Nope, not Christmas, though the aisles and aisles of decorations at any of your local big box stores (for those of us in the ‘burbs) would beg to differ. The time of the year I’m currently excited about is Crock Pot season.
Having been packed away as the warmer months arrived last spring, our beloved crock pot has finally made it’s triumphant return and is cooking up some Barley Sweet Potato Chili on the counter as I type. And it smells absolutely delicious, which is the best part of having a slow cooker and using it. Coming home from work (when I did that) to the smell of dinner, warm and ready with minimal effort was easily the best part of my day…
Last week and a few weeks before that, the fruits of our apple-picking labours (literally) were tossed into the slow cooker with a touch of cinnamon and a half a cup of water. 6 hours later, we had the most amazingly fragrant and delectable homemade apple sauce ready to be devoured. And devour we did. Warm apple sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream may be my new favourite after dinner treat.
Our cookbook of choice is The Healthy Slow Cooker: More than 100 Dishes for Health and Wellness. The recipes are absolutely delicious and very out of the norm for cooking in the crock pot. Most require a bit of prep (I would have been browning the cumin seeds this morning had I had cumin seeds to brown), but the end result has been gold each time. That’s not to say that the old stand-bys aren’t as delicious; we enjoyed a roast on Sunday and will likely make regular chili on at least one occasion in the cold and blustery months.
If you’ve long thought of crock pots as that wedding gift that people tuck away in their basements never to be seen again, you are probably right. Most people we talk to to don’t own a slow cooker or, if they do, have no idea where it is. If you fall into the latter category, go find it. Pop a chicken in there one morning before heading out the door and tell me if you feel the same way when you return at night. The aroma alone will convince you, I promise. Though the lack of dishes and post-dinner clean-up might be reason enough to give it a try.
Mmmm…All this recipe talk and I just made myself hungry again. I can’t wait until dinnertime.
Harley - Hmmm…someone very smart turned me on to that cookbook and I wholeheartedly agree. Delish. We didn’t pack the slow cooker, but I kind of miss it after reading your post. And that applesauce was awesome, by the way. So awesome that I bought pre-made applesauce here earlier this week, but it really wasn’t the same.