Are you in need of cookware or kitchen equipment? If so, I have the perfect 2-step plan for you.
1.) About 3 months before a major holiday (i.e. Christmas or your birthday) start a blog about cooking.
2.) Sit back and wait for the cooking-related gifts to come pouring in.
This year I had a culinary Christmas. Not surprising though, considering all of my conversations with my family and friends these past 3 months have been about my crockpot, the meals I've cooked in my crockpot, or the meals I plan to cook in my crockpot. They probably thought that either they can ignore my incessant food-related ramblings in the hopes that I will grow out of my foodie phase or foster my behavior in an attempt to get a free meal out of me some day. Fortunately for me, most of my loved ones opted for the latter.
On Christmas morning I received 3 cookbooks, a set of ramekins, a new set of pots and pans, an immersion blender, an array of dips and sauces, a gift certificate to Whole Foods, a t-shirt that reads "Smell What the Crock is Cookin" and 3 aprons. My adorable nieces willingly modeled the aprons...
My wonderful sister-in-law made the monogrammed apron on the left. The t-shirt on the right says, "Smell What the Crock is Cookin". I plan to wear it to work underneath my suit in a Superman/Clark Kent turned Superwoman/Julia Child fashion.
The apron on the left comes with a string of pearls around the neck - talk about class and sophistication in the kitchen. My sister gave me the apron on the right. It says "I Want to Go to There". She's fully supportive of my Liz Lemon obsession.
Gratuitous cute nephew pic!
In the midst of celebrating the birth of Jesus, I still managed to cook a crockpot meal. I made a Crockpot ham. Well, I bought a fully cooked 5-pound ham and cooked it in a cider mustard sauce. No, it was not a cop-out, it was a delicious enhancement of an otherwise boring ham. And, it was super easy.
Add the following ingredients to the insert of a 5-7 quart slow cooker:
1 1/2 c apple cider
4-6 oz whole grain mustard
1/2 c light brown sugar
2-3 cinnamon sticks
3-4 whole cloves
4 whole allspice berries
(the recipe calls for 1/2 c Ruby Port but I didn't have this)
2 14-oz cans whole berry cranberry sauce
Grated zest of 2 oranges
Juice of 2 oranges (or 1/2 cup orange juice)
Stir to combine ingredients. Then add One 5-pound smoked ham.
Cook on low for 8-9 hours or on high for 3.5-4 hours (this is what I did). Once done, remove ham from slow cooker insert and slice after allowing to rest for 15 minutes. After skimming the fat, if any, of the top of the sauce, strain sauce through a seive (save for later use as a chutney) into a saucepan and boil, stirring frequently, until reduced and thickened. Pour this thickened sauce over sliced ham.
I served the ham with croissants and a fresh salad with pecans and mandarin oranges. Perfecto!
What would Christmas be without a healthy dose of commercialism? Sadly this is too often the case, but I think Baby Jesus would approve of my recent purchases.
Just like peanut butter and jelly, milk and cookies, and tea and biscuits are obvious pairings, I think I've come up with a winning combination...
Coffee flavored with Peppermint Mocha creamer and Milano cookies.
One tablespoon of creamer in a cup of coffee and 2 cookies is just 165 calories - It's the perfect snack for when you're watching Elf for the 3rd time this season!
Source for photos: coffee-mate.com and pepperidgefarm.com
Today's blog has a slightly different tone than usual. On Sunday, my dear grandma, my mom's mom, passed away. While it didn't come as a huge surprise, the death of a loved one can be like seeing the first snow of the season. It stops you dead in your tracks, makes you nostalgic for the good ol' days, and by the time you realize that you have to start moving again you feel blessed just for having those memories.
My grandma was the one who first taught me to play the piano. She was a professional musician who played in the nightclubs of Cleveland, OH. As she strolled through the dining tables with an accordian between her hands taking requests, she would belt out popular tunes, new and old. While she was a fantastic musician, she was too nice to be a good piano teacher. Piano teachers need to know discipline and rigor, neither of which my grandma possessed. But, this wasn't a fault of hers. It's merely a condition that affects the seriously gifted. She had perfect pitch and could sing and play a song flawlessly after hearing it only once on the radio. I, on the other hand, was born with a sluggish left hand and an immeasurable desire to spend my after-school hours outside instead of at the piano keys.
My grandma also taught me the importance of a good sense of humor. One of my favorite memories is when my older cousin Bill came to visit us for Thanksgiving while he was on break in college. Bill accidentally sprayed canned whipped cream onto the front of grandma's shirt. While, for some, whipped ice cream topping and a woman's breasts might evoke images from the movie Varsity Blues, this had quite the opposite effect. I will never forget the look of terror that spread across his face when he realized what he just did. In response to this, Grandma simply said, "Oh! My foo foos!", and wiped it from her shirt into her mouth. Foo foos, you see, was my grandma's term for boobs. At once, everyone burst into laughter. She had the ability to make an uncomfortable situation hilarious with a silly made-up word.
Grandma also proved to me that the term "soulmate" isn't just something that the Disney and Hallmark corporations have contrived over the years. When I was 11 years old I wound up in the hospital for a week with an appendicitis. It was awful being trapped in a hospital with my predominant company being the troop of med students who came into my room for morning rounds and the nurses who came in hourly to inquire about my stool. (I quickly picked up on the fact that, in a hospital, 'stool' does not mean 'bench' or 'chair' after I had a somewhat lengthy and extremely confusing conversation with the nurse about a stool my grandpa made for my mom to use in the kitchen). But one night my grandma and grandpa paid me a visit and entertained me for hours with stories about how they first met, their courtship and the early years of their marriage, holding hands the entire time, like one of the couples in When Harry Met Sally. Grandma caught Grandpa's attention with her gentle spirit, sharp sense of humor and sultry singing voice. And Grandpa caught Grandma's attention with..... well, he had a convertible.
Instead of mourning her death I find great pleasure in celebrating her life and the wonderful lessons she taught me.
So, in honor of my grandma I made Dubliner Stew to celebrate her (and my) Irish heritage, which she held dear. I served the bowls of stew with thick slices of Sweetwater 420 Ale Bread I found at Whole Foods. I figured bread made with beer would befit an Irish supper. And it was delish! The stew is a hearty mixture of lamb, potatoes, carrots and peas, flavored with thyme. It was quite good, as long as you like lamb. And for dessert, I made Apple Cranberry Cobbler, also in a crockpot. This dish smells and tastes like Christmas, but it's not your typical cobbler. Rather, the dough tastes more like sugar cookie dough cooked over top the apples and cranberries. This was also delicious and a hit with my dinner pals, Bindi, Amish and Valerie.
Dubliner Stew
Place the following in the insert of a slow cooker:
12-14 baby carrots (I used 30 baby carrots)
14-16 new potatoes
Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Sprinkle 3 pounds lamb shoulder, cubed (I used 2lb) with salt and pepper. Brown on each side in batches and transfer to insert.
Add 2 cups pearl onions, peeled to the same skillet and cook until they begin to color (about 4 min). Add 1 1/2 cups chicken broth to the skillet, scraping up brown bits from pan. Transfer skillet contents to slow cooker insert.
Stir in 1 c beef broth and 1 tsp dried thyme.
Cover and cook on high for 3.5-4 hours or 7-8 hours on low.
Skim off any fat from top of stew. Stir in 2 cups frozen peas.
Mix 2 TB room temperature butter and 2 TB flour until smooth and stir a bit at a time into the stew.
Cover and cook for another 30 minutes on high until sauce thickens. (I didn't really notice much of a difference in the thickness of the sauce when I did this and would probably omit this step next time).
Note: If you are preparing the night before. Cut lamb into 1-inch chunks and refrigerate and place the carrots and potatoes in slow cooker insert the night before. You will have to brown the meat the day of the meal.
Apple Cranberry Cobbler
Coat the insert of a slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray.
Add the following ingredients to the insert and stir to combine:
6 large apples, peeled, cored and chopped
One 12-oz bag of fresh cranberries
1 c sugar
1 TB cornstarch
1 TB cinnamon
1 tsp cloves (next time I would use ground cloves instead)
1/8 tsp ground ginger
Stir together the following in a mixing bowl:
3 sticks (1 1/2 c) butter, melted
2 c flour
1 1/2 c sugar
1/4 c maple syrup
2 large eggs, beaten
Spread batter over the apple mixture.
Cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 hours on high until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean
Uncover and cool for 30 minutes.
Serve warm cobbler with vanilla ice cream.
Now that Thanksgiving is over, we can officially start celebrating the Christmas season. When I cruise through department stores and hear Johnny Mathis singing "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" and am overpowered by the smell of cinnamon, I no longer feel the same irritation I did in October when the Christmas decorations were popping up.
Nothing gives me greater pleasure than walking through the aisles of a store stressing out about what to get my mom only to turn the corner and see a large, bald and fiercely tatooed man whistling along to "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" playing over the loud speakers.
But this season also makes me nostalgic for the good ole days, particularly the high school days when my best friends, Loriana, Krista, Kelly, and I would drive around town singing Christmas songs in my parents Suburban looking at Christmas lights. Krista, the self-professed Christmas Dork, would man the radio and we would inevitably find ourselves in front of one of our classmates' houses that was above and beyond the best decorated. If it were to receive a high school superlative, it would be, "most likely to cause a car accident in the name of Christmas cheer".
This wasn't just any house decorated with a few strands of lights and pine wreaths. This house had a lawn ornament, and not just any lawn ornament - a 20 foot tall fiberglass Santa Claus that appeared out of nowhere as soon as you turned off the main road.
There is something special about watching snow fall on top of 20 feet of fiberglass festiveness while listening to NSYNC's Christmas album (which, by the way, is in my list of greatest Christmas albums, along with those by Mariah Carey, Amy Grant, Michael Buble, Bing Crosby, Manheim Steamroller and the Muppets). I will invite you to dinner if you can come up with a better list than that. However, if your list includes John Tesh, Gloria Estefan or Miley Cyrus, you will owe me a dinner for having terrible taste in music.
Well, one cure for nostalgia is good food and great company. So this Monday, I invted Bindi, the Veg, Alan, Valerie and Bina over for White Bean and Rosemary Soup from the Best Cookbook Ever with pesto grilled cheese sandwiches.
Alan, The Veg, Bindi, Bina, me, and Valerie
Not to brag, but this was meal fantastic. I'd definitely make it again. I won't have to for a while though since I have enough left over to last me through 2011. I made two versions of the soup: one with ham (from the cookbook) and a vegetarian one. The ham soup had a smokier, richer flavor and cooked faster than the vegetarian soup which had the lighter taste of tomatoes and required extra time in the crockpot to cook the beans thoroughly.
White Bean and Ham Soup
The meal was complemented by some, I'll call it, "colorful" conversation, and finished off with decadent chocolate cake/brownies that Valerie made.
Monday is quickly moving from the most dreaded day of the week to the most highly anticipated day of the week for me!
Here's the recipe...
White Bean and Rosemary Soup (I think White Bean and Ham Soup is a more fitting name)
Rinse and sift through 2 cups dried beans (I used Great Northern Beans). Soak in 8 cups water overnight. Or you can use 2 14-ounce cans small white beans, drained and rinsed in the recipe.
Heat 3 TB extra-virgin olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat.
Add 4 ounces of ham cut into 1/2 inch cubes (the recipe calls for spicy Italian ham or Capicola but this was $15/pound so I used regular ham)
Cook ham until it begins to get crisp, about 3 minutes.
Add the following ingredients and saute until the vegetables begin to soften:
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced (I used 3 cloves)
3 stalks celery, chopped (I used 5 stalks)
3 medium carrots, chopped (I used 6 carrots)
2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
Add one 14-ounce can crushed plum tomatoes
Transfer the contents of the skillet to the slow cooker insert. Stir in the beans and 6 cups chicken broth.
Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 8-9 hours until beans are tender.
Note: For vegetarian soup, substitute vegetable broth for chicken broth and cook for an additional 2 hours on low or cook on high for a few hours then switch to low. Season with salt and pepper.
For the past three years I have been in charge of bringing bread to my family's Thanksgiving dinners. This is because 1.) bread travels easily, and 2.) several years ago when I was home on a break from college I had my grandma teach me how to make her famous rolls. My brother and sister and I have such fond memories of my Grandma bringing bags of homemade rolls to every holiday get-together. Not only are these rolls delicious, with a slight yeasty taste, they are the perfect size for leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches. My grandma learned this recipe from my great grandmother, who came to settle in Minnesota from a small town in Norway as a young bride and began the weekly ritual of baking bread. I love making these rolls because I feel like I'm keeping a tradition alive. And where would we be without our ancestors and their traditions? See recipe below.
In addition to my Grandma's rolls, I decided to venture out and try making challah bread. I know this isn't necessarily reminiscent of Thanksgiving, but I knew I was visiting my college roommate, Kristin, who just had a beautiful baby boy, on my way home on Sunday. And she always reminds me of challah bread, despite the fact that there's not a Jewish bone in her body. Let me explain...
As a college student, what's better than receiving a care package from your parents?
Answer: Mooching off of the far superior care package your friend got from her parents.
Well, Kristin and I have a friend, Niki, whose mother made the best challah bread and sent at least 3 loaves at a time because she knew that we would all come rushing to Niki's dorm room and devour the braided glory that is challah bread in a night. Freshman fifteen, you say?
You may be thinking that this recipe was passed down to Niki's mom from her long lineage of Jewish ancestors. Nope. Mrs. Lim is a Bible-believin Baptist from the Phillipines who lives in the same state as Forrest Gump. I have no idea where she learned to make a loaf of bread to be rivaled by the best Jewish bakeries. Needless to say, I wanted to give it a try. I found the recipe on allrecipes.com. It was tasty, but lacked the sweetness and texture I remember. If you have a good recipe, send it my way!
After a wonderful Thanksgiving with my family and a great visit with Kristin and Scott I got back on the road and ended up sitting in a dead stop on I-85 for 2 hours. Oh the joys of Thanksgiving traveling! At least I didn't have to risk getting groped by the TSA. Seeing that I got home with no time to select a recipe and go grocery shopping, I decided on the world's simplest crockpot meal. Here are the steps:
Place frozen chicken breasts in the insert of a slow cooker. Add a bottle of BBQ sauce. Cook on low until you get home from another Monday at the office. I ate this pulled BBQ chicken with sugar snap peas, baked beans and baked sweet potatoes. Yum!
Grandma Melby's Rolls
Combine the following in a sauce pan and heat just to boiling:
1 1/2 c milk
1/2 c butter
1/2 c sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
Remove from heat and let cool to lukewarm.
Combine 4 packages active dry yeast and 1/2 c lukewarm water. Stir to activate the yeast. Small bubbles should form.
Once the milk and butter mixture is cooled, pour into a mixing bowl. Add the following:
2 c flour
2 eggs, stirring after each
Hydrated yeast
Mix well. Add 3-5 more cups of flour until the dough no longer sticks to your hands.
Place a towl over the bowl and set in a warm place to rise until double in size.
Set oven to 350 degrees.
If you have time, punch the dough down and allow to rise again. If you don't have time, go to next step.
Pour dough onto floured surface and knead slightly. Divide dough into 4 pieces. Divide each quarter into 12 pieces and form into round balls, pulling dough from the top, around the side and pinching it to the bottom of the roll.
Place on a cookie sheet sprayed with Pam. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden brown.
With Thanksgiving being this Thursday, I had to honor our nation's oldest holiday (it began in 1621 by the settlers at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts) in this Monday's Crockpot dinner. Aside from the fact that I just love to celebrate holidays, this gave me a chance to prepare for the real Thanksgiving celebration with my family on Thursday. Call it a scrimmage or a practice round.
For this Thanksgiving feast, I invited a few more guests. In addition to my usual dinner mates, Bindi and Amish; Dolly, Snehal, Valerie and Alan (of http://www.alanandval.blogspot.com/) came over. Now you may be tempted to make allusions to the original Thanksgiving with our dinner party of Pilgrims (those of European-descent) and Indians (dots not feathers). Well, that's just racist. I'd like you to know that the Indians were the ones bringing me alcohol, not the other way around.
This dinner had a lot of elements of the traditional Thanksgiving dinners I have with my family. There were copious bottles of wine, painful childhood memories were discussed (like the time my sister tricked me into eating a dog biscuit), and the topic of conversation eventually came around to 'why isn't Jen dating anyone and what can we do to change this?' Many of Amish's comments on this subject have led me to rethink his longstanding invitation to Crockpot Mondays. :)
But, the best resemblance this meal had to those of years past was, of course, the food. I made two crockpot dishes: Classic Bread Stuffing and Five-Spice-Glazed Sweet Potatoes. Both of these recipes came from The Best Cookbook Ever. To accompany these dishes I bought pre-marinated turkey tenderloins from Kroger and grilled them. I also made steamed green beans and carrots.
I have to say the meal was pretty good for a quick-and-easy Thanksgiving. This stuffing was excellent. It is what it claims to be - Classic Bread Stuffing. I would definitely make it again. The sweet potatoes were tasty as well. It depends on your taste, but I like that these sweet potatoes are not as sweet as your usual sweet potato casseroles.
We followed the meal with sugar cookies and ice cream that Dolly made/brought.
I think this pre-Thanksgiving meal was a success. It reminded me how thankful I am to have good food on my table and wonderful friends to share it with.
Happy Thanksgiving!
The recipes go a little something like this....
Classic Bread Stuffing
Coat the slow cooker insert with nonstick cooking spray.
Place 8 cups stale white bread cubes (I used a combination of bread cubes and stuffing mix croutons) in a large bowl and set aside.
Melt 1 stick butter in a large skillet over med-high heat.
Add the following to the skillet:
2 medium onions, finely chopped
4 stalks celery, finely chopped (I used 6 stalks)
2 tsp finely chopped fresh sage
2 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
2 tsp finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
(I chopped all these ingredients the night before and placed them in a ziplock freezer bag, so it was ready to go on Monday)
Saute until the onions and celery begin to soften.
Transfer the mixture to the bowl with the bread and stir to combine.
Whisk together 2-3 cups chicken broth (I used 2 cups which is one small can), 1 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp pepper and 3 large eggs which have been beaten. Pour this over the bread mixture and stir until well combined.
Add the stuffing to the slow cooker insert and cover.
Cook on high for 1 hour, then reduce the heat to low. Cook for 4 to 5 hours on low.
Five-Spice-Glazed Sweet Potatoes
Coat the insert of a slow cooker with nonstick cooking spray.
Arrange 4-5 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges, in the slow cooker insert.
Combine the following ingredients (I modified the measurements for the sauce) in a bowl and mix...
4 TB butter, melted and cooled slightly (I used 6 TB)
2 TB vegetable oil (I used 4 TB)
2 TB soy sauce (I used 4 TB)
2 TB rice wine or dry sherry (I used 2 TB of rice vinegar because that's what I had on hand)
2 TB light brown sugar (I used 4 TB)
1 tsp Five-Spice Powder (I used 2 tsp - This can be found in your grocery store as Chinese Five Spice powder)
Pour this over the sweet potatoes. Cover and cook on low for 5.5 - 6 hours. After 4 hours I checked on the sweet potatoes and had to stir it well because the potatoes on the bottom were becoming soft but the ones on top were still uncooked. Then I turned the crockpot to high for the remaining 2 hours.
Venetian canal boats, the Eiffel Tower, an Egyptian pyramid, poker chips and Wayne Newton. Yep, that's right, I'm in Vegas for work this week. So, sadly there was no Crockpot Monday.
But, in interesting news, the hospital I'm working with is the very one that treated Roy Horn of the famous Siegfried & Roy duo after he was bitten by one of their white tigers during a performance. And, I happen to be staying at The Mirage, the site of their 13-year show. I was reading an article about it and had to laugh at this: apparently there was a woman with a "big hairdo" in the front row who "fascinated and distracted" the tiger. This prompted Roy to rush in between the crowd and the tiger. He tripped and the tiger grabbed him by the neck to "drag him to safety" as he would a cub.
You have to wonder.... How "big" and "distracting" was this woman's hairdo to cause a tiger to lunge at the jugular of its beloved trainer? Mind you, this tiger just spent the last 7 years of its life with the overly tanned and often bleached and spikey haired duo who were pretty distracting themselves.
... no matter how good it seems, it's still a Monday.
My Monday seemed like it was headed for the ranks of top 10 all-time best Mondays. To use a sports analogy, I was pitching a no-hitter going into the 9th inning. The 9th inning being dinner. Let me explain...
The day started off with me jumping out of bed, fully refreshed, after nabbing that extra hour of sleep -- thank you Daylight Savings Time! I even had time to make myself a real breakfast and sit down and read the paper. (Yes, I realize I am 27 going on 67, but you have to take advantage of the simple pleasures in life.) I got into work early, giving me an hour to an hour and a half of peace and quiet before everyone else started to trickle in. Throughout the day I steadily made my way through my to-do list. By the end of the day I finished a big project, and, after having sent it off to my client, left work a little early with no work tasks hanging over my head to be done that night.
I know this account of my near-perfect day probably seems pathetic to most. But, if you are in the least bit Type A then you will understand my joy of having a day of orderly efficiency.
When I walked into my apartment I was greeted with the aroma of Slow-Roasted Rosemary and Garlic Chicken and Quinoa Casserole. My Monday kept on getting better. I turned both of the crockpots (yes, that's right, I had 2 crockpots going at once) to warm and went for a run since a had time before dinner.
I went to a nearby track for my run. Just as I started my last mile, a young guy, probably in his late 20s dressed in a baseball hat and UGA t-shirt, started running ahead of me. I soon passed him. The moment I saw his head turn and realize that a girl was passing him I knew this last mile was going to be fun. As I expected he sped up and passed me. He nearly broke out into an all-out Tom Cruise-style sprint, but it didn't take long before he had to slow down and I ran by him. Maybe I'm a cruel person, but watching a guy struggle to prove his manliness only to come to a screeching halt feigning a pulled muscle gives me such joy. Needless to say, it was a great Monday.
Then I got home and finished preparing dinner. I have made this chicken before. It takes some preparation time and a moderate comfort level with manhandling a chicken carcass, but it tastes just like a rotisserie chicken you can buy at the grocery store and gives you a week's worth of chicken. The recipe is from CookingLight.com.
The quinoa was a reality check. I got the recipe from another crockpot blog, crockpot365. I bought red quinoa from the store in the spring and hadn't tried it yet. So, I was excited about this dish. It's pretty simple: combine quinoa, vegetable broth, olive oil, salt cinnamon, sliced almonds and dried cranberries. Then cook it on low for 6 hours. If I make this again, I'm stopping at this point.
However, the recipe calls for you to add spinach, feta cheese and tomatoes to the crockpot and cook on high for 20 minutes. To me the flavors just didn't mix well. Maybe the red variety of quinoa is a bit sweeter and nuttier than the normal variety. Oh well, it was a lesson learned.
As always, I'm looking forward to next week already.
Even though Diwali doesn't start until Friday, I couldn't contain myself. This week's Crockpot Monday was Indian.
In an effort to learn more about the Hindu holiday, I decided to ask my dear friend, Bindi, a few questions. My first question...
Jen: How long does Diwali last?
Bindi: 10 days
Actual Answer: 5 days
At this point I realized I better seek answers elsewhere. Thanks to my other dinner guests, Rupen, Dolly and Bina, and a helpful synopsis of the holiday I found on facebook, here is a description...
Diwali is the celebration of the day Lord Rama returned to his kingdom after 14 years in exile. In honor of his return, the people of his kingdom lit oil lamps in the palace and throughout the city, thus it is named The Festival of Lights. It signifies the victory of good over the evil.
The festival also marks the end of the harvest season, and often marks the end of the year for businesses. Hindu households often mark this occasion by doing the Lakshmi Puja (religious ceremony). The deity of Lakshmi symbolizes wealth and prosperity, and her blessings are invoked for a good year ahead. The holiday is celebrated with fireworks and exchange of sweet and snacks.
For dinner I made Tandoori Chicken from The Best Cookbook Ever, vegetable biryani and naan. It was a complete flop. With three winners under my belt, I guess it was time for a failure.
The Recipe...
Combine the following in a 1-gallon ziplock bag:
1 1/2 cups plain yogurt
2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp freshly grated ginger
Instead of buying all of these spices, which can be expensive (unless you live near the Dekalb Farmers Market and can buy spices for super cheap), you can buy pre-made tandoori seasoning.
Add 3 pounds chicken (thighs and/or breasts) and marinate for 8-24 hours.
This is when everything went wrong. The recipe says to cook the chicken on high for 4 hours. But, having the pesky little obligation of going to work, I knew 4 hours wasn't going to be feasible. So, instead, I opted to cook it on low for 8 hours. Note: do not cook anything with a yogurt sauce for more than 4 hours. When I got home, my apartment smelled great, but the dish looked like something out of a sci-fi movie. The sauce had separated and settled on top of the chicken, leaving the chicken to cook to for hours with no liquid until it was dry.
Fortunately Dolly saved the day by adding pureed tomatoes and chili sauce. Even though the meal was a semi-disaster, the evening was saved by great conversation.
And, I learned a lesson. Perhaps I should leave the Indian food to the Indians. Maybe I should listen to my genes next week and make a lutefisk stew with a glass a Guinness. We'll see if I have any dinner guests after that..
One thing to know about me is that I love exploring different cultures. I love seeing how people live, trying new foods, experiencing new customs... this weekend had all the elements of a perfect weekend.
To start, on Saturday morning I had my first book club meeting. Bindi had the brilliant idea to start a book club (okay, maybe the brilliant idea came from her sister, Bela, who has been in a book club in DC for years), as a way to hang out with girls we don't normally hang out with and expand our minds by reading books we wouldn't normally read. The first book was Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen. This book is about a middle-aged, professional woman who, after getting divorced by her mentally abusive, homosexual husband of 15 years, goes home to live with her Mennonite mom and dad to find her roots again. While I wouldn't recommend the book to my worst enemy, it was an exploration of a multitude of cultures. To sum up: 9 of us met for book club, 7 of us actually bought the book, and 3 of us managed to read the entire book. But, more importantly, 4 pitchers of mimosas were polished off. So, all in all, I'd call our first meeting a success.
Cultural experience #2: That night I had my first "black-audience-screaming-at-the-movie-screen" experience. We saw Paranormal Activity 2. (If you are at all into scary movies, go see the Paranormal Activity movies - amazing! Be sure to see the first one before you see the second one.) Almost instantly the theater filled with "Hell No's" and "Dayuum's" and "Girl, whatchu doin?! Don't go outside!!'s" But the best part was when, just after the scariest scene in the movie, a girl got up, ran down the stairs and sprinted across the entire theater to the exit doors. Perfect.
My final cultural experience of the weekend was the Taste of Atlanta on Sunday afternoon. While this may not seem like a cultural experience, I think the foodie world has a culture all of its own. This was my first visit to ToA and it was fabulous. More than 80 local restaurants had booths, ranging from the best farm-to-table restaurants in Atlanta all the way to Waffle House and QuikTrip. My favorite taste was a Bibb Lettuce Wrap with Smoked Pork Shoulder & Tomato Molasses from craft followed by pumpkin spice ice cream from 5 Seasons Brewing Company. I wish Taste of Atlanta was every weekend!
Now, I didn't want to end my cultural experiences on Sunday night. So, for crockpot Monday I ventured to Thailand and made a Thai Coconut Soup. I used a recipe from http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/ as my inspiration.
This week I added two more dinner guests - Bina and Dolly - to the party. Yay for Monday night dinner club! What the soup lacked in visual appeal, it made up for in taste. The coconut milk, lime, ginger, and red pepper blended well to elevate this vegetable soup to a guest-worthy meal.
Here's the recipe...
Mix together the following ingredients in the insert of your crockpot:
4 c vegetable or chicken broth
1 can Lite Coconut Milk
juice of 3 limes
zest of 1 lime
1 red bell pepper, sliced in strips
8 oz mushrooms (I used small portobello because they are cheaper than shitake and won't break down or become soggy during slow cooking)
1 large tomato, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
3 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tsp red pepper flakes (this made it a 7 on the caucasian scale and probably a 5 on the indian scale - use less for a less spicy soup)
1 tsp sugar
1 1/2 inch fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped (Helpful hint: to peel ginger use a spoon to scrape off the skin instead of a peeler, that way you don't waste ginger.)
Cook the soup on high for 2-4 hours or on low for 4-5 hours.
Because the soup doesn't contain any protein, I made grilled chicken marinated in coconut milk, fish sauce, garlic and red pepper flakes, and tofu broiled in asian bread crumbs with lettuce wraps. I served these with a variety of sauces and toppings - peanut satay dipping sauce, chili garlic sauce, lime slices, spicy thai cashews from Trader Joe's and cilantro. Pair that with a glass of Cupcake Chardonnay and you have a meal!
This past weekend I was in the checkout line at Best Buy and I noticed that the man in front of me had in his hands a crockpot. (Yeah, I didn't know Best Buy sold Crockpots either). I was tempted to grab his arm and congratulate him on his fortuitous purchase. I wanted to say, "Remember this moment. Today is the first day of the rest of your life."
My regular dinner companions for Crockpot Mondays are Bindi and Amish. Amish, being a vegetarian, (from here on out I will lovingly refer to him as "The Veg") is a challenge for the traditional crockpot chef. The crockpot has built its reputation on its ability to take tough cuts of meat (ie. the chuck roast) and transform them into melt-in-your-mouth meals. But I'm a pretty ambitious/adventurous soul and, starting this blog, I was determined to take on the challenge of vegetarian slow cooking.
But then I read the recipe for Beef in Barolo in the Best Cookbook Ever. So, needless to say, I couldn't even make it 2 consecutive weeks of vegetarian meals. Tonight's meal was a carnivore's delight.
Here's the Recipe...
Combine the following in a small bowl and stir
2 TB olive oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
3 garlic cloves, minced
Add 3 to 4 lb beef chuck, trimmed of fat and cut into 1-inch pieces to the bowl and toss to coat. You will probably have to do this in batches.
Heat 2 TB oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the beef to the skillet and brown on all sides. While browning the meat adds another step and requires more clean-up, it is an important step. It enriches the flavor of the beef and it makes it look nicer on your plate.
Transfer the beef to a slow cooker insert.
Add the following to the same skillet over medium-high heat:
2 large sweet onions, cut into half rounds
2 tsp sugar
1 TB dried rosemary
Saute until onions soften. Transfer onion mixture to the slow cooker insert.
Add & stir to combine...
One 32-ounce can crushed tomatoes with juice
1/2 cup red wine
The recipe suggests using Chianti or Barolo - the namesake of the recipe - but, since Georgia law forbids the sale of alcohol on Sundays (I could devote an entire blog entry to the pain this law causes me), I had to use Merlot, which I had on hand.
Cover and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. I served the beef with garlic mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli and cauliflower and a glass of Merlot.
We finished the meal off with slices of Marbled Pumpkin Cheesecake I had made for my brother's birthday, which was last Thursday. (There's your shout-out, Todd.)
After a year of encouraging from friends, I am finally doing it… I am starting a blog!
To provide some history of What’s In Jen’s Crockpot, I have to go back to the Christmas of 2008 when my sister bought me a Crockpot. I had just moved to Atlanta from Chapel Hill, NC for a job that doesn’t give me much time to cook long, luxurious dinners. So, I created Crockpot Mondays.
Why Crockpot? Why Mondays?
Crockpot because unlike most meals that you cook, a Crockpot meal actually gets better when you forget about it.
And, Mondays because, let’s be honest, Mondays are difficult enough to get through without having to worry about what you’re going to eat for dinner. Also, you have the time on Sunday to shop for and prepare the meal. And, last but not least, it’s an excuse to meet up with friends despite the fact that the weekend is over.
So, with that said, the first Monday of October, I dusted out the cobwebs in my slowcooker and cooked the Fall 2010 Season Opener. I invited Bindi and Amish over for Roasted Tomato Soup with Spinach Pesto.The recipe comes from, Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever. I couldn’t agree more.
This recipe is a little bit more intensive than most slow cooker recipes because after you’ve let the soup cook for 8 hours, you have to empty the contents of the insert into a blender, puree it, and then return it to the slow cooker insert to keep warm. If you are fancier than I am and have an immersion blender, then you don’t have to worry about this step.
I served the tomato soup with a dollop of spinach pesto, Parmesan cheese and, of course, more red pepper flakes. Here, I’m going to take the opportunity to give my white friends some advice:If you want to be down with the brown, bring out the red pepper flakes or Sriracha sauce. I don’t care if you made blueberry pancakes, an offering of red pepper will go a long way with your Indian friends. To round out the meal, I made grilled havarti cheese sandwiches on olive bread.
For dessert, we had Trader Joe’s green tea and mango mochi. To quote Bindi, this meal set a high bar for Crockpot Mondays.
I’m looking forward to a great season…
Here's the Recipe... Combine in a 5- to 7-quart slow cooker the following ingredients: Two 28-ounce cans peeled whole tomatoes, drained 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 teaspoons dried basil 1 teaspoon marjoram 1/2 cup chopped red onion 6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped 1 1/2 teaspoons salt Pinch red pepper flakes 1/2 cup vegetable or chicken broth
Cover and cook on low for 6 hours (however, I let it cook for 10 hours and the soup was terrific). Puree the soup with an immersion blender or cool and pour contents into a standard blender and puree.
Whisk in the following ingredients: 1 cup ricotta cheese 1 1/2 cups heavy cream 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
Cover and keep on warm until ready to serve.
Spinach Pesto: In a food processor, combine: Two 10-ounce bags of baby spinach (I only used one) 1/2 cup pine nuts 2 cloves garlic, peeled Grated zest of 1 lemon 1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 2/3 cup olive oil Salt and freshly ground black pepper
