The Spud's Slow Cooker Spicy Tomato Chicken

 As she's been growing up watching me cook, The Spud has taken an interest in cooking. She's helped out with some of my meal preps and has even made dinner from a recipe herself once or twice. This time, she expressed a desire to come up with a recipe from scratch. She has discovered that spice can be a lot of fun and rampaged through our cabinets asking questions and pulling ingredients. She wanted spicy, but not so spicy that everyone couldn't eat and enjoy it. She picked all the ingredients and we worked together to decide how much of each to use. I'll be damned if she didn't nail it on her first try. Everybody in the house loved it, and we've made it again since. Some of the ingredients may be a little troublesome to find, but it will be worth it. Give it a try and let us know what you think! If you don't like it, I guess you can still tell us if you're OK with crushing the ego of a 10 year old. You do you. As always, notes are in blue.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs boneless chicken breasts (you could definitely use thighs here if you prefer, but The Spud likes white meat better)
• 1 quart (32 ounces) canned tomatoes, drained
• 1 pint tandoori tomato jam (this may prove tricky to find. We made ours from scratch. You could always just buy/make some tomato jam and add tandoori seasonings. Both are available separately on Amazon)
• 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili powder (cayenne would work here, too)
• 1 teaspoon tamarind hot sauce (we used Tangy Tamarindo)
• 1/2 red onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried cilantro (if you're one of those people who think it tastes like soap, use parsley, or lawn clippings)
• Salt and Pepper to taste

Directions

1. In a slow cooker (at least 3 quart size), lay the chicken in a layer at the bottom. 
2. Sprinkle salt, pepper, cilantro, and chili powder over the chicken.
3. In a bowl, mix tomatoes, tomato jam, and hot sauce. Stir the onions into the sauce.
4. Pour over chicken
5. Cook on HIGH for 4 hours. Take the lid off for the last 30 minutes to let the sauce thicken up.
6. Serve with/over rice

Good Times!

Slow Cooker Chicken and Potatoes in Pasta Sauce

 

Oh boy. Only 54 more wake ups until Summer Vacation. The Burn Out is real. Clearly based on the stellar content I've been posting (i.e. memes and various shitposting), I'm not finding much time or inclination to cook. Going without an oven for five weeks didn't help. We've leaned hard into the slow cooker. The upshot is we came up with a gem. You could eat this by itself as a stew, or over rice or pasta. It uses nothing but staple kitchen items so it won't be hard to put together (especially if you just use jarred pasta sauce) and isn't expensive. It is certainly filling and tasty. The Wife describes it as "kind of like cacciatore," which seems like a fair assessment.  Give it a try and let me know what you think. As always, notes are in blue. 

Slow Cooker Chicken and Potatoes in Pasta Sauce

Ingredients

• 4 medium potatoes, cut into 1" cubes (Peel them if you want. We generally don't)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped (Pick whatever color you like. The Wife doesn't really like green peppers, so we used red bell peppers here)
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 lb chicken (Another choice! Thighs or breasts? We went with breasts because we had more on hand and I like to save the thighs for any pressure cooking)
• 2-1/2 cups of pasta sauce. (I highly recommend this recipe for pasta sauce, but feel free to use your own, or even bust open a jar of store bought. I won't judge you.)
• 1 teaspoon dry oregano
• 1 teaspoon dry basil
• salt to taste

Directions

1. In a slow cooker (a 4-5 quart cooker will work), layer all the ingredients in order of appearance.
2. Cook on LOW for 6 hours. 
3. Shred the chicken with a fork.
4. Give everything a stir before serving.

Good Times!

Slow Cooker Beef and Sweet Potatoes

As you're no doubt aware, my level of content production has once again dropped of dramatically since the school year started. We've been trying to come up with quick and easy recipes that can fit into our week and still sound good to all of you! This might be one of them. It's a super-easy slow cooker recipe that is wonderful for cold days. I like that there's a pretty good chance most everybody has these ingredients on hand at any given time. Or not. I'm on my 3rd rum and Coke so I'm prone to wild speculation at this point

Slow Cooker Beef and Sweet Potatoes

Ingredients

• 2-3 pound beef roast
• 3 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large (2-3") cubes
• 1 large red or yellow bell pepper, cut into thin slices
• 1 large yellow onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup Marsala wine (here is a link to some non-alcoholic substitutes)
• 1-1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 1-1/2 teaspoons brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Mix garlic powder, brown sugar, and salt in a small bowl. Rub mixture over entire roast. 
2. Place roast in slow cooker. Place potatoes around roast and top with onion and peppers
3. Add Marsala wine (or whatever you're using in place of it)
4. Cook 3-4 hours on HIGH or 6-7 hours on LOW. 

Good Times!

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Summer around here means one thing: It's too damned hot to turn on the oven. Seriously. I can have the house at a comfortable 70 degrees, but if I cook anything in the oven, it shoots right up to 75. This is when the slow-cooker gets dragged out. This recipe came together super fast and is extremely good over pasta or rice. In other news, I somehow managed to lose every photo I had of this recipe. I checked every memory card I had. The pictures are totally gone. I don't know, maybe I was drunk and forgot to actually take the pictures. In any case, enjoy this picture of a chicken shrugging in place of the actual dish. As always, notes are in (blue).

Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Ingredients

• 2-3 (about 1.5 lb.) boneless, skinless chicken breasts (feel free to use boneless, skinless thighs if you prefer)
• 1 can (14.5oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 1 red bell pepper, cut into small slice
• 1 can (8oz) sliced mushrooms, drained (you can certainly use fresh if you prefer)
• 2-3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Directions

1. Put chicken in the bottom of slow cooker.
2. Unceremoniously dump everything else on top of chicken
3. Cook on LOW for 6 hours
4. Give everything a good stir before serving.

Good times!

Multi-Cooker Pressure Cooker Posole (Pozole)

     Ah, posole (pozole). This is such a simple dish. At its core, just pork, hominy and peppers. Done well, it is one of the greatest winter comfort foods we can think of. Served with some corn bread or tamales, you really have something special. If you have a few hours to spend to make it right, do it. If you don't, it's time to drag out the multi-cooker. I took a Bon Appetit recipe and repurposed it for pressure cooking. The ingredients are fundamentally the same. However, the actual cooking process has been significantly changed. We found that the pressure cooker version tasted close enough to identical to the original recipe, but shaved over two hours off the time. Do yourself a favor and try this. As always, notes are in blue.

adapted from Red Posole with Pork from Bon Appetit

Ingredients

• 3 pounds pork shoulder (Boston butt) (we used a 3 pound pork loin)
• 1 large white onion, sliced, plus chopped for serving
• 2 heads of garlic, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 whole cloves
• 10 guajillo chiles, ribs and seeds removed
• 6 dried chiles de árbol, ribs and seeds removed
• 3 15-ounce cans white hominy, rinsed
• Thinly sliced cabbage and radishes, dried oregano, and lime wedges (for serving)

Directions

1. In a pot (not the multi-cooker, we're talking about stove-top right now), add the chiles and three cups of water. Bring to a boil and let boil for 10 minutes. Pour peppers and water into a blender/food processor, or use an immersion blender to blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into your multi-cooker.
2. Add onions, garlic, bay leaf, cloves, and hominy to the multi cooker. Add salt, if desired (we have used adobo seasoning with good results; about 1 teaspoon). Lay the pork (fat side up) on top of the contents of the multi-cooker.
3. Add enough water to the multi-cooker to bring it a bit under the 2/3 full line.
4. Attach lid and set cooker to HIGH pressure for 1 hour. (on our Crock-Pot cooker, this is the MEAT/STEW setting)
5. After cooking, use a natural steam release for 10 minutes. Using a spatula, open the release valve and carefully let out the remaining steam.
6. Remove the pork and discard the fat. Shred the pork and return to the pot. Stir, and set to BROWN/SAUTEE for about 10 more minutes. 
7. Serve with the garnishes. 

Good Times!

Instant Pot Pork Shoulder In Turnip Gravy

So people have been yammering about the Instant Pot for quite a while now. They swear by it. As for me, I was too cheap to buy one. However, The Wife came through at Christmas and bought me a Crock Pot Multi-Cooker. It was less money than an actual Instant Pot, and basically does all the same things. I have to say, these things are great. They do legitimately save a bunch of time and are super easy to use. I used mine enough that I worked through most of the recipes in the manual and the recipe book I got along with it. It was time to try a recipe of my own and see how it worked. It worked great! I ended up with a hearty, tasty main course that unfortunately looks like canned dog food. I imagine maybe running an immersion blender in the gravy might help with the visuals, but I'm lazy like that. If you have one of these multi-cooker, I'd say give it a try. If you don't like it, it's probably something you did wrong. I've tried to explain the settings in a way that you could figure out what buttons to use if you have a different cookers. If there's confusion, just message me. As always, notes are in blue.

Pressure Cooker (Instant-Pot/Multi Cooker) 
Pork Shoulder in Turnip Gravy

Ingredients

• 4-5 pound pork shoulder, preferably boneless, cut in half
• 3 turnips, cut into 1" cubes
• 1 large potato, peeled and cut into 1" cubes
• 1/2 large yellow onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon dried sage
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1-1/2 cup dry white wine (if you don't want the alcohol, substitute chicken or vegetable stock. As a last resort, you can just use water)
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• salt and pepper
• 3 tablespoons corn starch
• OPTIONAL: 3-4 tablespoons of pepper jelly/jam (we used Darn Hot Berrily Hot Jam. Unfortunately, it looks like they don't make it anymore. However, they have a number of other items that would work here. Check them out at Darn Hot Peppers)

Directions

1. Add oil to pot and set pot to "SAUTEE/BROWN"
2. Add pork to pot and brown each piece on both sides, about 3-5 minutes per side. Remove pork to a plate.
3. In a large bowl, toss vegetables with sage, salt, and pepper (use however much salt and pepper you like. I used probably about 1 teaspoon of each. You could probably bump up to 1-1/2 teaspoons of salt if you like that sort of thing). Add vegetables to cooker and sautee, stirring occasionally, for about 5-6 minutes.
4. Add the liquid to the veggies and let it get to a boil (give it a couple minutes at the boil if you're using wine to get rid of the alcohol)
5. Lay the pork on top of the veggies. If you're using the pepper jam, spread it over the top of the pork. 
6. Put on the lid and set the cooker to HIGH pressure for 1 hour. (In our case, we used the MEAT setting and adjusted the time to an hour)
7. At the end of the cooking, use a NATURAL release for about 10-15 minutes, then open the valve to release any steam (be careful, there's still going to be a fair amount of steam in there)
8. Remove pork to a plate. Shred or slice depending on how you like to serve it. 
9. Get a plastic or vinyl masher and smash the living hell out of the veggies. Leaving in some chunks is fine.
10. Mix the corn starch with an equal amount of cold water. Add the mix to the cooker and set the cooker back on BROWN/SAUTEE until the mixture starts to bubble. Let it go for a minute or two, stirring, then switch the heat to WARM for serving.
11. You can either throw the pork back in the gravy or serve the gravy on the side. 

Good Times!

Slow Cooker Ham, Green Bean and Potatoes

Every now and then we make what we like to call "Desperation Recipes." These are recipes that are created in an effort to use up ingredients before they go off. This has let to some amazing failures like The Great Hot Dog Jambalaya Debacle and The Canned Ham and Asparagus Soup Incident. This recipe, however, was a success. Such a success that I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product. Instead of a picture of the finished product, I will use a picture of a Chevy HHR decorated like a pig. In the event somebody makes this and takes a picture before I do, I will replace this picture with theirs.

Slow Cooker Ham, Green Beans
and Potatoes

 Ingredients

• 6 red potatoes, sliced into 1/4 inch slices
• 1/2 sweet onion, chopped
• 1-1/4 pound ham, cut into small chunks (a chunk is whatever size you like within reason. 1/2-1" is probably fine. 6-8" is probably not going to work)
• 1 pound frozen green beans
• 1 can (15 ounce) cream of mushroom soup
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Milwaukee Avenue seasoning from the Spice House
• Dash of hot sauce 

Directions

1. Throw all the ingredients into a slow cooker (There's a fair amount of stuff going in. I'd recommend at least a 4 quart cooker).
2. Stir everything up.
3. Cook on LOW for 6 hours or until potatoes are done

Good Times!

Slow Cooker Turkey and Noodles

     After Thanksgiving, we usually have a terrifying amount of leftovers. This is because I have no idea how to cook for small groups. This year, for myself, The Wife, and The Spud, I cooked a 12 pound turkey. That's all well and good, but there's only so many turkey sandwiches you can eat. At The Wife's request, we took a Chicken and Dumplings recipe we have used from The Gooseberry Patch Super Fast Slow Cooker Cookbook. This works great because I promised some of you the recipe some time ago. Simply replace all instances of "turkey" here with "chicken" and you'll be fine. This makes a nice, thick, dish. Remember, this isn't soup, so don't come fussing when you say it is too thick. If you want soup, just keep adding stock until it's the consistency you want. This is a real winner on a cold day.

Slow Cooker Turkey & Noodles

Ingredients

• 1-1/4 pound shredded cooked turkey
• 2 cans (10.5 ounce) cream of chicken soup
• Chicken/Turkey stock equal to 4 cans (about 5.25 cups)
• Seasoning of your choice to taste. (We used Ukrainian Village Seasoning from the Spice House) 
• 24 ounces (two frozen bags of wide noodles or dumplings. I am referring to the thick square noodle type dumplings, not pot sticker or kreplach style)

Directions

1. Load everything except the noodles/dumplings into a slow cooker (5 quart or larger).
2. Cook on LOW for 6 hours.
3. Add the noodles/dumplings and cook another 30 minutes on LOW.

Good Times!

Slow Cooker Mexican Style Beer and Cheese Soup

Holy cow does having a child eat into your time. Nobody warned me about that. Okay, everybody warned me about that. It's a good thing she's beautiful and hilarious, so I don't mind. One of the big things I've learned in the last year or so is to find meals that can be prepared in a hurry or require very little maintenance. During the winter months, that means I'm leaning heavily on the slow cooker. The Wife was recently after me to make some beer and cheese soup. I have a recipe and it's pretty good, but wanted something that would work well with the absolutely vile pumpkin beer I had in the fridge. I found it! The beer flavor really works quite well and the soup has a nice bite to it from the peppers. This is a great cold-weather soup. We are definitely making it again. As a bonus, at the bottom of this post, you'll find the link to the YouTube video of the recipe. As always, notes are in blue.

Slow Cooker Mexican Style
Beer and Cheese Soup
(that absolutely does not photograph well)

Ingredients

• 1-1/4 lb. ground beef
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 can (10.75 oz) cheddar cheese soup (if you can find nacho cheese soup, that would probably be even better)
• 1 can (10 oz) diced tomato and peppers
• 1 can (15.5 oz) black beans, rinsed and drained
• 1 can (14.75 oz) creamed corn
• 1 can (12 oz) Harvest Patch Shandy (Leinenkugel) beer. (if you can't find it, any pumpkin beer will do. If you can't find pumpkin beer, or despise all things pumpkin, use any pilsner style beer (Old Style, etc). If you can't/won't use booze, just use an equal amount of water or beef stock)
• 1 envelope taco seasoning (about 1 oz)

Directions

1. In a pan, brown ground beef along with the chopped onions. Drain off excess grease and then stir in taco seasoning (into the meat and onion mix, not the drained grease because that would be dumb)
2. Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. (we used a 3 quart and it was close. I suggest at least a 4 quart cooker). Cook on HIGH about 4 hours.

BONUS VIDEO

Good Times!

Slow Cooker Tammy Joes

     Did you ever have an ingredient sitting around the house that you never seem to use? Something that sits in the cabinet mocking you. Something that makes you wonder what you were drinking that day? My ingredient is a jar of Tamicon Tamarind Paste. I bought it thinking it was Tamari. I finally decided I'd use it in a riff on the classic Sloppy Joe. The end result was surprisingly good. It was was sweet, savory and spicy, but not too much of any one of those. I have to think the tamarind isn't going to be a taste that everybody is going to love, but it's totally worth the try for something different. If you try it, let me know if you like it. If you don't, you probably did something wrong. As always, notes are in blue.

Tammy Joes

Ingredients

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 can (10.75 ounce) tomato soup
• 1 bag (14 ounces) mixed frozen onions, green and red peppers, defrosted (if you don't have access to the frozen, use chop one onion, one green and one red bell peppers)
• 1-1/2 tablespoons tamarind concentrate (panipuri paste) (you're not likely to have this laying around the house. I got mine from a local Indian grocer. Amazon carries the brand I use) 
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Directions

1. In a pan, brown the ground beef. Drain the excess oil. Put in a slow cooker.
2. Sautee the vegetables in the pan you used for the ground beef. Add them to the slow cooker. (if you're feeling lazy, you can just throw them directly in the cooker without the sautee)
3. Add all the remaining ingredients and stir to incorporate.
4. Cook on LOW for 3-4 hours.
5. Serve on a bun, with nachos, or over egg noodles or rice.

Good times!

Hearty Slow Cooker Breakfast Sludge

     Before we go any further, let me make one thing very clear: this recipe looks like shit. Literally. It looks like something scraped out of a diaper. At second glance it also resembles fake vomit. Possibly real vomit. However, it smells wonderful and tastes great. On a cold day, you can't go wrong with a steaming bowl of this stuff. It's hearty and warm and filling. Maybe just close your eyes while you eat it.

Hearty Slow Cooker
Breakfast Sludge

Ingredients

• 3 cups oats, uncooked
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 very ripe bananas, sliced
• 1/4 cup raisins
• 1/4 cup peanut butter (chunky or creamy as you desire. We used creamy)
• 21 ounce can banana cream pie filling
• 6 cups water
• 1 teaspoon almond extract

Directions

1. Coat a slow cooker (at least 2 quart) with nonstick cooking spray (coat the inside of the slow cooker. The bowl specifically. Don't spray all over the outside. Unless you want to)
2. Chuck all the ingredients in there and stir it up.
3. Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours (just stop cooking when it's at a consistency you like. Make sure to stir it every few hours to make sure it doesn't fuse to the pot).

Good times!

Slow Cooker Provencal Lemon and Olive Chicken

     I'm always leery of slow cooker recipes with fancy names. The word "Provencal" in this recipe stood out like a flashing warning sign. I have a very hard time imagining rustic French chefs plugging in their Crock-Pots and loading them up for the day. That's what is commonly referred to as "juxtaposition." However, this recipe included green olives and lemon, which The Wife loves dearly. Happy Wife, Happy Life. I gave the recipe a try. I have to admit, it was pretty good. It certainly had a nice tang and plenty of flavor. The chicken was remarkably tender and moist. We served it up with some potatoes and had a very nice dinner. We'll call this one a winner. As always, any notes or changes are in blue.

Slow Cooker
Provencal Lemon and Olive Chicken
via Crock Pot Chicken

Ingredients

• 2 cups chopped onion
• 8 skinless chicken thighs (about 2.5 pounds) (None on hand. Went with an equal amount of boneless, skinless chicken breasts)
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced and seeds removed
• 1 cup pitted green olives (I hope they meant those pimiento stuffed green olives from the jar, because that's what I used)
• 1 tablespoon olive brine from jar or 1 tablespoon white vinegar (I went with the olive brine)
• 2 teaspoons herbes de Provence (I'll be damned. I actually had a jar of herbes de Provence on hand!)
• 1 bay leaf (please remember to remove it when done cooking or someone will choke to death. Every bay leaf is a fatality waiting to happen. Or at least that's what my mother always said.)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used pink Himalayan salt because that's what badasses do.)
• 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 cup chicken broth
• 1/2 cup minced fresh parsley (None on hand. I used 2 teaspoons dried)

Directions

1. Place onion in slow cooker. Arrange chicken over onion. Place lemon slice on chicken. Add olives, brine, herbes de Provence, bay leaf, salt and pepper. Slowly pour in the chicken broth.
2. Cover and cook on LOW for 5-6 hours or HIGH for 3-3.5 hours or until chicken is tender. Stir in parsley before serving.

Good times!

Slow-Cooker Korean Barbecue Beef

     If you work in a school, you are regularly assaulted by students shilling overpriced stuff for fundraisers. I have the standing rule of buying one item from any given fundraiser. Just one. First kid who asks gets the sale. It will always be the single cheapest item in the catalog. It is usually one of those tiny, spiral-bound cook books. This particular cook book was the Crock-Pot Potluck For All Occasions cook book.  The recipe I decided to cook from it was Korean Barbecue Beef. I made a big change by using a roast instead of ribs and wound up putting the ingredients in the cooker in the wrong order. Regardless of my ineptitude, the resulting meal was very tasty and versatile. We originally served some up on rice, and have since made burritos and hoagies. As always, any changes or notes are in blue.

Korean Barbecue Beef
via Crock-Pot Potluck For All Occasions

Ingredients

• 4 to 4-1/2 pounds beef short ribs (we used a 3 pound beef roast)
• 1/4 cup chopped green onions
• 1/4 cup tamari or soy sauce (I'll be honest. I have no idea what the hell tamari sauce is without Googling it. I just used soy sauce)
• 1/4 cup beef broth or water (we went with water)
• 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger (no fresh ginger on hand. We used 1 teaspoon ground ginger)
• 2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
• 2 teaspoons sesame seeds, toasted (put out sesame seeds to use and then promptly forgot to use them)

Directions

1. Place meat in slow cooker. Combine green onions, soy, broth, brown sugar, ginger garlic and pepper in medium bowl; pour over ribs (naturally I missed the part about combining in another bowl and just threw everything in on top of the meat. I just wound up stirring it all up in the slow cooker). Cover; cook on LOW for 7-8 hours or until meat is fork tender.
2. Remove meat from liquid. Cool slightly (that didn't happen). Trim excess fat and discard. Cut meat into bite sized pieces, discarding bones, if any.
3. Let cooking liquid stand 5 minutes to allow fat to rise. Skim off fat and discard (look, that's not going to happen. I'm eating now. After the leftovers have sat in the fridge overnight I can just pry the layer of fat off the top). Stir sesame oil into cooking liquid (WHOOPS! I put the oil in at the start. No harm, no foul). Sprinkle with sesame seeds (as mentioned, I totally forgot to use the seeds)

Good times!

Slow Cooker Pork Loin and Hominy

     The school year is in full swing, which means the slow-cooker has been brought out for heavy use. Generally we throw together a few things in our cookers on Sunday and eat on them for lunches and dinners during the work week. I started this week with an idea that had been knocking around in my head for a couple of days. Pork and hominy seemed like a good mix, so I decided to use those as key ingredients and give it a generally Southwest feel. I used my own home-canned chili tomatoes. Any canned chili tomato will do. The recipe below is written assuming you're using plain old canned tomatoes. If you find pre-seasoned chili tomatoes, omit the chili powder, cumin and paprika. If you drain the liquid, this makes a decent taco filling. It's also good over rice. It doesn't have a ton of heat, so you can fine tune it as you need.

Slow Cooker Pork Loin with Hominy

Ingredients

• Pork loin, about 3 pounds
• 1 can white or yellow hominy, drained
• 1 can black eye peas or bean of your choice
• 1 quart canned tomatoes, undrained.
• 1 tablespoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 3 cayenne peppers
• 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• 1 medium onion, roughly chopped
• 1 can cream of celery soup

Directions

1. Heat some oil in a large pan. Cook loin about 3 minutes on each side, until just starting to brown.
2. Pour tomatoes and spices into slow cooker. Lay the loin, fat side up, on top of the tomatoes. 
3. Spread remaining ingredients over top of loin.
4. Cook 4-5 hours on HIGH or until meat breaks apart easily with a fork.

UPDATE: I have added a YouTube video of the actual cooking process! How exciting! Or not. Depends on how low you set the bar.

Good times!

Tools of the Trade: Slow Cookers

     I can't imagine any MCK that doesn't have a slow cooker of some description stashed away somewhere. The slow cooker strikes me a definitive middle-class kitchen appliance. I simply can't imagine walking into some fabulous opulent home, strolling into their commercial-grade kitchen, and seeing a crusty old Crock-Pot bubbling away on a gleaming marble counter. Think I'm joking? OK, let's take a run-of-the-mill obscenely wealthy person. How about Mitt Romney? Let's take a look at the kitchen in Mr. Romney's beach home in California.  Your challenge is to find a slow-cooker:
 

Hint: There isn't one

 
     I keep two slow-cookers on hand for my cooking needs.  I have a five quart dented monstrosity for big jobs, and an absolutely awesome slow cooker with three individually controlled 1.5 quart pots.  Why are they such an invaluable part of my MCK? For one, they're easy to use. For most recipes you just chuck everything in there, set it to low, and go drink booze and smoke cigars (or something more productive) for 5-8 hours.  The other big sell for the slow cooker is that you can put absolutely abysmal cuts of meat in there and render them fit to eat.  Got a roast of questionable quality? Throw it in with some potatoes, carrots, onion, some beer and *POOF!* You have yourself a meal. Several, actually.

     That's the magic of the slow cooker. If you are using a five quart unit, you're going to want to fill it. My three station cooker ends up providing food for a week. One pot gets a soup or appetizer, one gets the main course, the third gets a dessert. Those will become lunches and dinners for the week. This helps keep the food costs down during the week.

     Cost is the big sell here. The meats and veggies that go into slow cookers generally have to be of the sturdy variety. Carrots, potatoes, onions, cabbage, etc. These are wonderfully inexpensive veggies. Meat is also a value. Throw the dark meat chicken in there. Get the roasts with a suspicious amount of words in their names. You know what I'm talking about: "Beef chuck shoulder eye of round loin face." It's still always a good idea to avoid the packages labelled "Miscellaneous By Weight."

     If you don't already have a slow cooker, I can recommend two.

Crock-Pot SCR-500SS

     This is the basic manual slow cooker. Just set the dial to "warm" "high" or "low". That's it. You can get these at most stores for under thirty bucks. If you want to entertain or cook for the week I suggest the following:

Bella Cucina 13490

     This bad boy has three independently controlled 1.5 quart slow cookers. Basically three smaller slow cookers on a single chassis. People are endlessly amused by this when I use it at my parties. If you're willing to shop around, you can find these for under forty bucks.
 
     If you need recipes, there's a ton of slow-cooker specific books out there. There's also a lot of solid recipes floating around on recipe sites on the net.  Just Google it.