Not Crocked, but still delish

My sister called and told me she was making one of my all time favorite meals and not even the Fall of Crock was going to stop me from eating it.  I suppose I could have told her she needed to try making it in the crock pot,  but oh well.  The added bonus being it meant I also got to spend the evening with my niece who without fail serenaded me again during dinner.  

My sister and brother-in-law lived moved into my house with me for a while, and as part of their rent, my sister took it upon herself to cook us family dinners most nights.  The following recipe very quickly shot to the top of my favorite foods she makes, and I've never tried to make it myself, in part probably because that means I would eat it once a week and it wouldn't be special anymore, and also because it's just nicer when someone else cooks dinner for you.  Ladies, am I right? 

Tori's Turkey Meatloaf  

• 1 T olive oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2-3 medium zucchini, grated
• 1 1/4 lbs ground turkey breast
• 2 T parsley, chopped
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3/4 C parmesan cheese, grated
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 C breadcrumbs (if necessary)
• Glaze:
• 1/2 C ketchup
• 1 T yellow mustard
• 1 dash hot sauce

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• Sweat onions and garlic in olive oil over medium heat until onions become translucent. Add the zucchini and sauté 3 or 4 minutes; move off heat and let cool.
• Combine the egg, cheese and parsley in a large bowl. Add the turkey and mix to combine. Season with salt and pepper. Add the cooled vegetables and mix until integrated. Add up to a 1/4 cup of breadcrumbs if the mixture seems too soggy. Form into a loaf shape on a rimmed pan and bake for an hour, then top with ketchup glaze and bake an additional 15 minutes
  
  The result is yummy tummy and will always get a 5/5 rating.  Maybe I should try it out for Big Meat Monday in the pot!
  
   

Crock Wok's Triumphant Debut

I don't know about you, but I have definitely been disappointed that there hasn't been a crock wok Wednesday, yet.  Finally, last night I was home on a Wednesday night for dinner so I instructed sous-chef that he was in charge and what recipe I wanted him to follow.

The result was a tasty, but almost too salty delight of Teriyaki Chicken with Pineapples.  Simple, tasty, could have been more delicious if it wasn't so salty.   I'm not sure if it was the combo of soy + teriyaki sauces, but once it hit your lips you could feel the salt bloat coming. 

Again, minimal ingredients equaled a mostly tasty dinner.  Not sure what could be done about the salt issue.  I'm not one to love pineapple on anything other than my favorite pizza (if you haven't tried pepperoni & pineapple, you are a loser), or nice juicy pieces in the summertime so I only ate a couple just so that I could experience the whole meal but sous-chef really liked the pineapple.

4 frozen chicken breasts

1/2 c. soy sauce

1/2 c. teriyaki sauce

1 can pineapple chunks,  drain half the juice out

Crushed red pepper flakes

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Ok, so it wasn't actually a chicken dinner, but we had another great success with dinner last night.  The theme for this week's dishes has been 'Things I can make with what I already have because I didn't/don't want to go to the grocery store'.  We had tons of potatoes (thanks, Costco) so I decided that Potato Soup would be perfect for Soupy Tuesday.  Potato Soup is one of my favorites.  When I go to visit my parents in Arizona, my trip is usually planned around being there on a Sunday to go to Houston's to eat their Potato Soup on Sunday.

Anywho, I did some reading online for Potato Soup recipes, and they either involved too much work (hello, I don't want to bake all the potatoes ahead of time and scoop out in the insides, the whole point of doing this crock thang is for me to have to do as minimal of prep work as possible).  So, I read a few, got the general gist, and then went for the wing it version.  My recipe basically consisted of the following:

Lots of potatoes cut up into bites that would fit into my mouth

8 pieces of bacon cooked until crispy

6 cups water

Salt and Pepper

Half stick of butter 

1 tsp Chicken Bouillon granules

Drop all that into the pot and cook on low for 8 hours.  After 8 hours add (or about 30 minutes until you are ready to serve):

2 cups Milk (I used 1 cup 1% 1 cup heavy cream because it was in the fridge)

1/2 cup flour (for thickening)

The final result was delicious, but we added lots more pepper when we ate it and of course garnished with green onions and cheddar cheese.

Yummy Tummy!

This one definitely get a 5/5 rating.  

Sneak Preview!

Soupy Tuesday Potato Soup!

Can you go wrong with potatoes, bacon, butter, and pepper? 

Big Meat Monday, October 15

This recipe was nothing to write home about.  It was good, not great.  I would say it falls into the 'don't need to make again' category, but this is just my opinion.  Erik didn't eat dinner last night so we'll have to see what he says after he eats his helping for lunch.  But, Pork falls into my Chicken category, where I'm not AS crazy but still a little bit crazy.  If it isn't pure white in the middle, I panic.  Now, while my brain knows that meat that has been cooking for 9 hours is done, there's still the part of me that sees Pork that isn't white and I tend to go a little ka-ka-coo-coo. 

The recipe from Fix it and Forget It:

Pork Roast with Potatoes and Onions

2 1/2-3lb Pork Roast

1 large garlic clove, slivered

5-6 potatoes, cubed

1 large onion, sliced

3/4 cup broth, tomato juice, or water (I happened to have Tomato Juice, so I used that)

1 1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce

1 Tbsp. cold water

1 Tbsp. cornstarch

The recipe calls for slicing the pork and putting the garlic in then putting under the broiler.  My pork was still too frozen to do that so I just dropped it all right into the crock pot. 

Drop all ingredients (except water and cornstarch) into crock pot and cook on low for 8 hours. 

Remove Roast and Veggies from liquid

Add cornstarch and water to liquid in slow cooker and cook on high until thickened (mine required LOTS of cornstarch and still didn't get as thick as I had imagined it would).

Pour gravy over meat and veggies and Bon Appetit! 

Rating 2.5-3/5

Sneak Preview!

Big Meat Monday:  Pork Roast with Potatoes and Onions!

Soprano Supper Saturday, October 13

My #1 Fan has been sending me recipes to try and the first one was up on Saturday:  Paula Deen's Creamy Macaroni and Cheese.  And to answer the question, yes, people besides Paula Deen do have Campbell's Condensed Cheddar Cheese soup in their pantry.

I said I was 5+/- % positive that I had one of these in my pantry.  Turns out, I did!

Now, for those of you that don't know me, I LOVE mac & cheese.  I have been told that I make the best Kraft Macaroni and Cheese.  And, I've ordered Macaroni & Cheese with Hot Dogs in a restaurant.  And, when I went to visit my best friend this summer, she and her husband had Trader Joe's frozen Mac & Cheese waiting for me in their freezer.  So, there's a little backstory on my love affair with M&C.

This may be unpopular, but I didn't love this recipe. It wasn't nearly cheesy enough.  It was definitely better for dinner on day two when we reheated it with gobs of extra cheese and loads more pepper.  I want to have a really amazing crock pot mac & cheese recipe, and this one, at least this time, didn't cut it. 

Look at that creamy deliciousness!  

Rating:  3/5

Fiesta Friday, October 12

I can take Zero credit for this meal and all of its glory.  Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner.  This meal gets a solid 5/5 rating and served us for three meals.  I called the old ball and chain and told him he was in charge of Fiesta Friday and that we had most of the materials needed for Tortilla Soup.  Now, I was trying to be all official today and bring the cookbooks to pass along the actual recipes to you, but apparently they made it to the counter but not out to my car, so that exciting update will come later.  I have, however, tried to be good about taking photos of the food at the request of my #1 fan.

The Chef, hard at work.

The Chef, annoyed at my photo taking.

The final, delicious finished product.

I promise to get the recipe up, it truly was yummy tummy.

They Say it's Your Birthday

Another week has gone by, and another dismal failure in the life of the Fall of Crock.  I very disappointingly report that little to no crocking has happened since my last visit but it is mainly due to the fact that it was my birthday last week! 

The celebrating began Wednesday evening when I spent the night with my dream woman:  Madonna.

Here's the review from the local paper and  a photo from one of my favorite segments of the show.  Erik and I recently discovered that the same giddy excitement I get from Madonna is the equivalent to what he feels for the Seahawks.  The difference is, the Seahawks come around every year and for months.  Madonna only comes around every so often and you never know when it will be the last time.  I wanted him to experience The Queen at least once in his life, and it meant a lot to me to share the experience with him.  I couldn't believe my good fortune that she was in my very own hometown and on the eve of my birthday.  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  I'm the luckiest girl in the whole world.  So lucky that she was on stage after midnight which meant that Madonna serenaded me on my birthday.  And I'm such a big baby that when she sand Like A Prayer on my birthday, I almost cried. 

The following evening, was my birthday and I am a traditional girl who likes to spend my birthday with family, so the famdamily met at my parent's house apartment for cake, presents, and dinner.  My parents collected pizza from the Farmer's Market (the same pizza Erik and I had at our wedding), and my sister and my beautiful niece made birthday cake for us.  This ain't no ordinary birthday cake, it is legendary.  I don't remember/know a lot about my dad's mom.  But, I have one good memory (my only other memory is that she used to send me her used Lee Press-On nails in the mail...and I would wear them) of her and it is this cake.  The frosting is basically Crisco, sugar, and butter so it is really only brought out for a special occasion maybe once a year but when it comes around again it is totally worth the wait.  I ate it for breakfast the next two mornings.

Friday night was the Miller Family birthday dinner.  I had tried to get reservations at the Spaghetti Factory, say what you will, but it is one of my favorite places to eat.  Inexpensive AND you get ice cream????  but it must have been  Burt Reynolds Homecoming or something, because the only times I could get were 4:30 or 8PM on Friday or Saturday.  So, I decided to cook.  Now, I know what you're going to say, if you cooked, why didn't you make a crock pot dinner?  And the answer is simply I don't know with a little bit of Erik really wanted me to broil steak to show off my talent.  (In case you don't know I'm a world-class steak broiler).  So, I made flank steaks, grilled onions, baked potatoes, and Erik made asparaguys.  (Yes, I call them asparaguys).  I figure, since I'm going to be calling in some major Miller family favors over the next few months when we move, the least I could do was make them a nice meal.  It is here, after dinner, where I put on my Halloween sock monkey pajamas and they didn't leave my body until Monday morning.

Again, Saturday is just pure laziness.  Erik was at a memorial service until early afternoon, I was in a pajama and cake for breakfast coma on the couch.  We had lots of leftover grilled onions, so I suggested an at home version of a little gem my sister and I found at John Howie's in Bellevue:  the grilled cheese sandwich with grilled onions.  So, we ate those for dinner (the only thing I consumed that day besides my birthday cake breakfast) and hunkered down into more of our Sons of Anarchy marathon on Netflix.

Sunday Chili Sunday.  Hot off my delicious from the pantry chili from two weeks ago, I wanted to try and recreate it but with the chunks of beef Erik requested.  I had purchased some stew meat and tossed it in the freezer ready for the occasion.  My recipe was simple again:  beef meats, diced tomatoes, tomato paste, onions, kidney beans, chili beans with sauce, and my same combo of spices.  On the spice end, I'd say this batch fell slightly under par with the last batch.  I don't LOVE giant hunks of beef, so I tried to scoop around them.  It was still yummy in my tummy, though I would rate it lower than last time.

Big Meat Monday turned into more birthday partying.  I went to my nieces swim lesson and then got pedicures and a late lunch with my sister in law so no dinner was prepared whatsoever.  But, I do have beautiful toenails and even still a belly happy fully of Thai food.

Hiatus & Resumption

So, here is where I failed and took a week off.  What can I say, I just couldn't pull it together while the move was happening.  But, I was able to make it to the grocery store on Sunday and planned for the week so things are back on track!

Big Meat Monday returned yesterday to rousing success, I made one of our favorites.  Roast of Beef Meat with carrots, taters, onion, seasoned with 2  dry Lipton Onion Soup packets and 2 cups of water.  I have tried this both ways:  browning the meat before putting it in the crock pot and not.  I honestly can't tell the difference.  So, as a time saver yesterday morning the meat went in straight out the package and was just as delicious as times when I have browned it prior to putting it in. 

Rating:  5/5

Monday, September 24th - Night 3

Big Meat Monday.  You won't believe my good fortune.  When I returned home from the Humane Society walk on Sunday, there was a note tacked on the door from my brother in law.

'Erik & Jess- whole chicken for you down at Nana's.  Cook tomorrow or Tuesday'.

What luck!  Just in time for Big Meat Monday's big debut:  a whole bird to put in my crock pot.  Now Erik's brother has turned into quite the little farmer.  In just two years he's gone from vegetables only to having multiple types of birds.  He'll even have turkey's ready in time for Thanksgiving.

Now, for those of you that don't know, I am about a phone call away from straight jacket and white room when it comes to preparing chicken.  I hate it.  I am convinced that I am going to poison my whole family with salmonella and die.  So you can imagine that when a bird that has not been handled by professionals but rather by Erik's brother down on his farm I was even more nervous.  (I know that most people would be excited to know exactly where the meat they were eating was coming from, but not me.)

I'll paint the picture for you:  It's about 6:30 AM.  The bird is taunting me from the fridge.  I take it out of it's vacuum sealed bag and being my preparations (at least I don't have to cut it, I thought).  The very first thing I notice is that there are still remnants of hair on the bird.  Ok, I can deal with this, right?  I try and shave the hair off with a knife.  Didn't work super well, but it will cook off, right?  Followed by I see items trying to creep out of the chicken whole.  Oh god, the gizzards and neck, whatever the hell those things are that you have to take out.  I don't want to touch them, so I shake the chicken over the sink and the come to a thud in the bottom of the sink.  Near barfing at this point.  Quickly (but thoroughly!) rinse the bird and get it in the pot so I can be done touching it.  Get my anti-bacterial kitchen wipes and and go to town on the counters and the sink (carefully wrapping up the chicken parts and putting them in the garbage.  Go OCD style on washing my hands and I'm done. 

Now, the recipe says to cook the bird breast side down for 8-10 hours, so I set the timer for 9.  During the day, I've already decided that there is zero chance that I'm actually going to eat this for dinner but instead I'll have leftover chili.  I tell Erik this when he gets home and he said he figured that's what would happen. 

Erik, very bravely, even after hearing the tale of the hair and the gizzards is going to eat it.  He says it is very dry and in my mind all I can picture is this:

In the end, he only ended up eating a couple of bites so that he could say that he did but Big Meat Monday really turned out to be a Big Meat Fail.

Rating:  1/5

Sunday, September 23rd - Night 2

This was a great day.  It started off with the Seattle Humane Society's 10th Annual Walk for the Animals, where yours truly raked in more than $3,200 for the animals at our local shelter.  Thank you, again, for the people who donated.  When I got home, it was time to start chili for the Seahawks game.  Now, I hadn't had time to shop so this recipe was just as we like to call it a 'wing it'.  I know what sorts of things I like and don't like in my chili, so with what we had in the pantry, I was able to make it work.  I didn't have high hopes for it since it wasn't very well planned, but it ended up being one of my best Chili Sundays yet.

1 lb ground beef

1 onion, chopped

1 can kidney beans, drained

1 can chili beans with sauce

1 can diced tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

hearty shakes of:  garlic salt, garlic pepper, chili powder, cayenne pepper, red pepper flakes, and Wild Spice

Erik said the only thing that would have made it better was big chunks of meat. 

I'll give it a 4/5 since there was some room for improvement.

Saturday, September 22nd - Night 1

I'm just going to come right out and say this:  this meal was perfect to start off on because it was awesome.

For the first night of Fall of Crock, which fell on a Soprano Supper Saturday, we decided to be truly Italian as if we were sitting down for family dinner with Carmella and Tony.

We began with Baked Ziti with Sausage from the America's Test Kitchen Slow Cooker Revolution cookbook.   Man oh man.  Yummy Tummy.  Now, of course I am still ill-prepared and don't have the exact recipe with me but I can tell you it was full of delicious things like red & green bell peppers, snausage (yes, I said snausage), tomatoes, garlic, onions, and the best part about it was that you put in the pasta uncooked.  Their tip said to cook it on high rather than low otherwise the noodles turned into mush.  

For the record, I took three photos of him, and all of them looked similar to this.  This one made me laugh the hardest, so it is included.

The deliciousness that is Baked Ziti with Snausage.

Our rating:  5 stars (The Best)

I'm late, I'm late!

Ok, so I know that I'm very behind on this.  The Fall of Crock officially started September 22nd and came to a startling, unplanned, uneverything halt due to my parents' move.  Word to the wise:  don't ever live in a 6,000 SF house and don't ever hang on to 70 years worth of memorabilia and lamps. On the plus side, we did score some nice furniture before we even knew that we'd be moving and well I'll enjoy this small respite before our move happens in November.

So, the general idea here is that I am going to try and cook as many dinners as I can in the crock pot.  Since I've already failed epically, I can't say that  every meal will happen that way. 

Now let the games begin!