I'm in love

with my slow cooker. I hardly cook at all without it anymore.

I have to confess that Mr. Poorhouse does most of the cooking around here. But he's been stressed at work lately and has had less time and energy for the culinary arts. So I lend my hand. Throw stuff in a pot. Turn it on. Come back hours later to food. What's not to love?

This isn't a food blog, but we've saved a ton of money this last year on cheap cuts of meat that cook up delicious in 8 hours or so. 

This week we tried pork chops. You know, it's hard to cook pork chops on the stove. They tend to be tough. But these weren't. They were fall-apart tender. And they couldn't have been simpler. Brown them quickly, add broth and seasonings, cook all day. Take out the chops and for gravy, turn the thing up to high, whisk flour into the drippings, and cook for 10 minutes with no lid. The recipe came from Cooking Light Slow Cooker.

We also find we're more likely to eat (rather than ferment and then toss) vegetables now.  Did you know you can throw a hard squash (like butternut or acorn) or a bunch of sweet potatoes in the cooker in the morning without peeling or any prep other than a quick scrub and stab, and have food cooked and ready to quickly peel and eat when you get home. To me it feels like magic. Cheap. Healthy (no fat). Fast. Er, I mean slow. 

Our all time bestest most delicious recipe was Chicken Korma. The house smells fabulous while it cooks--all cinnamony goodness. You can find the recipe here at my favorite blog on the subject, the fun and helpful, A Year of Slow Cooking. 

Or, you can get the whole book. It's on my wish list, but if the other recipes are as good as this one, it's a must-have. 

Another winner was pork green chili. I got the recipe from an internet buddy and modified it for the slow cooker. No beans, but lots of kinds of chilis. That was a little more work, but really worth it. Hmmm. I'm making myself hungry.

I have also discovered the magic of steel-cut oats. I set them going at night before I go to bed, and when I wake up, there's instant comfort--no thinking necessary. (I am not a morning person.)

What about equipment? We bought a 6-quarter cooker. It provides plenty of food for the four of us, plus leftovers for Mr. Poorhouse and me to take for our frugal lunches. In our experience, you can skip the programmable thermostat feature. The meat may be to temperature, but it's probably not tender yet. 

At this time of year, the warm, hearty smell of dinner greeting me is mighty welcoming after battling through 20 inches of drifting snow outside.

Cooking Slow, Spending Slow

Image via Wikipedia

In the tradition of Julie and Julia, the blog A Year of Slow Cooking follows a woman who pledged to use her slow cooker every day for a year.

My splurge-on-myself after Christmas present this year was a slow cooker. Mr. Poorhouse and I haven't been this excited about a kitchen appliance since we got our first engagement present--and indoor electric grill.

It turns out that slow cooking isn't simply a matter of throwing the food in and leaving it for hours at a time. There's a bit of a learning curve. Combine that with the fact that I'm trying to lose weight at the same time, and I can use all the recipe help I can get.

And this site definitely has that. The author details not only her successes, but her failures.

Here are some of our early #fails:

1. Black-eyed peas, lentils, and presumably other beans never get soft in the slow cooker if you add salt or tomatoes at the beginning. (yuck).

2. Potatoes and carrots don't always cook. Try a small chop or dice instead of hearty-sized chunks.

3. Don't use the temp probe for pot roast if your slow cooker has one. The meat may be "done" but if you use a cheap pot roast cut, it won't be tender.

4. You may not need as much liquid as you think. The lid has a seal, so liquid doesn't evaporate the way it does in stovetop cooking.

5. Don't start something at noon. If you need it to cook all day, put it in before 10.

So why persevere?

• Because it's really nice to come home to a meal that's ready to eat instead of unwinding for an hour and then looking at each other and saying "what should we eat?"
  
• Because the slow cooker makes cheap meat edible.
• Because it keeps the pizza ordering to a minimum.
• Because you don't need to cook with as much fat for things to be hearty and tasty in a slow cooker.
• Because it's nice to vary your menu.
• Because you can make things that used to take too much time on a weeknight.

 I'm looking forward to exploring more recipes for the slow cooker. What are your favorites?