I’ve already confessed my love of cooking related catalogues, especially the ones with recipes. I think it’s completely an offshoot of my love for magazines. And the catalogues are actually a really good thing, because then I get a hit of glossy love without the guilt of an actual magazine, which I feel compelled to hang on to for a few months (or longer it seems, from the stacks of magazines in my living room). I can flip through a catalogue and then toss it in the recycling, guilt free!

So it should not come as any surprise that when I sorted the ginormous pile of mail that waited for us after our return from VA Beach (seriously how many credit card solicitations do two people need over what was essentially a long weekend) I pulled out the Williams Sonoma and King Arthur catalogues for later perusal.

When going through WS, I was intrigued by how many of their recipes used this, my ultimate crockpot love and all time most ridiculous kitchen purchase. It’s not ridiculous because I don’t use it, but more because we often don’t use it to it’s fullest potential. Like direct oven to crockpot action.

I made a mental note of the pulled pork recipe, but no actual plans to cook it. And then suddenly it was sunday and I was at the farmer’s market. I wandered over to Truck Patch Farms to buy some bacon, and suddenly I was asking the lady manning the coolers what cut of meat I should buy to make pulled pork. She pulled about the appropriate cut and soon I was walking away with it. Less than 12 hours later, I was eating a delicious pulled pork sandwich. Perfection in a sunday!

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork
Adapted from Bryan Voltaggio’s Recipe in the Williams Sonoma catalogue

I made a lot of adaptions to this recipe because 1) I only had 6 hours to cook 2) I was missing a bunch of the spices needed for the rub 3) I had no apple juice. But this still turned out amazing, so I think I’m keeping my alterations!

Ingredients:
1/4 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
2 Tbs. kosher salt
2 Tbs. paprika
1 Tbs. freshly ground pepper
1 tsp. dried thyme
2 tsp. ground coriander
1 Tbs. cayene pepper
2 tsp. caraway seeds
1 pork shoulder, 3 to 4 lb.
6 garlic cloves, peeled (we used the chopped up refrigerated garlic)
1 1/2 cups beer (we used Clipper City’s Heavy Seas)
1/2 cup water
Dinner Rolls or baguette for serving
barbecue sauce for serving

Directions:
Preheat an oven to 350°F.

In a bowl, stir together the brown sugar, salt, paprika, pepper, thyme, coriander, dried mustard, fennel and garlic powder. Score a diamond pattern on the fatty side of the pork. Generously rub the pork on all sides with 6 to 8 Tbs. of the spice mixture; reserve the remaining mixture. Place the pork in the bottom of an oven safe dish (or crockpot insert) fat side up. Cover with garlic.

Transfer to the oven and roast until the top of the pork starts to crisp, 45 to 60 minutes. Transfer the insert to the slow-cooker base and add the beer and water. Cover and cook on low according to the manufacturer’s instructions, turning the pork occasionally, until the meat pulls apart easily with a fork, 6 to 7 hours.

Transfer the pork to a deep bowl. Using 2 forks, pull the meat apart into large shreds or, using a cleaver, chop it into large chunks. Strain the cooking sauce into a bowl. Ladle 1/2 to 3/4 cup sauce over the pork. Stir in 1 to 2 tsp. of the reserved spice mixture. Serve immediately with rolls and barbecue sauce. Serves 6 to 8.

The time has come to share one of my great secrets.

I cook whole chickens in my crock pot. I’ve been doing this for quite sometime. And for some reason, it makes me feel guilty. Because it’s so easy, and it doesn’t seem like a fine culinary technique. But it’s delicious. So we keep doing it.

I’ve never talked about my method for crockpot chicken though, because, well, it was never really a method. We just always threw stuff in the pot and let it cook. And sometimes it turned out better than other times.

But I’ve discovered a method that seems fullproof, so I need to share. Yes, this is a little bit more work than just throwing the chicken in the pot, but it was worth it and it’s going to be the method from here on out! So here goes…

Chicken in a Pot
Adapted from Slow Cooker Revolution

Like I said, this is a little bit of work but it’s worth it. Our chicken was so juicy, and it literally fell off the bone. We used it for everything from salads to risotto. And it was fantastic!

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 chopped medium onions
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 teaspoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 teaspoon thyme
2 bay leaves
1 whole chicken, rinsed

Directions:

Heat oil in a skillet. Add onions, garlic, and tomato paste and cook until onions are soft, 5-8 minutes. Stir in flour and cook for one minute. Whisk in wine.

Transfer mixture to your slow cooker insert. Add thyme and bay leaves. Season chicken with salt and pepper, then place breast side down in the crockpot. Cook for 4-6 hours, or until chicken is tender. My experience says cook less if you want an intact chicken to come out of the pot, cook more if you want falling off the bone pulled style chicken.

Okay, now back to my sunday night Oscar viewing! It’s a nice distraction from being sore after my first Body Pump class!

This is the time of the year when the weather gets particularly dicey around here. We’ll have blistering cold, followed by a slight warm up, followed by more blistering cold. And if we’re unlucky, we have an La Nina year like this one, where all of that cold is wasted on a total LACK of precipitation.

Yes I said an UNLUCKY lack of precipitation. I am an unapologetic snow lover, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes (which would always rather be wearing snow boots!). Long time readers may remember how excited I got during last year’s Snowpacalypse/Snowmaggedon/Snoverkill events. Snow warms my heart. It makes me feel like a kid again. And that’s always a good thing.

But when I don’t have any snow to warm my heart on the dark cold days of winter–we here in the Baltimore area have been stuck in the dreaded dry slot on more than one occasion so far this winter–I need to find something else. Like this chili. Which is delicious and spicy, and warms you to the core on soooo many levels. And with chicken and white beans, it will keep you full for hours if you find you do have to shovel–a girl can dream after all, right?!

Crockpot White Bean Chicken Chili
Adapted from The Pioneer Woman

I converted this recipe to one for the crockpot because I wasn’t keen on the idea of having something on the stove for hours. And because it’s much easier to troll weather message boards looking for the next big storm when your dinner is slow cooking away. If you want stovetop directions, pop over to PW’s site.

Ingredients

1 whole Fryer Chicken, Cut Up (or 3 Cups Cooked Chicken)
1 whole Medium Onion, Diced
4 cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Anaheim Chili, seeds removed, or can of green chilis
1 pound Dried Great Northern Beans, Rinsed
4 cups Chicken Broth
4 cups water
1-½ Tablespoon Ground Cumin
½ teaspoons Paprika
½ teaspoons Cayenne Pepper
Salt and Pepper To Taste
1/4 cup Cornmeal
Grated Monterey Jack, To Taste
Greek Yogurt For Garnish

Directions:

Cover chicken with water and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until done. Remove meat from bones. Set aside.

In a dutch oven or the liner of your crockpot if it’s stovetop safe, over medium-high heat, saute onions and garlic for 2 minutes. Add chopped chilis, then rinsed beans. Pour chicken broth and water into the pan. Season with salt, pepper, and cumin. Transfer to crockpot and cook on high for 1.5 hours, or on low for three hours. Check the beans about an hour in to see how they are doing, you may need to adjust your cooking time to accommodate the beans.

About an hour in, when you check on the beans, add the 3 cups of cooked chicken and the remaining spices.

When beans are tender, add cornmeal. Cook for an additional ten minutes to thicken. If chili is too thick, add a splash or two of milk. Check seasoning and adjust, adding additional cayenne pepper and paprika if desired.

Serve chili in a bowl. Garnish with cheese and greek yogurt!

And dream of snow for me!

On my first date with Noel, way back in February of 2004, he took me to an Indian restaurant before we went to see a production of Sweeney Todd. Anxious to impress this guy that I knew I really, really liked, I didn’t have the nerve to tell him that I had never had Indian food before.

But I think my bluff that I *looooved* Indian food soon became apparent, when I clearly had no clue what anything on the menu was. So I ordered something with chicken and called it a night, and Noel and I were off on our whirlwind romance. Soon we were spending every spare second together, and ordering Indian takeout every chance we got. As my love for Noel grew, so did my love for Indian food.

Then came graduate school at Maryland. I was poor and the co-op was cheap, so I started eating their hot lunch whenever I was on campus. My favorite quickly became chana masala, a big dish of curried chickpeas. When my two years at Maryland were over, I was happy to discover a local restaurant (the now defunct) Mehek where I could get my chana masala fix. After Mehek closed, I was in a void. Where could I go to satisfy my need for curried chickpeas?

Finally, after nearly a year of searching, and much tasting of inferior dishes, a solution. Make it myself!

Chana Masala
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

When I saw that Deb posted a recipe for homemade chana masala, I did a little happy dance, then sent the recipe on to Noel who insisted we try it AT ONCE! This recipe is well spiced, with some nice heat. It’s easy and relatively quick to put together, and unlike takeout Indian, there are no puddles of oil floating on top! Serve with hot basmati rice and a spoonful of yogurt for a perfect mid-winter dinner.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 medium onions, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons grated fresh ginger or powdered ginger (we used powdered)
1 fresh, hot green chili pepper, minced (we used a jalapeno)
1 tablespoon ground coriander
4 teaspoons ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (you can adjust this to control the heat of the dish, use less if you want something less spicy)
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 cups tomatoes, chopped small or 1 15-ounce can of whole tomatoes with their juices, chopped small
2/3 cup water
4 cups cooked chickpeas (which are 2 cups dry–I cooked my dry ones in the crockpot on high for about three hours with just enough water to cover them) or 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 teaspoon salt
juice from 1 lemon

Heat oil in a large skillet. Add onion, garlic, ginger and pepper and sauté over medium heat until browned. Turn heat down to medium-low and add the coriander, cumin, cayenne, paprika and garam masala. Cook onion mixture with spices for a minute or two, then add the tomatoes and their juice. Add the water and chickpeas. Simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, then stir in salt and lemon juice.

Special thanks to Tony G for being guest photographer on this post!

So, is it cold enough out there for you? If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, chances are your answer to that question is yes! Because here we are, a week and a half into the year, and it’s freezing! Literally. I’m not sure we’ve really made it above freezing so far this year. Our cats are looking for warm places to hide (like on top of laptops) and we’re looking for indoor fun to keep warm (thus the reason I’ve been to the movies twice, TWICE! already this year).

Luckily, cold weather calls for warm comfort foods, and they just happen to be some of my favorites. Soups, stews, chillis–they’re all my friends, especially when the mercury can’t make it out of the 20s and the wind just makes it worse. So last weekend, as we were looking for a dinner to warm us up while keeping with our resolution to eat slightly better now that we’re past the holidays, we decided to try out a chicken and wild rice soup recipe that was loaded with veggies and winter warmth. And it went into the crockpot–so it would cook for us while we settled up on another of those resolutions, re-engaging our gym routine!

The recipe called for all of the traditional trimmings of chicken noodle soup–carrots, celery, onions–but added a bit of a twist with the addition of mushrooms and wild rice. The mushrooms allow you to use just a little bit of chicken, but still get a fantastic satisfying meal. You could also leave the chicken out and use veggie stock to easily get a good vegetarian meal. Perfect for a cold night in.

Chicken and Wild Rice Soup
Adapted from Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever

If this recipe isn’t comfort food in a crock pot, I don’t know what is. This soup is fantastic the day it is made, and good for several days after. If you reheat it on the stove you may want to add some additional water as you reheat, since the rice will continue to soak it up. We found that some fantastic homemade Parker House rolls were the perfect compliment to this meal!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 medium carrots, chopped
• 4 medium stalks of celery, with leaves, chopped
• 1 pound cremini mushrooms, cut into slices
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried sage, crushed in your hand
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 3 cups cooked chicken
• 2 cups wild rice
• 1 cup cream or milk (we used skim)

Directions:

Heat the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat.

Add the onion, carrots, and celery and saute until the veggies are softened, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms, thyme, and sage to the pan and season with salt and pepper.

Transfer the contents of the skillet to the insert of a slow cooker. Stir in the chicken broth, chicken, and wild rice.

Cover the slow cooker and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours, until the wild rice is tender and the soup is thickened.

Stir in the cream or milk, and serve the soup.

A big of bowl of comfort, to help you get through this deep winter freeze!

Are you looking for something to do with that leftover turkey? Well I’ve got a recipe for you. And as a bonus, you can put it in the slow cooker before you head out shopping today and it will be waiting for you when you get home.

Back in October, I shared a recipe with you all for butternut squash risotto done in the slow cooker. The secret to that recipe was starting the risotto on the stovetop, then transferring it to the slow cooker for the rice absorption process.

So how did I get from butternut squash to chicken and mushrooms? Well, I really love cooking whole chickens, mainly in the slow cooker. It’s cheaper, and whole chicken just tastes so good! But the only issue is, we end up with a lot of leftovers after we eat the chicken that first night. And then I’m always looking for a way to use that extra chicken. One of my favorites is chicken and rice, although I’ve never found a recipe that I loved. A few weeks ago though, I came up with the idea to adapt the slow cooker risotto recipe to include chicken and rice instead of butternut squash. When we had it for dinner that night, it was a hit–a MAJOR hit. So much so, that I made it again Wednesday night to use up some leftover chicken we had in the fridge.

Chicken and Mushroom Risotto

You’re probably wondering when I’m going to get to that leftover turkey–so here it is. I think this recipe would be FANTASTIC with turkey subbed in for the chicken. Just use as much turkey as you feel is right, light or dark meat. Dark meat might actually be better, since it would lend more flavor to the risotto, and it’s usually what people have more leftover. This tastes so different from your traditional Thanksgiving foods, that it’s a great way to use up that leftover turkey after you’re tired of eating it in the standard Thanksgiving prep. And since the recipe feeds 4-6, it’s enough to feed the family and any remaining houseguests you may still have around.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium yellow union diced
• 1 package baby bella mushrooms sliced (or white buttons)
• 1 package oyster mushrooms separated
• meat from 1 chicken breast and 2 drumsticks, pulled into pieces
• 1 1/2 cups arborio rice
• 1/4 cup dry white wine or light bodied beer (we used Dogfish Head Festina Peche with excellent results)
• 4 1/4 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup freshly grate Parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. Spray your slow cooker liner with a non-stick spray like Pam.
2. Heat 1/8 cup of the butter with the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the onion and saute until softened, about 3 minutes. Add the mushrooms and the chicken, and cook until mushrooms begin to brown. Add the rice and cook until rice is coated and translucent. Add the wine or beer and cook until the wine evaporates.
3. Transfer the mixture to the slow cooker liner and stir in the broth. Cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 hours. Check the risotto after 2 hours to make sure all of the broth has not cooked out. When all of the liquid is absorbed, stir in the last 1/8 cup of butter and 1/4 cup of the cheese.
4. Serve immediately, with the remaining cheese as garnish.

A hearty winter meal that uses leftovers and requires minimal time over the stove? Yeah, you know you want to make this!

I hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving. I am likely icing a wedding cake as you’re reading this, so wish me luck!

Ah Sundays. They’re always bittersweet. They’re the ultimate relaxation day of the week, full of fun, football, friends, and of course the market–but they’re also when you have face the reality of going back to work the next day. Well, unless it’s my every other Sunday, when I’ve got the following Monday off.

But no matter whether I’m working the next day or not, I always want a big, stick to the ribs meal on Sundays. Call it my kind of old-fashionedness! And since I’m usually lazing around I want it to be something hearty, but not too complicated. Moderately healthy is also good. And leftovers are always a plus.

So imagine my delight, when flipping through one of my new favorite cookbooks, Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever when I discovered a PERFECT Sunday recipe for the fall. Slow Cookers or crockpots are the ultimate kitchen manifestation of the Sunday ethic–you throw everything in the pot and forget it for a few hours (presumably while you enjoy football or a good book). And this recipe is simple, uses excellent peak season fall produce, and fills you up, either as a main dish or a side.

Did I mention that it’s also delicious? I confess that I like this so much, I’ve actually made it twice already. And if I find another butternut squash with my name on it at the market, I might just make it again!

Butternut Squash Risotto
Adapted from Diane Phillips Slow Cooker: The Best Cookbook Ever

I love risotto, but I’m usually too lazy to make it on the stove top. Too much stirring and liquid adding for me! The great thing about making risotto in the crockpot is that you don’t have to be present the whole time it takes the rice to absorb the liquid. You actually don’t have to be there for any of it! The only hands on stirring comes right at the end, when you add the end of the butter. And the magic of the crockpot takes the largish cubes of butternut squash and turns them soft, so when you do stir, you end up distributing the squash throughout the pot. I didn’t think it was possible to like orange rice quite so much.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
• 2 cups diced peeled and seeded butternut squash (about 1 medium)
• 1 1/2 cups arborio rice
• 1/4 cup dry white wine or light bodied beer (we used Dogfish Head Festina Peche with excellent results)
• 4 1/4 cups chicken broth
• 1/2 cup freshly grate Parmesan cheese

Directions:
1. Spray your slow cooker liner with a non-stick spray like Pam.
2. Heat 1/4 cup of the butter with the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the shallots and the squash and saute until shallots are softened, about 3 minutes. Add the rice and cook until rice is coated and translucent. Add the wine or beer and cook until the wine evaporates.
3. Transfer the mixture to the slow cooker liner and stir in the broth. Cover and cook on high for 2 1/2 hours. Check the risotto after 2 hours to make sure all of the broth has not cooked out. When all of the liquid is absorbed, stir in the last 1/4 cup of butter and 1/4 cup of the cheese.
4. Serve immediately, with the remaining cheese as garnish.

This risotto makes an excellent dinner, side item, and is fantastic as leftovers for several days.

Sometimes, I think my subconscious knows things before the rest of my body does. Like this past Monday, when I had a sudden desire to start cooking like a crazy person, I should have known that something was up. Why else would I have a sudden desire to make enough food for three dinners all at once?

Well it turns out that the subtle message from my subconscious was notice that I was about to be laid low in a big way by the big bad flu. Yep, for the bast two days I’ve had all the classic symptoms and it’s been awful. The weather, which has been absolutely miserable, has been no help, since I’m not sure if I’m shivering because it’s 58 degrees in the house, or because my fever is back. Ah, the joys of illness.

Okay, so back to the food. It turns out that need to cook like a crazy person was a total lifesaver. Because the beets that I roasted and started marinating on Monday afternoon made a fantastic dinner on Wednesday night when Noel and I were supposed to be going to the Mobbies party, but were instead laid up with this horrible virus. And for me, beets marinated in antioxidant rich pomegranate juice seemed to be about the best flu fighter that we could get. Unless my subconscious would have been smart enough to convince me to make chicken noodle soup. Maybe next time.

Roasted Beets with Goat Cheese and Pomegranate Dressing
Adapted from Diane Phillips’ Slow Cooker The Best Cookbook Ever (my new favorite cookbook for the fall!)

I love the idea of using the crockpot to slow roast vegetables like beets. This recipe uses the crockpot in a totally unconventional way–there’s no liquid and you wrap the beets in foil, just like you would in the oven. In fact, it’s the unconventional recipes in this book–instead of having crockpot specific recipes, it has recipes for things you would normally cook on the stovetop or in the oven done in the crockpot–that makes me love it so much. As always, I made some adaptations to this recipe to use what I had on hand, and I halved the amount of liquid called for in dressing, since it seemed like way too much for the relatively small beets that I had. Feel free to adjust the liquid to cover your own beets!

Ingredients:

• 6 to 8 medium beets, scrubbed, stem ends trimmed
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1/4 cup pomegranate juice
• 1/8 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 shallot, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground pepper
• crumbled goat cheese (we love the goat cheese from Firefly Farms)

Directions:

Wrap each beet individually in aluminum foil and arrange in the insert of a 5 to 7 quart crockpot. Cover and cook on high for 5 hours, until the tip of a knife inserted into the thickest part of the beet goes in without any resistance.

Remove the beets from the crockpot and allow them to cool. Unwrap the beets and slip the skins off with a sharp paring knife.

Cut the beets into wedges and transfer to a bowl (preferably with a lid). Whisk together the oil, pomegranate juice, vinegar, shallots, sugar, salt, and pepper in a mixing bowl. Pour the mixture over the beets and toss to coat.

Marinate the beets, covered in the fridge, for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.

Remove the beets from the liquid with a slotted spoon. Serve alone, sprinkled with goat cheese, or over a salad (we had ours with baby arugula and it was really nice) sprinkled with goat cheese. If serving with a salad, spoon the liquid over the salad as a salad dressing.

Enjoy that antioxidant boost! And if you’re sick hope it helps you get better sooner!