Crockpot Cooking
/Fine. I can't bake, grill, baste, stir-fry, deep-fry, or even make a decent grilled-cheese sandwich. But we've purchased a crock-pot and I feel confident all my cooking woes will soon be far behind me. Surely even I can cut up some vegetables, add water, and throw them in a pot for 8 hours without too much going awry? (Shut up, mother).
Right now I'm three hours into a vegetable stew with cornmeal dumplings. If I manage to make a decent dumpling with this thing, I'm taking out an ad in the paper to announce my success.
I'm a little nervous though. The vegetable stew is comprised of butternut squash, mushrooms, garlic (4 cloves...no one come near me for the next month), Italian green beans (I have no idea what the difference is from regular green beans), Great Northern White Beans, and diced tomatoes. Blair would never in a million years eat any of those ingredients on their own so I don't know what makes me think if I heat them for 8 hours he'll eat them that way. But he'll at least try it or I'll pull weepy wife scenario #5. (I just wanted (sob sob) to do something NICE for you (sob) and make you a nice homecooked meal and (deep, shaky, sobbing breath)...and...you won't even TRY it. Waaaahhhhh!!!!)
Frankly, I just want him to be the guinea pig. If he eats it and remains standing then I'll try some myself.
A quick slam on Better Homes & Gardens. We purchased their cooking with crockpots cookbook so we would have some idea of what to put IN the crockpot. Being vegetarian, I of course immediately turned to the "Meatless Main Dishes" section. Tell me, BH&G, since when did chicken stock count as a non-meat product??? At least 3 of the meatless recipes call for chicken stock, earning this cook book the coveted DUH award.
Please. That's like telling yourself French Onion Soup is meatless b/c there are no meat chunks in it. Never mind it's entirely a meat-based broth. Are the cookbook writers at BH&G really so clueless or do they just not care? And how do I go about getting a job there?
I'll check back in 4 hours and tell you how the dumplings turned out.
Right now I'm three hours into a vegetable stew with cornmeal dumplings. If I manage to make a decent dumpling with this thing, I'm taking out an ad in the paper to announce my success.
I'm a little nervous though. The vegetable stew is comprised of butternut squash, mushrooms, garlic (4 cloves...no one come near me for the next month), Italian green beans (I have no idea what the difference is from regular green beans), Great Northern White Beans, and diced tomatoes. Blair would never in a million years eat any of those ingredients on their own so I don't know what makes me think if I heat them for 8 hours he'll eat them that way. But he'll at least try it or I'll pull weepy wife scenario #5. (I just wanted (sob sob) to do something NICE for you (sob) and make you a nice homecooked meal and (deep, shaky, sobbing breath)...and...you won't even TRY it. Waaaahhhhh!!!!)
Frankly, I just want him to be the guinea pig. If he eats it and remains standing then I'll try some myself.
A quick slam on Better Homes & Gardens. We purchased their cooking with crockpots cookbook so we would have some idea of what to put IN the crockpot. Being vegetarian, I of course immediately turned to the "Meatless Main Dishes" section. Tell me, BH&G, since when did chicken stock count as a non-meat product??? At least 3 of the meatless recipes call for chicken stock, earning this cook book the coveted DUH award.
Please. That's like telling yourself French Onion Soup is meatless b/c there are no meat chunks in it. Never mind it's entirely a meat-based broth. Are the cookbook writers at BH&G really so clueless or do they just not care? And how do I go about getting a job there?
I'll check back in 4 hours and tell you how the dumplings turned out.
