Memorial Day is an important holiday to me. It’s about more than just a day off and great food. My Grandfather’s funeral was on Memorial Day.
My Grandfather was very important to me. He and my Grandmother lived within walking distance of my teenage home. I spent many hours with my Grandparents. My Grandfather took me for my driving test at 16 and spent hours in his station wagon with me teaching me how to parallel park.
My Grandfather served in World War II. He was a brave Air Force Navigator.
I honor and remember the sacrifices of our Military everyday.
Pulled pork says Summer to me.
Using the Slow Cooker says easy to me.
Paper plates are fancy, if the food on them is tasty.
Slow Cooker Pulled Pork, lightly adapted from a Fox4 Good Day recipe segment.
- 1 bone in pork butt, fat trimmed, approximately 4-6 pounds
- 1 can of Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce
- 2 tablespoons paprika
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 tablespoons of mustard
- 1 teaspoon of turmeric
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons kosher salt
- pinch of black pepper
- 4 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 yellow onion, peeled
Place all the ingredients except the pork into a food processor and pulse them into a paste.
Place the pork into your slow cooker. It goes without saying that you need to remove the meats packaging right? 
Place the spice mixture on top of the roast.
Cook on Low for 8-10 hours.
Drain any fatty bits and most of the juice. The meat will be fall off the bone tender.
shredded heaven…..
Return the meat to the slow cooker and use the “Warm” setting to keep it sandwich ready for hours.
Enjoy!
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Last week I did very little cooking.
We grilled some.
My grill master takes his grilling seriously.
We went out to dinner some.
And….I used the slow cooker some.
When we want baked potatoes with our grilled meats, I don’t turn on the oven. That would heat up my whole kitchen.
I don’t use the microwave to nuke my spuds.
I break out my slow cooker and allow it to slow bake my potatoes.
It’s super easy.
1. Wash and pierce the potatoes you want to bake.
2. Place them into the slow cooker.
3. Cook on high for about 4 hours.
4. I turn the potatoes halfway through the cooking process.
5. When the potatoes are soft they are done.
Mine usually take 4 to 4 & a half hours.
6. Enjoy.
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Back to Basics
This week, I want to focus on basic slow cooker uses like cooking frozen meat.
Many times I use my slow cooker to make full meals, other times I use my slow cooker to cook frozen chicken.
The slow cooker makes cooking frozen meat so easy.
I sometimes shop in bulk, I do love a great sale, when I shop in bulk I separate the meat into family sized portions and freeze it. I sometimes have a few extra pieces. I save those extra pieces in smaller portion packets.
Those smaller portions are great for making chicken salad, chicken tortilla soup,green chilie chicken and black bean soup, chicken taco salad…and on….. and on.
Here is the easy way to cook 2 or 3 (or more) pieces of frozen chicken in your slow cooker.
Are you ready? It’s really complicated.
;
- Place chicken into the slow cooker.
- Season the chicken.
- Place the lid on your slow cooker.
- Cook the chicken on low for 5+ hours.
- Enjoy fully cooked, juicy chicken.
;
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Please join Allie and me for our slow cooker post link up! Join us, link up your favorite slow cooker recipe…tell us about what you’ve tried recently.
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Cream of Leek and Potato soup
I wanted to make something that could be made for meatless Monday or could be made Vegan.
I decided to make Julia Child’s recipe.
I made a few small changes. Instead of water I used homemade veggie stock, I used little potatoes instead of large russets and I did not peel them & I used half & half instead of heavy cream and sour cream.
- I cooked the soup in my slow cooker on High for 5 hours
- I used my immersion blender to make the soup creamy
- The soup was perfectly creamy without the milk products added to it. *Stop here for Vegan*
- I added the half & half to the soup and allowed it to cook on low for 1 more hour.
The soup was not entirely successful. Two of us liked it, two of us hated it so much that we only ate salad for dinner.
Hopefully Allie has a more than 50% successful post for us today.
Please join Allie and me by linking up your new or previously posted slow cooker adventures!
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- Slow Cooker Apple-Pear Butter (adashofdomestic.wordpress.com)
- Slow Cooker Monday, Breakfast Style (adashofdomestic.wordpress.com)
- Slow Cooker Attempt #1 (myreciperesolution.wordpress.com)
- Last Chance Winter Soup (blendedgoodness.wordpress.com)
- Southwestern Red Bean Vegetable Soup (challengeu2cook.wordpress.com)
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Hello! Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!
I am happy to report that we did take down Christmas over the weekend. Yeah!
Please join
Allie and me for Slow Cooker Monday. You can add your slow cooker recipe to the link up.
Today, I have a great winter breakfast for you.
Slow Cooker, Overnight Oatmeal.
- 2 cups of Steel Cut or Irish oats
- 7-8 cups of water (I use 8 cups for creamier oatmeal)
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt
- 3/4 cup of dried cranberries, raisins, blue berries or other dried fruit
I spray my slow cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Then add all the ingredients, stir, place the lid on and cook for 6-8 hours on low. The longer you cook it the more creamy the oatmeal.
Before the water was added.
Fully cooked and totally yummy!
Once the oatmeal is cooker, I place 3/4 cup portions into small plastic containers. I get about 8-10 serving portions per batch. I place the containers into the fridge and in the morning (or anytime someone wants some oatmeal) all they need to do is warm it up.
Have a super Monday. 
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Pot Roast is a big favorite in my house.
I’ve made roasts in the oven and in my slow cooker, I much prefer the taste and texture of the roast when it is slow cooked.
I used my slow cooker to make a wonderful roast, then I took the roast to a
whole
‘nother
level
with a sour cream sauce and pasta.
The store bought additives
I bought some of the new Knorr homemade condensed stock. I really like it. I usually use homemade stock, but I rarely have homemade beef stock in the house. These condensed stock tubs melt quickly and each tub makes 3 1/2 cups of stock.
Directions:
- 1 roast
- 1 Knorr stock tub
- 2 cups of homemade cream of mushroom soup
- 1 package of Beefy Onion Lipton recipe secrets
- 2 TBSP of red wine (I used Cabernet Sauvignon)
- 1 TBSP minced garlic
- 1 cup of water
- 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of freshly cracked pepper
Layers, it's all about the layers
Cook the roast on high for 6-7 hours, until cooked and tender. Remove the meat from the slow cooker, allow it to rest for 20 min. Remove the fat and shred the meat.
Good enough to eat right now....
- Add 1 cup of sour cream to the broth in the slow cooker. Wisk to combine it to the liquid.
Making sauce out of broth
- Add 1 package of egg noodles to the slow cooker.
- Add the meat back in to the slow cooker.
adding uncooked noodles and the meat back into the pot
- Cook on high for about 30 minutes, checking once or twice to make sure that the noodles and meat are covered in sauce.
Ready to Nom
- Enjoy with a salad and crusty bread.
Served with a tasty spinach, bacon and cranberry salad
Please join Allie and me for our bi-weekly slow cooker link up!
What have you been cooking lately?
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Apple-Pear Butter
Slow Cookers are wonders when it comes to cooking beans, chili, roasts, soups and stews.
Slow Cookers are also wonderful for making apple sauces, cranberry sauce and apple-pear butter.
I hope you’ll join Allie and me for this week’s slow cooker link-up.
apples and pears are really great friends
Apple-Pear Butter, slightly adapted from a Martha Stewart recipe
- Wash, seed and slice 4-5 organic apples and 4-5 organic pears *I prefer to leave the skins on*
- place them in the slow cooker
- add 1 cup of brown sugar
- 2 Tablespoons of cinnamon or a cinnamon stick or mulling spices tied up in a little bag
- 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
Cook on High for 4 hours.
- Mash the fruit with a potato masher
Cook for about 3 more hours on High. Until the mixture has a golden color and thick.
Process in the food processor in batches. I prefer to leave the skins on the fruit, Martha says in her recipe to skin them.
Consider this information from LiveStrong.com
“Fiber and Nutrients
A medium apple without the skin has 2.1 g of fiber, while the same apple with the skin has more than double that amount of fiber, or 4.4 g. Eating a medium pear with the skin will give you 5.5 g of fiber, while removing the skin will cut your fiber by more than half. In addition to containing a large portion of the fiber found in apples and pears, the skin of these fruits also contain most of the nutrients and antioxidants that are important for your health. Not eating the skin could prevent you from getting the full benefits of these healthy fruits”
So, that is why I leave the skins on my organic fruit.
Transfer into jars or containers
2 pint-sized jars, for my family
- Can be stored in the fridge for 3 weeks or frozen for up to 3 months
Toast rounds, they're like toast only smaller and more...well..round
- Dear Slow Cooker (theflowerroom.wordpress.com)
- Bring out that Slow Cooker – and Save Energy (thegreenlifeonline.wordpress.com)
- Pear Sauce and Pear Butter in a Slow Cooker (katydidcountry.wordpress.com)
- Slow Cooker Apricot-Currant Oatmeal (dishesanddishes.wordpress.com)
- Homemade Pear butter (gicrockpot.wordpress.com)
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We had a super-duper busy weekend.
Two full days of family and friends.
So, I’m exhausted and I’m sorry, this post isn’t my best.
I’ve only got two pictures and they are not great, but the meatballs I made for our party Saturday night were amazing.
I love parties!
We hosted a party with a few wonderful friends on Saturday night.
Everyone brought a wonderful food dish to share and a sweet treat for a treat exchange.
I made a lot of things for the party, but only one item was slow cooker friendly.
Lovely sauce-y meatballs.
I mixed barbecue sauce, grape jelly and cranberry sauce.
- I used 4 cups of frozen meatballs (because I needed something easy)
- 1 cup of grape jelly
- 2 1/2 cups of barbecue sauce
- 2 1/2 cups of cranberry sauce
Set your slow cooker on low and cook for about 4-6 hours, then set your slow cooker to warm and the meatballs will stay warm for party serving.
There are many options for party meatballs. Try using chili sauce. Try different jellies or jams. Be creative.
Make sure you check out Allie’s slow cooker post and if you have a slow cooker post (new or previously posted) to share
Please link up!
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Is there anything more comforting on a cold winter day than Hot Chocolate?
I’m going to go ahead and say NO.
Gifting a lovely jar of homemade cocoa mix is always usually a hit.
The snowman watches over the cocoa...it's his job.
Who loves it?
- Kids, especially with whipped cream on it
- Teens, gah…they just like it…’kay
- Adults, because you can add liquor to it
- Teetotalers, even those who don’t like the boozie cocoa, love a good chocolaty drink
- Dogs, but don’t give it to them…please
Who does not love it?
- Zombies, because of the shocking lack of brains
- Scrooge, anything fun is a No-No to a Scrooge
- Cats, because they are persnickety…plus they like stinky food
care for a cup?
How to create a jar full of chocolate bliss….. adapted from a recipe on myrecipes.com
You will need a 1 quart canning jar or other 1 quart cute-sey container
- add 1 cup of sugar to the jar
- add 1 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder to the jar
- add 1 cup of powdered milk to the jar
- add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to the jar
- add 1/2 cup of chocolate chips *or minty chocolate chips*…to the jar
- add 1/2 cup of mini marshmallows to the jar
Now, I must ban the word jar for the rest of the post…due to over use.
It will be a tight fit, but if you tap the container a bit to compact the ingredients the marshmallows WILL fit.
Directions for use of the cocoa mix.
1 container = 12 (1 cup) servings of cocoa.
- mix the cocoa ingredients in a bowl
- 1/3 cup of the cocoa mix added to 1 cup of boiling water per serving
Or…
- add 12 cups of water to a pot (or your slow cooker)
- mix the
jar of container of cocoa mix with the water
- warm until boiling *on the stove* or heat on high in your slow cooker for about 30-45 min, then change the setting to warm and it will stay at serving temperature for hours.
How do you drink your cocoa?
Since I love linking up, and my iPhone, I’m linking up with 
All photos in this post were taken with my iPhone.
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One of the fun things about cooking is experimenting.
The more comfortable you get in your kitchen, and with your kitchen tools, the more likely you are to get really creative.
I’m fairly comfortable with my slow cooker. So, I mess about sometimes.
My, what large gnocchi you have.
On December 1st I cooked another turkey. We’re “tentatively” calling it December Firsties. *it’s similar to Thanksgiving, but on December 1st*
So, I’ve got left-over turkey (again).
I started out thinking White bean Turkey Chili. I ended up with something more like a goulash.
Soup-ish stew-ey goulash....also known as kitchen sink soup-ey stew-ish something.....
Ingredients:
- 1 pound of pre-soaked Navy beans
- 6 cups of turkey stock
- 2 cups of shredded turkey meat
- 1 can of green chillies
- 2 TBSP garlic
- 1 cup of diced onion
- 2 cups of shredded carrots
- 2 TBSP cumin
- 2 TBSP dried (or freshly chopped) oregano
- 3 tsp black pepper
- 1 pinch of red pepper flakes
- 2 tsp of tarragon
- 1 can (or package of frozen) corn
- 1 package of potato gnocchi
What to do:
- Place the pre-soaked beans into your slow cooker.
- Add the turkey stock
- Add the remaining ingredients (except the carrots, corn and gnocchi)
- Cook on high for 4 hours.
- Add the carrots and corn, cook for 2 more hours
- reduce the heat to the low setting and add the gnocchi, cook on low for 1-1 1/2 hours.
Serve with corn bread, biscuits, or crusty bread.
Make sure to pop on over to Allie’s Blog and check out her slow cooker meal.
If you’ve got a recipe to share, please link up with us! Follow the link below to add your post to our slow cooker link-up.
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Cook on Low for 8-10 hours.
