experiments of a "chef-for-fun"
I have now made this Corned Beef twice… that says a lot since I usually like to experiment and see what other exciting things I can come up with. But after making it around St. Patrick’s Day I ran out and got more Corned Beef on sale so that I could cook it again when we were craving it after the March 17 Holiday. Luckily then when we had that craving recently – I was able to pull out this recipe and whip it up again (and finally take the photos to share with you!
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Looking for a Awesome, Warm, Fresh Breakfast Casserole with ZERO work in the morning? Well… it’s here!
Throw everything in the crock pot before you go to bed, turn the crock pot on low and then breakfast is perfect in the morning. Feel free to adapt this with some veggies or different meats or whatever cheeses you like. Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, & Happy Breakfast!!
Spray a 6 quart slow cooker with cooking spray. Layer 1/2 of the potatoes on the bottom of slow cooker. Top with half of the sausage, mozzarella and Parmesan cheese, sun dried tomatoes and green onion. Repeat layering.
Beat eggs, milk and pepper in large bowl with a wire whisk until well blended. Pour evenly over potato-sausage mixture.
Cook on low setting for 6-8 hours or on high setting for 3-4 hours or until eggs are set.
One Year Ago – Eggnog Martinis, enjoy a tasty holiday cocktail today
And I leave you with this, Today’s Question of the Day… what’s your favorite quick/fast/easy breakfast?
We all have lots of things going on and life is busy, but that doesn’t mean that there isn’t time to sit down for dinner. According to research, less than 10% of families eat together more than 2 times a week – that blows my mind because I grew up eating together as a family. There are SO MANY benefits to eating together as a family which include things like healthier diets, improved grades, & improved behavior/attitude. Now I know that it is not always practical to eat dinner together every night (sports, classes, etc – I know, even in our household of two life can get hectic many days of the week with both of us taking graduate classes). But everyone has to eat – so when you are home why not carve out that time to eat together. I know that the next problem is the when, when should you create this dinner to eat together! How about the night before when the kids get to bed, or even in the morning?
This chicken is SO easy to put together (thanks Julie) – rub it all over, throw it in the crock pot, turn it on low and come home to a tasty smelling house & a family dinner ready to go. You can broil it for a few minutes to toast up the skin (that does give an extra dish and takes a few extra moments) and also serve it along with some roasted potatoes and you’re set with a delicious meal!
Rub Ingredients
Combine rub ingredients in a small bowl.
Remove chicken from packaging and remove neck and pouch with organs. Rinse chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Rub garlic all over outside of the chicken. Put garlic inside the chicken. Rub the rub all over the outside and inside the chicken. Add quartered lemon to the inside of the chicken.
Place onions, carrots and celery inside the slow cooker. Place chicken on top of the vegetables. Cover slow cooker and cook chicken on low for 4-8 hours. (I just put it in when I left for work.) Cook until the internal temperature of the leg is at 160 degrees F or use a pop-up thermometer.
To crisp up the skin: Remove chicken and place in a 9×13 glass baking dish. Place baking dish in the oven under the broiler for about 4-5 minutes.
Serve with Potatoes… 4-5 medium potatoes diced & tossed in olive oil, salt, garlic powder, & pepper. Cook at 350 for about 30 minutes. Then add 1 onion & 2-3 medium sized peppers (whatever colors). Toss the onions & peppers in the casserole dish with the potatoes, cover and cook for another 20 minutes or so, until done.
One Year Ago – Healthy Chicken Fingers & Fries
And I leave you with this, Today’s Question of the Day… do you call it a Crock Pot OR a Slow Cooker – and is there a difference between the two!?
Slow Cooked Meals are amazing! The flavors all meld together, the house smells delicious, and the anticipation grows! When I first started to do crock pot cooking, mom was surprised because I hate when my foods touch. Now, to set the record straight – I love casseroles and slow cooked meals, but do not like if I have meat and potato and veggie and they are all touching (although I am getting better at this). But there is just something about a crock pot meal that is so comforting (filling in the winter and doesn’t heat up the whole house in the summer!) The only disadvantage to slow cooking is that you can’t always taste as you go since it needs to just go for so long – but you can always adjust your flavors a bit at the end (so if you are nervous: under-season & you can add a bit more later – but don’t be shy at the start!)
We really enjoy Pulled Pork (I LOVED the pulled pork that we got at Punkin Chunkin, it was made by some Delaware rib joint & we got these tokens for free lunch – pulled pork every time for me.) I look forward to the day that we have a huge grill and we can slow cook/roast the pork on the grill all day and then I can pull it and the outside will have that smokey char – yeah… good stuff. I usually make my pulled pork with a BBQ sauce and add lots of stuff to it, but I found a dry rub pork recipe recently that I tried (and Rich has brought me all of his spices since he obviously isn’t cooking much for himself anymore – so with his spice collection, I received his “Butt Rub“).
How To (“recipe”)
To start this out, the recipe called for rubbing up your pork then browning it before throwing it in the slow cooker – but I just didn’t feel like it. I am sure I might have gotten more of that grill type flavor that way, but this way was still awesome! Rub that baby up, throw a chopped onion & some water & vinegar in the crock pot and then Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho. When you get home it falls right off the bones (I used a Pork Loin Rib End this time since its what was on sale). Pull that pork (I took off some excess liquid before I pulled it & then separated some of the fat off), return to the slow cooker & then serve with a little bit of your favorite BBQ sauce (we like Jack Daniel’s Hickory Brown Sugar here) & dig in!
One last thought… as these days have you stuck in the house due to the weather – get inspired by something out there for your slow cooker, set it to go & enjoy the rest of your day doing other things (or with your oven free to bake up some sweets!)
School has officially started! I have now seen my students for 2 days and am glad to be back (even with all the start of the school year stresses). Last week we had 3 fun-filled days of school preparations and I knew that I was not going to want to cook something crazy after those busy days so I was thrilled that Giant had “picnic pork” on sale! All I had to do was put the pork & ingredients in the slow cooker, turn it on & wait until dinner time (I love slow cookers & our current model was a Christmas present to Rich from his folks last year which got re-gifted to me so I could cook for him more!)
Pulled Pork in Crock Pot
This dish did not photograph as well as it tasted, but we gave it our best shot. Along with the pulled pork (recipe below) were frozen potato croquettes (from Omaha steaks – thanks dad for not wanting them) and sauteed beet tops. To make the beet tops all you have to do is wilt them down in a hot skillet with some oil & then I sliced up some beets (cooked & peeled) and threw it in last minute with some garlic vinegar and some fresh sea salt!
The recipe (as I found it on Allrecipes – with a few alterations, since I am known for not being able to follow a recipe!)…..
Pulled Pork all plated up
Ingredients
