Slow Cookers

Parent Cafe
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<p>You can also make great applesauce or apple butter in the crock pot.</p>

<p>I also have another great recipes. Take a nice roast and slice into medium slices. Layer meat slices with thinly sliced onions. Salt & pepper. Throw in a handful of garlic cloves. Just cover ingredients with beer. Layer slices of dry French bread over the top. This is melt-in-your mouth good. There will be more flavor if you brown meat and saute onions ahead of time, and this will reduce your cooking time in the crock pot. </p>

<p>I also make ratatouille in the crockpot. Dice onions, tomatoes, zucchini and eggplant. Salt & pepper. Add chopped basil and garlic (I like lots of both). Add just a little water, although if your tomatoes are juicy, not much additional liquid is necessary. You can also add a splash of white wine.</p>

22

<p>Slow Cooker Corn Chowder</p>

<p>4 cans whole kernel corn (or 2 whole kernal and 2 creamed)
6 potatoes chopped (I cut them into little cubes)
2 small onions chopped
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
4 cups chicken broth
4 cups whole milk or 1/2 and 1/2 (I use 2% and it’s fine)
1/2 cup butter or margarine</p>

<p>Combine first 6 ingredients in slow cooker. Cover cook on low for 7-9 hours. You can puree it in a food processor once cooked if you want to…but I don’t do that. Stir in Milk and Butter and cook on High for 30 minutes. </p>

<p>It’s really yummy.</p>

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<p>There is a cooking magazine called “Taste of Home” if you go to their website there are a lot of slow cooker receipes. Also at Walmart they sell this magazines cookbook specifically for slow cookers. It was well worth the money I paid for it.</p>

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<p>Accidentally googled “crackpot lady” and got a whole different number of sites.</p>

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<p>visit foodnetwork.com</p>

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<p>I put a corned beef brisket (around $9 at Sam’s) in the crock pot, fill halfway up the brisket with water so top of meat is exposed, packet of pickling spices sprinkled over meat and some in water.</p>

<p>When I come home, I ladle out a few cups of the water the corned beef has been in all day, and put it in a pot of fresh water on the stove. Bring to boil, drop in some potatoes, carrots and then in the end, some cabbage.</p>

<p>The corned beef has a very intense flavor when cooked this way, and slices very well. </p>

<p>I did not have luck with cooking potatoes and carrots with the corned beef, they got too mushy.</p>

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<p>I do beef and noodles in the slow cooker as well. Cook a good beef roast with onion, garlics, mushrooms, spices. Cover with liquid. About 1 1/2 hr. before serving, if necessary, add enough liquid to cook your noodles and leave until it gets hot. 1 hr. before serving, add a bag of wide noodles. In about an hour, they will be cooked and have absorbed all the liquid. You may need to stir once or twice so the noodles on top are not dry.</p>

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<p>Easy, easy, easy - Chicken breasts and a bottle of favorite bbq sauce. Eat as is or shred for seed hamburger buns. Yummy.</p>

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<p>Merlot Pot Roast with Horseradish Smashed Potatoes</p>

<p>Prepare the smashed potatoes as soon as the beef is tender; the meat can continue to cook until they’re ready.</p>

<p>1 tied fat-trimmed boned beef chuck roast (3 to 3 1/2 lb.)
Fresh-ground pepper
1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
3 carrots (about 1/4 lb. each), rinsed and peeled
1 onion (1/2 lb.), peeled and chopped
2/3 cup chopped celery
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 dried bay leaf
1 cup Merlot or other dry red wine
1/3 cup canned tomato paste
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
Horseradish smashed potatoes
1 tablespoon minced parsley
1 to 2 cups watercress sprigs, rinsed and crisped (optional)
Salt</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Rinse beef, pat dry, and sprinkle generously all over with fresh-ground pepper. Melt butter in a 10- to 12-inch nonstick frying pan over high heat. When hot, add beef and brown well on all sides, 6 to 8 minutes total.</p></li>
<li><p>Meanwhile, cut carrots into sticks about 3/8 inch thick and 2 inches long. In a 4 1/2-quart or larger electric slow-cooker, combine carrots, onion, celery, garlic, thyme, peppercorns, and bay leaf. Set beef on vegetables; add drippings. In a small bowl, mix wine and tomato paste; pour over meat and vegetables.</p></li>
<li><p>Cover and cook until beef is very tender when pierced, 8 to 9 hours on low, 5 to 6 hours on high. If possible, turn meat over halfway through cooking.</p></li>
<li><p>With 2 slotted spoons, transfer meat to a platter; keep warm. Skim and discard any fat from cooking liquid. Turn cooker to high. In a small bowl, blend cornstarch with 1 1/2 tablespoons water; pour into cooker and stir often until sauce is bubbling, 10 to 15 minutes.</p></li>
<li><p>With a slotted spoon, lift vegetables from cooker and arrange beside meat. Spoon horseradish smashed potatoes onto platter; sprinkle with parsley. Garnish platter with watercress. Spoon sauce over meat. Slice meat and serve with vegetables, potatoes, and sauce, adding salt to taste.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Nutritional analysis per serving without potatoes.</p>

<p>Yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings</p>

<p>CALORIES 314 (40% from fat); FAT 14g (sat 5.6g); CHOLESTEROL 115mg; CARBOHYDRATE 11g; SODIUM 256mg; PROTEIN 34g; FIBER 2.3g </p>

<p>Sunset, OCTOBER 2000</p>

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<p>I use lots of recipes from my Taste of Home Quick Cooking yearly cookbooks, as well as just searching online for recipes.</p>

<p>One warning to the original poster, who mentioned liking dried beans. Do NOT cook dried (red) beans just in the crockpot. I made a recipe from Laurel’s Kitchen (forget the name of it) using soaked kidney beans, and my husband and I had a day of “intestinal discomfort” from it. (even though I followed the recipe and even cooked the beans longer than it said) After some online research, I discovered there is such a thing as red bean poisoning, which you can get from undercooked red beans, such as kidney beans. Some of the sites specifically mentioned that this may come from cooking beans in the crockpot. So you may want to cook the beans ahead of time before putting in the crockpot.</p>

<p>My favorite crockpot meal is Vegetable Beef Soup from a little cookbook that came with my crockpot some 25+ years ago. I love it because you can toss the ingredients in any time 12-24 hours before you want to eat, turn it on, and forget it. I use it a lot on Sundays, since I can put everything in the evening before and be more relaxed Sunday morning.</p>

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<p>

I’ll bet you did! Too funny.</p>

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<p>Northminnesota - your recipe sounds fabulous. It will be the next one I try!</p>

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<p>Thank you everyone for these wonderful recipes. I plan on trying one of the beef recipes this weekend. Will also try the chicken and bbq sauce, looks so easy.
Susantm-I just bought dried red kidney beans, was going to make a red beans and rice recipe that came with my slow cooker. Thanks so much for sparing my family the, um outcome.</p>

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<p>I brown a chuck roast, place it in the bottom of the crock pot, top with BBQ sauce, cook on high 4 to 6 hours, low all day. shred beef for sandwiches. My family loves it and it’s so easy. My sister doesn’t brown the meat, says it works great.</p>

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<p>Bumping this thread to thank Thumper! I made the beef stew for dummies recipe that Thumper posted on this thread. I did add a little bit of red wine and some black pepper. We all liked this recipe.</p>

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<p>I love, love, love my crockpot! I use the Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson. I have never made a recipe that I didn’t like from her book and she has lots of useful tips.</p>

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<p>My family really likes this recipe from the Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook. It only cooks for 6-8 hours, so I can’t cook it on a work day, but it freezes really well (freeze before the cornstarch/water step). One of my kids LOVES cranberry sauce, so this is her favorite.</p>

<p>Cranberry Pork Roast</p>

<p>2.5 - 3 lb boneless rolled pork loin roast (I trim the visible fat)
16 oz can jellied cranberry sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cranberry juice
1 tsp. dry mustard
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
2 Tbsp. cold water
1 tsp. salt (I actually don’t put the salt in, but it is in the written recipe…)</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Mix cranberry sauce, sugar, juice, mustard, and cloves. Put in crockpot with roast. (I usually put some sauce in, then put the roast in, then pour the rest over the top).</p></li>
<li><p>Cover and cook on low 6-8 hours.</p></li>
<li><p>Skim any fat from the juices. Measure 2 cups, adding water if necessary. Pour into saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat. Mix cornstarch & cold water into a paste and stir it into the gravy. Cook and stir until thickened.</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>My Favorite Crockpot recipe book is: “Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook” by Beth Hensperger.</p>

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<p>I love my crockpot too…so great this time of year.</p>

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<p>Not Your Mother’s… is a free Kindle download!</p>