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2/15/2009 7:39:42 PM

3 Carrots
2 Onions
3 Celery
2-3 Potatoes
1 can mixed veggies or 1 bag frozen mixed veggies
2 can black beans
2 can condensed tomato soup
3 cup Vegetable Broth

Put on low for 8 hours. If you use frozen veggies then toss them in at the 6 hour mark. Sprinkle with pepper and enjoy!

2/15/2009 8:14:34 PM

^ that's an excellent basic veggie soup

2/15/2009 8:16:28 PM

my mom made chicken soup once and the noodles cooked almost to nothing, and it was a weird green color. still tasted just fine and really good, but it was an interesting soup.

2/15/2009 9:37:58 PM

^^ 5-6 filling meals for a grand total of $14.00

2/15/2009 9:49:40 PM

chicken lentil stew

green lentils
half chicken
1 med. onion
1-2 sticks celery
carrot
can diced tomato
chicken stock
2 cloves garlic
pepper
salt
thyme, rosemary, marjoram, basil, a bay leaf (herbs de provence mixture)

cook a couple slices of bacon in a large pan, remove and either consume or chop and add to pot
cut the chicken into pieces and brown in bacon fat, remove to pot
cook onions until translucent, remove to pot
deglaze with either some wine or stock and briefly simmer the celery, add to pot
add everything else, slicing and chopping as necessary, and top-up with stock as needed

cook time about 8 hours on low

[Edited on February 15, 2009 at 10:16 PM. Reason : k]

2/15/2009 10:12:09 PM

Quote :

"my mom made chicken soup once and the noodles cooked almost to nothing, and it was a weird green color. still tasted just fine and really good, but it was an interesting soup."

If your soup has noodles or rice or anything like that, it's best to cook them separately and add them right at the end.

2/15/2009 10:22:00 PM

butter

maryjane

brownie mix

2/16/2009 2:38:50 AM

Crock Pot Lasagna

1 lb ground hamburger meat, cooked/drained
1 to 2 lbs of shredded mozzarella
2 29 Oz cans of tomato sauce
16 Oz ricotta (the recipe called for cottage, but I had ricotta)
1/2 box (lb) of uncooked lasagna noodles

First rub some olive oil on the bottom/walls of the crock pot dish. Mix the meat and sauce in one bowl (or the pan the meat was cooked in) and mix the shredded cheese and ricotta in another bowl. Start with a layer of 1/3 of the meat/sauce mixture, then a layer of 1/4 ricotta/mozzarella, and finally 1/3 of the noodles (breaking them up to fill in around the edges). Repeat the layers 2 more times and top with the remaining cheese mixture. Cook on low for 4 hours.

I was really surprised at how good this turned out. I really wasn't sure about just using plain tomato sauce, I really wanted to add some herbs to it but didn't and am glad that I didn't. It also seemed way too saucy before cooking, but I guess it either thickened up or mixed in with the cheese because it wasn't runny when done. I think the only thing I'd do different next time is maybe use some pepperoni and/or italian sausage in the meat/sauce mixture.

2/18/2009 12:44:39 PM

i just cut up some russet potatoes and then pour in bags or cans of whatever corn or peas or whatever i have around. and then brown some stew beef

then pour in a pitcher of water and leave it on high all day

no recipe

2/18/2009 12:46:06 PM

crock pots are sooo trashy.

2/18/2009 12:56:38 PM

ahaha

2/18/2009 12:57:17 PM

my parents just bought me one for my bday - so this topic is now added to my topics

2/18/2009 12:59:14 PM

Quote :

"crock pots are sooo trashy."

trashy?

its the most awesome thing ever. you can turn all your random canned food into a feast. if i could figure out how to throw rice in like halfway and have it cook right, i'd use it like all the time

now i only use it like on sundays

2/18/2009 1:04:36 PM

i had crock pot chicken tonight. my wife made it.

2/19/2009 8:25:11 PM

^^ as long as there is enough liquid in there, and assuming you aren't using the instant rice and using the stuff that takes about 25 minutes to cook on the stove top, just throw it in when you have about an hour left of cooking time for whatever is in there and you should be golden.

oh, and make sure you don't remove the lid AT ALL during that last hour.

[Edited on February 19, 2009 at 8:28 PM. Reason : a]

2/19/2009 8:27:52 PM

So I'm still going to attempt a slow cooker chicken curry sometime soon I think.

But last weekend, I made beef in cabernet inspired by a fancy Cook's Illustrated Beef in Barolo recipe. (It's one of those braise in the oven for 3-5 hours recipes.)

1 cup chopped carrots
1 cup chopped celery
2 cups chopped onion
4-6 cloves garlic
fresh thyme sprigs, bay leaf, rosemary, parsley
4 oz bacon (or pancetta), chopped/cubed
3is lbs stew beef
14.5 oz diced tomatoes
1 bottle cabernet sauvignon*
flour
salt & pepper

fry bacon, reserve the fat and let bacon drain.
season stew beef with salt and pepper, toss lightly in flour.
brown beef in bacon fat.
saute onions, celery and carrots in the pan once beef is removed.
once softened, add garlic, tomatoes, wine, bacon and beef. bring to a boil.
dump in crock pot.
i added a bit more broth and water just to make sure it was good.
let cook until meat is tender - mine ended up cooking on low for 12 hours.
if you want, throw it back on the stove, add some cornstarch (mixed in water) and bring to a boil to thicken a bit more.

*you can use whatever red wine you prefer - I used three buck chuck from Trader Joe's and the only choices they had were merlot and cabernet.

2/19/2009 9:16:32 PM

^ THAT looks badass. I am definitely going to make that next weekend. Doing ribs this weekend, but I can't share that recipe.

2/19/2009 9:17:51 PM

^Thanks! It's all from the Beef in Barolo inspiration recipe. That was a whole roast, and while I wanted to do that, the stew beef was what I could find.

This is it, below. I threw in some frozen peas when I microwaved it last night, and made mashed potatoes, threw a spoonful on top.

2/19/2009 9:23:13 PM

so i guess this is like the point of crockpots but you guys don't worry about leaving them on for like 8 hours while you're not home??

i don't even leave the dryer on when i'm not home. or lights. i'm also paranoid.

2/19/2009 9:30:45 PM

That looks like this stuff my mom makes called Gravy Train. That shit is OFF THE MOTHERFUCKING HOOK. I need to get that recipe. She uses ground beef though.

^ a crockpot is A LOT different than a dryer. It doesn't get nearly hot enough to burn your fucking house down.

[Edited on February 19, 2009 at 9:31 PM. Reason : a]

2/19/2009 9:31:05 PM

i've never used mine so i didn't know

it is really purty. i don't want to get it dirty!

2/19/2009 9:33:27 PM

^^^The last thing I made, I was actually home for most of it. It was mostly at night. But yeah, I trust it to leave it on.

^^Yeah, it's really yummy. Just wine-y enough but a delicious stew. You could probably throw some potatoes in it, cubed up, to do a real stew. I was focusing on the meat more with doing this, and figured I could add whatever carbs I wanted afterwards, with each meal.

2/19/2009 9:33:33 PM

Whenever I use mine I am usually not home. But if if you are ever worried about it you could just put it in the sink

2/19/2009 9:56:43 PM

I am making boiled peanuts in mine today.

Though according to the place I got the instructions there are 4915 calories in them, so this may not end well for me.

2/21/2009 12:24:04 PM

Quote :

"i don't even leave the dryer on when i'm not home. or lights. i'm also paranoid."

lol... Remeber the one about the old lady who would unplug her clocks when she left?

2/21/2009 12:27:35 PM

^^ recipe please

2/21/2009 12:28:43 PM

1 1/2 quarts uncooked green peanuts
1/2 cup salt
2 1/2 quarts water
Rinse peanuts, combine in crock pot, cook on high 5-7 hours.

I have a small crock, so I couldn't quite fit that much water in there. Hopefully that won't matter.

I am going to try Cajun ones very soon with jalapenos and Cajun seasoning. But I wanted to try plain ones first.

2/21/2009 12:33:36 PM

where did you get the peanuts?

2/21/2009 12:37:40 PM

Food Lion. I had to check a few stores to find raw ones, though.

2/21/2009 12:39:20 PM

wait until they're in season

[Edited on February 21, 2009 at 12:42 PM. Reason : and get them at the farmer's market]

2/21/2009 12:42:21 PM

I suck at waiting

2/21/2009 12:43:10 PM

those ones at food lion just sit there for months or even years

2/21/2009 12:45:42 PM

when are they in season? I was thinking Farmer's Market. I have been missing me some boiled peanuts

2/21/2009 12:47:57 PM

the farmer's market website says all year, but they're dug up in late summer and early fall

2/21/2009 12:50:05 PM

yeah, that's what I thought, because we always used to make them while we tailgated.

2/21/2009 12:51:58 PM

^^
I've got that chart on my freezer door...

2/21/2009 12:52:13 PM

I'm gonna go ahead and say the 5-7 hour time frame for boiled peanuts is wrong. Mine have been in about 6.5 hours and don't seem very close to being done. I'm guessing more like 10 hours.

2/21/2009 6:39:53 PM

Yeah, I was going to say. I didn't think a crockpot would get nearly hot enough to cook boiled peanuts in that short of a time, even on high

2/21/2009 6:40:50 PM

I didn't really think about the logic of that when I posted it I guess. But that's very true. They do seem to be cooking nicely though. And the yummy smell really makes me wish they were ready. I guess this is why I always leave while I'm cooking stuff in there so it doesn't drive me crazy.

2/21/2009 6:44:01 PM

if you're gonna be there with them, why not just put them on the stove in a big pot?

2/21/2009 6:44:16 PM

Well I have been gone all day. I just got back.

2/21/2009 6:44:55 PM

oh werd

2/21/2009 6:45:10 PM

I'd probably boil them for like 2 hours first on the stove, then throw them in the crockpot and let them go all day

2/21/2009 6:47:00 PM

Yeah I may try that with the Cajun batch.

2/21/2009 6:48:16 PM

The only reason I say that is that I know whenever I cook anything in the crockpot, it hardly ever even reaches a boil. But then again, I usually cook on low

2/21/2009 7:00:15 PM

They're boiling now. Not a rolling boil or anything obviously, but it's still boiling. I think it's supposed to get to 300 on high.

2/21/2009 7:02:51 PM

actually, I take that back. when I make my chicken noodle soup I put the whole chicken in the crockpot and cook it on high for 4 hours. All that chicken fat is definitely boiling when I take off the lid

2/21/2009 7:07:13 PM

A little over 10 hours on high and they're perfect. But a note: I tasted them every hour after 6ish, and they weren't very salty so I almost added more. But around 9-10 they got majorly salty. And drain them when they're done or else they'll keep soaking up more salt. I will probably use a bit less salt next time.

2/21/2009 11:08:07 PM

i wonder if i can find those peanuts in nyc...? me and my two southern roommates would love those peanuts. mmmm...

2/21/2009 11:48:41 PM