A Weekend of Cultural Experiences

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!

I'm a vegetarian.... between meals.

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.)

If you want happy dinner guests make this dish.

Crockpot Season Opener!

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