Slow Cooker Barbecue, It's A Thing

It's not warm enough here yet for picnicking outside, but I've been itching for a picnic ... so I threw one inside with potato salad, pickled beets, and slow cooker barbecue chicken. Yes, barbecue chicken in my slow cooker. Because BHG said I could and BHG Knows All.

There are many other slow cooker barbecue chicken recipes on the Internet, but most of them are all "dump everything in a slow cooker and let it cook for X hours." The BHG recipe, "Chicken Drumsticks with Barbecue Sauce,"calls for broiling the naked drumsticks for 15-20 minutes before popping them in the slow cooker. This step crisps the skin and renders out quite a lot of fat. You could skin the chicken, instead, but BHG's method is easy and works quite well. The skin, what there was left of it after four hours on low, was very thin and had pretty much melted into the meat.

Slow Cooker Red Lentil Soup

This soup was inspired by a recipe for "Red Lentil Soup" in Michele Scicolone's The Mediterranean Slow Cooker (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). I'd been meaning to try her recipe for weeks, but never had quite the right ingredients on hand. I decided to just go ahead and do the best I could with what I had. And I think I did.

This is delicious soup, subtle and savory, that will fill you up without leaving you feeling filled up. It doesn't need any accompaniment, although a bit of fresh fruit never goes amiss, and is just as good for breakfast as for lunch or dinner. I've mostly been eating it for breakfast as my tummy's been a bit sensitive lately and this lentil soup's a gentle way to start the day.

Slow Cooker Red Lentil Soup
Makes 6 generous servings

Ingredients
1 pound red lentils, rinsed, drained, and picked over
1 large red onion, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1 14.5 oz can Muir Glen fire-roasted adobo-seasoned petit diced tomatoes
3 large garlic cloves, pressed
1 dried bay leaf
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
4 cups low-sodium chicken or vegetable broth
1 14 oz can full-fat coconut milk

Directions
Combine all in a slow cooker. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or until the vegetables are tender (Do the sweet potatoes break up a bit when you stir the pot? You're good). Remove bay leaf. Puree soup with immersion blender. Adjust seasoning as necessary.

If you can't find the adobo-seasoned tomatoes (while I found them at the grocery store, they don't seem to exist on the Muir Glen website) just use a plain can of fire-roasted tomatoes and add a teaspoon or so of adobo seasoning.

I also made "Balsamic Chicken with Capers" from the The Mediterranean Slow Cooker and they were everything chicken from a slow cooker should be -- tender, moist, and richly flavored. And so easy to throw together as it asks for ingredients that are always in my kitchen. I did not remove the skin from the chicken before cooking and it seemed almost to melt into the meat as the fat rendered out during the cooking process. Yum! I will definitely make this recipe again.

Chard-tastic Sausage and Black Bean Stoup

Trader Joe's was selling ten ounce bags of washed, chopped, and ready-to-cook Kaleidoscope Chard for $1.99 a bag. Of course, I bought two. And then I brought them home and realized there really wasn't room in the fridge for two bags of chard. So I made soup out of one of them. (The other one I keep patting and calling "pretty" ... as if it were a new pet and not something I will be eating soon).

This soup is based on the recipe for "Black Bean Soup with Sausage and Greens" from Beth Hensperger's Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker for Two. I made Hensperger's recipe a few years ago and, while it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped (my own fault), I'd been meaning to revisit it.

When I made the recipe before I remember it came out too thin for my taste, so I threw in a diced sweet potato and some red lentils this time 'round hoping it would help thicken things up. I also used more chard and sausage, while reducing the amount of broth, and threw in a can of tomatoes for extra flavor.

Darlings, it was fabulous. Spicy, creamy, meaty ... fab. I ate it for breakfast. For lunch. For supper. And, yes, for a snack. It's been four days and the soup is gone and no-one helped me eat it. I ate it all, yum.

Chard, Sausage, and Black Bean Soup
Serves 4-6

Ingredients
2 tsp coconut oil
1 large carrot, diced small
1 large onion, diced small
2 celery stalks, diced small
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced small
1 cup red lentils, rinsed, drained, and picked over
10 oz bag Trader Joe's raw washed chopped Swiss chard
12 oz package (5 sausages) Trader Joe's fully-cooked spicy jalapeño chicken sausage, halved lengthwise and sliced
1 ½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
15 oz can Trader Joe's refried black beans with jalapeño peppers
15 oz can Muir Glen Organic fire-roasted adobo-seasoned petite diced tomatoes

Directions
Heat oil in a large pot. Add carrot, onion, celery, and sausage and cook, stirring occasionally, until sausage is browned and onion is translucent. Add to slow cooker with chard, sweet potato, refried beans, tomatoes, and broth. Stir to combine. Cook on High for 3 hours. Stir and season to taste.

This is really thick soup -- much more like a stew -- so you might want to add more broth at the end. I like thick bean soups so left it as was.

Slow Cooker Curried Lentil & Kale Soup

Sunday, I cleared a freezer shelf with this surprisingly tasty slow cooked lentil-kale-everything soup. I used low-sodium organic chicken broth, but substituting vegetable broth would easily make it vegan. (Swapping half the broth for coconut milk might also be a good trade).

Slow Cooker Curried Lentil & Kale Soup
Serves many

Ingredients
8 oz bag frozen chopped onions
8 oz bag frozen mixed pepper strips
10 oz bag frozen cubed sweet potatoes
16 oz bag frozen cubed butternut squash
2 14.5 oz cans low-sodium chicken broth
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp Penzeys Maharajah curry powder
½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp smoked paprika
30 oz bag chopped frozen kale
17.63 oz package Melissa's steamed lentils

Directions
Combine everything but the kale and lentils in your slow cooker insert and cook for 5 hours on High.

Puree with an immersion blender until smooth.

Add lentils and kale. Stir well. Cook for another 15-20 minutes.

Adjust seasonings to taste -- I added a little lemon juice and sriracha for brightness.

I've been eating this for breakfast, of course, and a big bowl with some fruit on the side keeps me comfortable (and happy) until lunch time -- not surprising as the soup is full of dietary fiber and protein!

Zesty Lemon Chicken, Yum!

I threw this dish together on a whim and was surprised by just how good it turned out! The chicken positively exploded with flavor and, when mixed with the noodles, there was just enough sauce to nicely coat the noodles with zesty lemon goodness. Really look forward to making this again.

I served the chicken with an organic imported Italian pasta, strozzapreti (a kind of cavatelli), that I had leftover from one of my Italian cooking assignments. I imagine any pasta would do, including plain ol' egg noodles, but fancy-pants pasta makes it more fun.

Zesty Lemon Chicken

Ingredients
1 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 packet Italian dressing mix
1 Tbsp butter
Juice of one lemon
¼ cup low-sodium chicken broth
¼ cup white wine
2 Tbsp freeze-dried pepper flakes
1 small onion, very thinly sliced
3 servings pasta, cooked as directed
Freshly ground black pepper, as desired

Directions
Whisk together lemon juice, dressing mix, wine, and chicken broth.

Coat bottom of slow cooker insert with cooking spray. Nestle chicken thighs in bottom of insert and pour lemon juice mixture over them. Sprinkle with onions and peppers. Dot with butter. Cook on low for 6 hours.

When finished cooking, break chicken into bite-size bits (just bash them with a mixing spoon and they'll break right up). Stir in egg noodles and season with pepper as desired.

Hot Mess O' Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken

So this is not the prettiest thing I've ever made, but it was tasty and easy to assemble. I've almost resigned myself to ugly-delicious slow cooker food as it's the taste and the convenience that are most important ... but then I look at all the pretty pictures in my slow cooker cookbooks and get a bit grumpy!

Slow Cooker Teriyaki Chicken Mess

Ingredients
3 frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts
¾ bottle teriyaki flavor stir-fry sauce
½ tsp red pepper flakes
4 cloves garlic, smashed and peel
1 small red onion, peeled and chopped
16 oz bag frozen stir-fry vegetables, thawed in fridge
15 oz can baby corn, drained

Directions
Combine first five ingredients in slow cooker and cook on LOW for 8 hours. Shred chicken with two forks, stir in thawed stir fry mix and corn, cook on High for about 20 minutes or until vegetables are heated through. Serve over rice.

October is for Oatmeal

It's October! Time to dust of the slow cooker and make with the oatmeal. There are many ways to make oatmeal in the slow cooker, but it basically boils down to 4:1 ratio of liquid to steel-cut oats, plus flavorings, all in the slow cooker for eight hours on low.

The first few times I made oatmeal in my slow cooker, I was fairly worried about leaving the appliance on overnight. I don't know why, really, as I leave it on all day while I'm at work and don't even think about it. There was just something about an appliance working away while I slept that made me uneasy. As if the slow cooker would run mad and burn the house down around us while we slept.

Well, that did not happen. I eventually got over myself and now love slow-cooking oatmeal overnight. (Tomato sauce is good for overnight slow-cooking, too, as long as you don't mind waking up with a terrible craving for spaghetti for breakfast!)

Pecan-cranberry oatmeal topped with fresh banana & flax seed oil. Yum!

Over the weekend, I made pecan-cranberry oatmeal to use up some odds and ends hanging out from last winter's holiday baking. I could just as easily have used dried blueberries or golden raisins and slivered almonds or walnuts. And probably will try those combinations out over the next few weeks. My baking cupboard overfloweth with bits and bobs.

Pecan-Cranberry Oatmeal

Ingredients
Cooking spray
4 cups water
½ cup low-fat milk [omit if you don't like creamy oatmeal]
1 cup steel-cut oats
2 oz dried cranberries
1 scant cup chopped pecans
1 tsp Penzeys baking spice blend
1 tsp Penzeys Mexican vanilla
1 scant tsp sea salt

Directions
Spray slow cooker insert. Add all other ingredients, stir, cover, cook on low for 8 hours. Stir. Adjust seasonings or add more liquid, if desired.

Portion out for later or eat with fresh sliced banana and a little honey or maple syrup.

Bacon Jam in My Slow Cooker

I'm sure there are many ways to celebrate Columbus Day. I celebrated it with bacon jam. Many months ago, when I started mainlining Skillet Street Food's bacon spread, I pinned several DIY slow cooker bacon jam recipes because ... why not? Bacon goes in the slow cooker, double plus yumminess comes out.

When I finally got around to making my own bacon jam, I used King Arthur Flour's bacon jam recipe which yields a much sweeter, gooier jam than Skillet's spread. This is hardly surprising as it's full of brown sugar, cider vinegar, maple syrup, and boiled cider. It may be more sweet than savory, but it's still pure unmitigated deliciousness and I'm perfectly content to use it in everything I used Skillet's spread in.

I baked my bacon in the oven @ 400F° for about 20 minutes a batch -- until each square was deep brown and very crunchy. I could have fried the bacon in batches in a skillet, but I find baking creates more uniformly cooked bacon, allows me to walk away to do other things, and is also a heck of a lot easier to clean up!

We don't drink coffee, but I occasionally cook with it so I keep a packet of Starbucks Via Ready Brew Colombia Medium instant coffee in my spice cupboard. Each slim, easily-stored packet brews up one cup of coffee and I don't usually need more than that in any recipe. Indeed, for KAF's bacon jam, I only need three quarters of a cup. I froze the remaining quarter cup, figuring it would come in handy at some later point.

So, you ask, what will I do with this bacon jam? I'm going to toss it with roasted Brussels sprouts and tomato-braised green beans, smear it all over bread and make a fantastic grilled cheese, and ... I might just stand in front of the fridge and eat it by the spoon full.

(I strongly recommend cooking more bacon that you need for this recipe because, if you're like me, a significant amount of bacon will be lost to tasting).

Lazy Slow Cooking

I did not menu plan this week which meant I spent too much of Tuesday night with my head in our freezer trying to figure out what I could make for Wednesday's supper. There wasn't going to be enough time to thaw anything, but since I figured out I could cook frozen boneless skinless breasts in my slow cooker, that isn't really a problem. In my pantry, I found a jar of salsa verde. It seemed like a good enough combination.

And it was pretty good. Looked like the dog's breakfast, but shredded chicken usually does. I could (probably) have taken a (slightly) more attractive photo, but I was too hungry to mess around with camera setting. Point, shoot, feed the grue.

Slow Cooker Chicken Verde

Ingredients
1 lb frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts
16 oz jar salsa verde [Archer Farms Mild Roasted Salsa Verde]
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 oz neufchâtel cheese, cut into small cubes
Dried cilantro, as desired

Directions
Coat slow cooker insert with a little cooking spray. Pour enough salsa verde to coat the bottom of the insert. Add the chicken. Top with remaining salsa verde. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.

Using two forks, shred chicken. Stir in cream cheese and cilantro. Let sit until cream cheese is melted. Give everything a good stir. Serve over rice.

I thought this dish was a little salty, but The Husband disagreed and I seem to be really salt sensitive recently, so ymmv.

If I were to make this again, I might add some red onion in with the salsa verde and stir in a can of white beans with the cream cheese and cilantro.

Hot Mess O' Chicken Goop

I was going to use our grill tonight. Really. For the first time this summer. We were going to have grilled marinated chicken breasts with corn and black bean salad and tomatoes from the garden. But ... I forgot to thaw the chicken overnight. Sigh. So it was chicken in the slow cooker, again. (To be honest, since in-house experiments have shown that cooking frozen boneless chicken pieces in the slow cooker ≠ death, I may never thaw chicken breasts again).

Supper wasn't very pretty, but it tasted good (a bit like deconstructed chicken enchiladas) and I couldn't stop taste-testing it while I waited for the pasta to cook. I made it by modifying the basic recipe I've been using recently -- chicken parts, cream of chicken, Neufchâtel, vegetables, and seasonings -- to include that dusty jar of Trader Joe's corn salsa I bought almost a year ago when I was on a tomato-less salsa kick. Because the corn salsa was a little sweet, I tossed in some garlicky Green Mountain Gringo for balance. Black beans just seemed like a natural accompaniment (and added fiber so I could pretend supper would be a healthy one).

Slow Cooker Creamy Salsa Chicken

Ingredients
3 completely frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
13.75 oz jar Trader Joe's corn and chile tomato-less salsa
6 oz Green Mountain Gringo roasted garlic salsa
15.5 oz can low-sodium black beans, drained and rinsed
10.5 oz can condensed reduced-fat lower-sodium cream of chicken soup
2 oz Neufchâtel cheese, softened
Palmful of dried cilantro, if desired

Directions
Coat slow cooker insert with cooking spray. Place chicken inside.

Stir together soup, salsas, and softened Neufchâtel. Pour over chicken.

Close lid and cook on low for 8-9 hours.

Using two forks, shred chicken inside slow cooker. Add cilantro and stir everything together. Serve over rice or pasta.

Serves about 4 for supper or 2 with plenty of leftovers.

More Creamy Slow Cooker Chicken Goodness

I know summer is a time for pasta and potato salads, grilled chicken and burgers, but I seem to be out of sync with the season. Oh, we're eating lots of fresh seasonal produce (a whole lot of which is coming from my garden), but the grill's seeing no real action and I've only made pasta and potato salads once.

What's seeing a lot of use? Why, my slow cooker. Fill it with stuff in the morning and come home at five thirty to a supper that is ready to go straight into my belly. The house doesn't heat up from cooking and I don't have to stand outside at the grill, dodging horseflies and feeling irritable from the heat (or con The Husband into doing the same).

When I think about it, it seems a bit weird to be using my slow cooker so heavily this summer when I more-or-less ignored it all winter. Well, regardless of weirdness, I do love my slow cooker this summer!

Monday I modified the "Slow Cooker Creamy Mushroom Chicken" I made last week, because I had a bumper-crop of cherry tomatoes to eat up ("Sungold" are prolific little buggers, you know) and no fresh mushrooms.

Slow Cooker Creamy Tomato Chicken with Squash

Ingredients
3 partially thawed boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
2 small yellow squash, halved and thinly sliced
Cherry tomatoes (enough to fill the bottom of your slow cooker)
6 sliced garlic cloves
1 Tbsp Penzeys Italian Vinegar and Oil dressing mix
1 Tbsp Penzeys salt-free Tuscan Sunset Italian-style seasoning blend
10.5 oz can condensed cream of chicken soup
6 oz Neufchâtel cheese, softened

Directions
Coat slow cooker insert with cooking spray. Place tomatoes and garlic on the bottom and top with chicken breasts.

Stir together soup, dressing mix, seasoning blend, and softened cheese. Pour over chicken.

Close lid and cook on low for 6 hours.

Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred. Return to slow cooker and very thoroughly mix everything together. Serve over rice or pasta.

Creamy Slow Cooker Mushroom-Chicken Goodness

Now I know why there are so many slow cooker chicken with cream cheese and mushrooms recipes on the Internetz -- chicken + cream cheese + mushrooms + slow cooker = doubleplusdeliciousness! The only thing that could make it better might be the addition of bacon. (Alas, The Husband eschews all things bacon).

To make "my" creamy mushroom chicken goodness, I started with 4 Little Fergusons' "Slow Cooker Angel Chicken" and then ran amok making changes:

• I'm sure ¼ cup butter does make it better, but I was already using cream cheese and condensed chicken soup ... adding butter to the mix just seemed too decadent (I know! I didn't think it possible, either!). Also, we'd already eaten half a stick of butter earlier this week in EatatHome's "Southwestern Steak and Cornbread Stuffing" so that was our butter quota met for the week.
• I also reduced the amount of chicken as there are only two of us, I have a small slow cooker, and a 1 pound/3 breast package fits in it perfectly.
• I used less cream cheese (Neufchâtel) simply because I'd already used some in another recipe. Ditto the mushrooms. Seasonings were just what I had on hand and, as I was using unflavored cream cheese, I tried to up the seasonings accordingly.

Despite my changes, this dish came out really well and I would happily make it again. It was rich, creamy, and flavorful without feeling ribstickingly heavy. The amount of sauce was just right when served over microwave-steamed brown rice and it all went really well with the green beans I'd picked up at the farm stand.

Slow Cooker Creamy Mushroom Chicken
Adapted from 4 Little Fergusons' "Slow Cooker Angel Chicken."

Ingredients
3 partially thawed boneless skinless chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
12 ounces sliced white button mushrooms
1 tsp Penzeys dehydrated chopped shallots
1 Tbsp Penzeys Italian Vinegar and Oil dressing mix
1 Tbsp Penzeys salt-free Tuscan Sunset Italian-style seasoning blend
10.5 oz can condensed cream of chicken soup
6 oz Neufchâtel cheese, softened

Directions
Coat slow cooker insert with cooking spray. Place mushrooms on the bottom and top with chicken breasts. Sprinkle chicken with shallots.

Stir together soup, dressing mix, seasoning blend, and softened cheese. Pour over chicken.

Close lid and cook on low for 6 hours.

Remove chicken from slow cooker and shred. Return to slow cooker and very thoroughly mix everything together. Serve over rice or pasta. Goes well with fresh green beans.

Stuffed Peppers On The Fly

I'm trying to get back into the slow cooker habit this summer. It's been so hot and muggy lately that I don't want to go outside to grill and, of course, I really don't want to run my stove. So we're back to eating a lot of delivery, again. Lots of salty, fatty, and ultimately regrettable food. Bah.

As long as I can remember to fill the slow cooker before work, real food will be waiting when I come home and my house won't be any hotter than it was when I left for work. Anyway, these stuffed peppers were the first slow cooker dish I've made this summer and they turned out really well for something I threw together on the fly based on what was in my fridge at the time.

Slow Cooker Stuffed Peppers

Ingredients
3 large bell peppers
1 lb lean ground lamb
1 cup frozen corn, thawed
¼ cup feta crumbles
1 cup cooked brown rice
1 10.25 oz can Campbell's Tomato Bisque
2 tsp Penzeys salt-free Sunny Spain seasoning blend
2 Tbsp dehydrated sliced onion, crushed

Directions
Remove tops and seeds from peppers.

In a large skillet, cook lamb and and onion over medium heat until no longer pink; drain. Add the rice, feta, corn, half the bisque, seasoning blend, and onion.

Spoon rice mixture into peppers and place in slow cooker. Pour remaining bisque over peppers, cover, and cook on LOW for six hours.

Six hours was actually a little too long for these peppers -- they started to fall apart as soon as I touched them with the serving spoon -- but they were still very good with garlicky instant mashed potatoes (why, yes, I am the Queen of Lazy Sundays). Really, I'm surprised how well these turned out for something I made up on the fly!

My mother always used Campbell's Tomato Bisque in her meatloaf so it's a real nostalgia food for me and brings back many memories of not just her meatloaf, but her stuffed peppers, too. She used to make both in a big square CorningWare baker that was so deep the meatloaf and peppers almost poached in her tomato gravy. Good stuff.

Slow Cooker Beef Stew w/ Merlot & Tomatoes

I made beef stew on Saint Patrick's Day and, to thumb my nose at limiting faux-Irish traditions, it doesn't have Guinness in it. Or potatoes. Hearty with thick chunks of beef and vegetables, this made a delicious alternative to corned beef, boiled potatoes, and cabbage.

Easy Slow Cooker Beef Stew

1 pound stew beef, trimmed & cut into bite-sized pieces
2 shallots, minced
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 red onion, chopped
3 carrots, sliced thick
3 celery stalks, sliced thick
sliced mushrooms
28 oz can Muir Glen fire-roasted crushed tomatoes
1 cup Little Penguin Merlot
1 Tbsp Penzeys Beef Soup Base & Seasoning
2 tsp Penzeys Herbes de Provence
Dried parsley, as desired
Black pepper, to taste

Layer mushrooms and other vegetables at bottom of slow cooker. Top with beef. Whisk soup base into wine until dissolved and combine with tomatoes, parsley, and pepper. Pour over beef. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours. Serve over parslied egg noodles.

This stew makes a lot -- enough for four or six -- but the leftovers reheat well.

One Meat Sauce, Two Meals

Some celebrate Washington's Birthday with cherry pie, but I celebrated with a big pot of "Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce" from The Nourishing Gourmet. It's one of the many "spaghetti and red sauce" recipes I've pinned while searching for the perfect recipe for March's Crazy Cooking Challenge. Ah, Pinterest ... I know you could be so much more, but I'm content to treat you like a beautiful version of delicious and fill you with board after board of recipes.

Anyway, "Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce" is a good recipe -- simple and delicious, with rich tomato flavor and a perfect ratio of meat to sauce. It makes a lot of sauce for a two person household, but I put the extra to good use later in the week when I made a lasagna. (Yes, I made a lasagna in the middle of the week. No-boil noodles are the best thing ever, I tell you).

All the ingredients ...

became this Monday night ...

and this Wednesday night! Yum!

To make the lasagna, I mixed together an egg, leftover ricotta, shredded mozzarella and Parmesan, parsley, and black pepper. I layered the cheese mixture with leftover sauce and no-boil noodles until both were used up, then covered the lasagna with foil and baked it in a 375°F oven for an hour. Broiled it for a few minutes to make it brown and bubbly, then let it set for about 15 minutes -- plenty of time to make the garlic bread and do the cucumbers.

Indian Pudding in My Slow Cooker, Pilgrim-Style

Friday, the weather actually felt like proper January weather. There was snow on the ground and the wind had a bitter edge to it. It was the kind of day that called for a hot bowl of Indian (corn meal) pudding. I'd never made Indian pudding before, but I had molasses, corn meal, eggs, and the Internet. How hard could it be? Not hard at all!

I used the slow cooker recipe for "Indian-Meal Pudding" from Pilgrim Seasonings, a Plimoth Plantation blog, as it had lots of photos to follow along with. I like lots of photos if I'm making a dish I'm not really sure of. I want to be able to look at my pot and then the pot in the photo and see that we have arrived at the same results.

Gather all your ingredients!

Bring corn (Indian) meal, milk, and salt to boil. 

 Cook, stirring, for 5 min. Cover and simmer for 10.

Remove from heat and whisk in butter.

Mix your molasses, eggs, and spices together. 

Whisk in a little cornmeal mixture to temper.

Add molasses mixture to cornmeal mixture.

Dump in hot, buttered, slow cooker.

Come back after 2 hours & check your pudding. 

Panic, because it looks burnt.

While my pudding only cooked for two hours on High, it looked overcooked. The recipe said "the finished pudding will be firm around the edges than the center" and my pudding looked uniformly firm with brown edges that had pulled away from the slow cooker insert. When I took the lid off my slow cooker at the two hour mark, I could hear the pudding sizzling. I freaked out a little bit, you know, and was quite certain I had burnt the pudding.

Happily, my pudding still tasted very good. Redolent of spices, the pudding was soft and custard-y with a strong molasses finish. I ate some of it warm with unsweetened fresh whipped cream and the leftovers were tasty reheated for breakfast with a splash of milk. I'd guess this pudding makes four generous servings or six more healthful ones.

(I fed some to The Husband and he said, in very snooty British tones, that it wasn't the worst thing I'd ever fed him so ymmv, etc).

Slow Cooker Sunday: Mustard Mushroom Pork Loin

I made this slow cooker roast last Sunday, when I was feeling lazy and wanted someone else to do the cooking for me! Happily, Mlle. Slow Cooker was up to the job!

Slow Cooker Mustard Mushroom Pork Loin

Ingredients
2 lb boneless center cut pork loin
2 Tbsp Stonewall Kitchen Horseradish Mustard
8 oz sliced button mushrooms
Handful crushed dried sliced onion
Handful dried parsley flakes
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions
Add mushrooms to bottom of slow cooker insert, sprinkle with onions, parsley, and pepper. Top with pork loin (fat side up -- if it's very fatty, trim it to a thin skim coat of fat). Smear loin with mustard. Cook on LOW 6 hours.

Served this roast with boiled potatoes, garlicky green beans, and a fast gravy I made by thickening some of the pot juices.

Slow Cooker Shepherd's Pie

I like shepherd's pie a lot and I've made many variations of it over the years, but one of my favorite versions is one I adapted from a recipe in 101 Things to do With a Slow Cooker by Stephanie Ashcraft and Janet Eyring. It's not elegant or pretty (unphotographable, really), but it tastes good and takes no time to assemble.

Slow Cooker Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients
1 pound lean ground meat, browned
10¾ oz can condensed tomato soup
16 oz bag mixed vegetables, thawed and drained
2 tsp dehydrated minced garlic
2 tsp salt-free Italian seasoning blend
Dried parsley, as desired
23-24 oz container refrigerated mashed potatoes
½ cup grated parmigiano reggiano, if desired
Paprika, as desired

Directions
Grease slow cooker insert. Stir together meat, soup, vegetables, garlic, and seasoning blend. Pour into your slow cooker insert. Combine cheese, potatoes, and parsley. Spread over top. Sprinkle liberally with paprika. Cook on LOW for 5-6 hours. Leave on WARM until ready to serve.

I've left this pie on WARM for 2+ hours without it coming to any apparent harm.

I always cook the meat ahead of time -- often the night before -- and usually use lean ground turkey or bison which, I know, makes this a cottage pie rather than a shepherd's pie. But let's not be picky, eh? Let's just enjoy good noms.

Apples in My Slow Cooker

A few weeks ago, I picked up a big bag of Mutsu (aka Crispin) apples at the last Hill-Stead Farmers Market. Mutsu apples are one of my favorite apples as they're good for both eating and cooking. Also, they're simply enormous and one apple goes a long way ... which is probably why I still have so many left! Or, had, as I made apple sauce earlier today using a combination of Mutsu and Gala apples.

I love making applesauce in my slow cooker. There are only four ingredients and the method is entirely foolproof!

Easy Slow Cooker Apple Sauce

Ingredients
9 apples, peeled, cored, and sliced
2 tsp grated ginger (or 2 frozen cubes)
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ cup water

Directions
Dump everything in the slow cooker; cook on LOW for 6 to 8 hours. Stir until the biggest chunks break up. Eat.

I rather overfilled my slow cooker, but the lid still fit and I knew the apples would cook down a lot. (The instruction book says not to fill the slow cooker insert more than two-thirds full, but I regularly disregard this when making things like soups and sauces).

While this applesauce is good on its own cold, it's very nice warm with a splodge of whipped cream or poured over plain Greek yoghurt. Probably good over French vanilla ice cream, too ...

Spicy Slow Cooked Pork Tenderloin

I'd had Prevention's recipe for Slow Cooker Pork Tenderloin With Tomatillo Salsa bookmarked for months now and kept meaning to make it, but other more basic tomatillo recipes kept getting in the way. The recipe is a little fiddly for a slow cooker recipe -- the tomatillo sauce and pork rub are made from scratch and I am supposed to sear the tenderloin before plonking it in the slow cooker?! Pre-cooking? As if I would ever be so motivated at seven in the morning on a workday!

As I planned on serving the pork tenderloin for Tuesday's supper, I prepped as much as I could Monday night. While I broiled the tomatillos and serranos for the tomatillo sauce, I also minced the onion and garlic and blended the spice rub. Then I seeded the serranos (heat's in the seeds, they say) and pureed them with the tomatillos and dried cilantro.

Tuesday morning, I rubbed the pork with the spice blend and plopped it (unseared) in the slow cooker. Poured onions, garlic, some leftover Mexicorn, and sauce over the top, set the slow cooker for 8 hours on low and went to work -- I omitted the chicken stock as the sauce seemed like it was more than enough liquid. At 4:30, an hour before I arrived home, The Husband got the rice cooker going and, by 5:45 we were sitting down to supper.

I thought the tenderloin was delicious -- tangy, spicy, and so tender -- but The Husband thought it was much too hot and has refused to eat any of the leftovers! Next time I make this, I will use only one serrano pepper in the sauce and omit the cayenne pepper from the rub.