part is having dinner ready in the evening without having to do a bunch of cooking at the end of the day when I'm tired. Although I do remember sometimes not enjoying the prep in the morning instead, like the smell of sauteing onions or something at breakfast-time!
I have a variety of recipes that I have made in the crock several times. And Nora's post reminded me that I have a copy of "Fix It and Forget It Lightly" that I have never used.
I make beans in the crockpot, especially "refried beans" except that we mash them in the crock so they are fat free. I also make Split Pea Soup, and a spicy Indonesian-type chicken thighs dish. I have 2 beef recipes that I haven't made in years (since Enrique stopped eating red meat to be exact!). They are a pot roast and a beef stew, the stew is very good. I've also cooked a whole turkey breast in the crock a few times, and as I recall I have a Chicken Cacciatore recipe too. Those are the recipes that come to mind but I may have more...if anyone wants them let me know and I will type them out.
Shirley, I have 3 crock pots! Yes that sounds over the top, but the size seems to matter. We got a "standard" crock pot as a wedding gift which I replaced after about 15-20 years because the bottom was rusting out, and again 2-3 yrs ago! I think it was 3.5 quarts. About 10 yrs ago I got a large oblong model, maybe 6 qts? for cooking larger things (like a turkey breast) or when I needed to make beans for 20 people. When the kids moved out I got a smaller one, probably 2.5 qt but turns out I don't use it much. They are all Rival brand and all very simple models in that the controls are Off, Low, and High. At least the crocks can be removed which was not the case with the first two I owned. The medium sized one is stored conviently in the kitchen, the big one in the garage and the small one is in a closet.
I think that they work best if they are fairly full and don't need much added liquid then. When cooking for just you and Ray you might do better with a small one but your big one could be great for when your sons come for dinner. The things that I cook in it are typically things that *can* fall apart without ruining the presentation when served so it won't matter if the food keeps cooking after the point of being done enough to eat. I've never had anything get dried out or tough in the crockpot and I've cooked things for longer than the recipe calls for. I prefer to use boneless chicken so I don't have to fish out bones and cartilage in the event the meat falls off the bone (and always skinless to keep down the fat content), if using red meat with big bones I guess that's not an issue, assuming you can fit the cut in the pot.
You DO need to be organized about starting the food in the morning, or the night before in the case of beans. The times that I use the crockpot are typically in one of those weeks when I've made a menu plan for the entire week and made sure that I have all of the ingredients on hand for all of the menus. Lately I haven't been so organized about my cooking and thus haven't been using the crockpot!
Speaking of pea soup..... I was wondering if people here are familiar with the whole dried yellow peas as opposed to the split pea variety? The reason I bring this up is that for just about all the years I've lived here (since moving here 10 years ago, that is) I have not had luck finding the whole dried yellow pea variety which is what I used when I lived out east to make pea soup. My mother used this kind, and she made what we called French Canadian pea soup (though it's probably not any different than most recipes for pea soup). And when I moved here I could only find the split pea variety which to me doesn't taste quite the same (not to say the split pea kind is not good but just not the same as the whole pea variety).
Anyway, there I was shopping in a grocery store in Montreal last week and I came across bags of whole dried yellow peas! Oh joy, I bought two good sized bags and brought them home in my suitcase. And this weekend I was out with my friend here in Calgary and we stopped in at Wal-Mart and we both needed a few things from the food section, and well...what did I see in an aisle? You guessed it...bags of whole dried yellow peas! Were they there all along, or did they just recently get brought into the store? I have to admit I don't shop hardly at all for food in Wal-Mart so what do I know? But I was amazed to find them after all this time!
So do you have those kinds of dried yellow peas where you are? Just curious.
Shirley
You guys are making me hungry. Someday I'll cook something that doesn't come out of a box.
When we had our big elaborate Halloween parties. I would make some really good chili. I made it in an electric roaster that I used like a crockpot, it is a huge thing. We would sometimes serve 50 people. Sometimes I make chili for just the two of us in a smaller crock-pot. Since I'm home all the time, I don't need to cook supper at breakfast time. Although that roast for barbecue sounds intriguing.
I don't think I've seen dried yellow peas around here... but then I KNOW I haven't been looking for them.
Ladies, you may not be surprised to know that I took my crockpot out yesterday and made a meal with it! LOL. All this talk about crockpots and I decided to take some chicken thighs and cook them in a kind of barbecue sauce in the crockpot. The dish turned out pretty good- Ray said he liked it. The meat was kind of falling off the bone, I must say, but what I have found (with my limited experience) is that in this case, chicken, cooked in a crockpot usually turns out like chicken that is stewed - no matter what the ingredients used with it in the crockpot. Should I be surprised by that...probably not, because it is essentially being stewed, isn't it? I'm not that fond of the sort of stringy-ness of the meat cooked that way, or so I found that that is how some of the meat was yesterday. Nevertheless the sauce was tasty and we enjoyed it well enough.
This morning I've got two pots of soup in the making. I kept bits of lamb and bones from two lamb leg roasts that I had cut up for cubes of meat for a souvlaki barbecue. I put the bits, etc. in the freezer and today with the weather being cooler now, I was inspired to get some soup made. I make Scotch Broth soup from lamb bits, one of my favourite soups that eats like a meal just about, it's so full of meat, barley, and vegetables.
I love this time of year when it gets colder out and the menu changes to warmer-weather foods - stews and soups and heartier fare! Now I was wondering, to those of you who live down in the U.S. south...do you get cold enough weather to want to cook heartier kinds of dishes, or do you just do that anyway, cold weather or not? Just wondering...
Shirley
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