If I'd have known...I'd have crock'd my roast

Today has been one of those days...when I leave my house in the morning, expecting to be home around noon.  Except I spent the afternoon taking my daughter for fun things like x-rays and lab tests.  It was an unexpected sort of day for me (and my needle phobic baby girl), so I didn't crockpot anything for dinner in the morning.  Which means we are stuck eating frozen burger patties, chips and apple slices.  Not exactly my favorite, but my burgerholic boys are, no doubt, giving thanks to the heavens above, so there's your silver lining!  Now I realize being gone all day is the norm for most of America, but since I'm a stay at home, (shockingly mainstream) homeschooling, homebody-type mom...I'm here pretty much all the time.

If I had known I would be removed from my household for the day, at the very least I would have thrown this into my crockpot.  I usually keep a chuck roast in the freezer, and, although manufacturers of 'slow cookers' recommend you don't throw frozen hunks of meat into your crockpot, I will let you in on a little secret.  I do it all the time, and we ain't died yet!  I think they are CYAing to their litigation department's tune.  But that's just me.  You have to decide for yourself.  (See, I can CMA too.)  This is perhaps the most basic a crockpot recipe can get, but it has saved dinner more than once!

Crock'd Roast Beast

1 - 4-5 lb. chuck roast (you can adjust the size accordingly, this feeds our hungry family of 5, with leftovers that make great burritos, tacos, nachos and hot sandwiches for lunch)
Lawry's Seasoning Salt
1/2 cup leftover morning coffee

Season all sides of your roast and put it in your crockpot.  Add the coffee.  Cover and turn on low for all day cooking.  If you happen to have a frozen roast, you might want to turn it on high for an hour before you leave, and then down to low, but it will cook the other way too, just taking a bit longer.

Feel free to slice onions, potatoes, carrots, celery and throw them in there if you like (the roast goes in last).  While that does make a handy ENTIRE meal, my family doesn't like their potatoes and veggies this way.  When I'm really pressed to get dinner on the table a bag of frozen broccoli and loaf of french bread go a long way towards completing a meal.  This is also a great way to use up half empty bottles of sauces, marinades, salsa etc.  Just eliminate the coffee and seasoning salt.  If you have plenty of time, whip up some mashed potatoes, use the pan juices to make gravy and live large.

Well, the siren song of frozen sirloin patties from Sam's Club are calling...

xoxo
~S

I'm in trouble now!

Uh oh...I have figured out how to fiddle with the background controls...I feel a major time suck coming...it's going to be a good time waster though!

Now that it looks a little more like October 'round here, we need to celebrate my favorite month of the year.  So for those of us who were born in this lovely fall month, that's ROCKtober for you and me, and if you have a long lasting love with your crockpot (as I do) it's also CROCKtober.  Hmmm, tap, tap, tap, I got nuthin'.  If you have any, you better post them!!!

Well, since it's CROCKtober and all, here's a little CROCKpot recipe.  (By the way I think we are officially supposed to call them slow cookers to be PC and all, but whatever. Roll your eyes here.  We all know they were popular in the 70's and they are crockpots!  Don't even get me started about the Kleenex/tissues debacle.)

Crock'd Italian Chicken
Start this in the morning so it can cook all day on low.
Or start it at lunchtime, but cook it on high, all afternoon.

Buy a big package of chicken thighs at the grocery.  Take off the skin if you want.  I do.  If you don't happen to be feeding 2 teenagers and an 11 year old who makes them look bad at the dinner table, go ahead and buy yours already skinned.

Get out a couple cans of diced tomatoes (not the big doorstop size, the usual, slightly bigger than a soup can size - I am so not going out to my pantry to check the ounces - but this isn't rocket science so you can't really screw it up!)

Pour 1/2 of a can of your diced tomatoes into the bottom of your crockpot.

Add 1/2 the thighs and the other 1/2 can of tomatoes.

Break out your Italian spices: like oregano, basil, garlic salt (if you've got 2 extra minutes, press a clove of garlic and use a little kosher salt, but the garlic salt is fine, remember this baby is a 70's darling and NOTHING was fresh in the 70's, except maybe Burt Reynolds).

I usually mix and match whatever Italian spices I have on hand and fill up the little quarter size crook of my palm with the Italian spices.  Then, over the chicken and tomatoes already in the crock, rub your hands together crushing the spices.  Emeril swears this releases the flavor of dried spices and I believe him.  He's Emeril.

Add the rest of the thighs and the other can of diced tomatoes.  Throw in some more spices.

Put the lid on, make sure that crockpot is set on low, and go do something fun all day long. Or, if you must, go to work, but at least you'll come home to a house that smells really good.   (If you do this at lunchtime and go the matinee, put it on high, so you're not eating raw chicken, which is a Bad Idea.) 

You can serve this over pasta, next to bread, garlic bread, garlic cheese bread, whatever makes you happy.  Rip open a bag of salad or steam some green veggies and call it dinner.  This feeds my hungry family of 5 with a little leftovers.  More people?  Serve it with all of the above.

Just don't do this with chicken breasts.  Well, you can.  But they'll be dry.  Every time.  Or maybe that's just my experience.  Anyhow, I've served this even when my kids' friends have been over, and everyone always likes it.  Which is a good thing.

Oh, and I cook this in one of those big oval crockpots.

Happy CROCKtober!
~S