fun in the kitchen: slow cooker

For years my mother has tried to gift me a slow cooker. She had only good intentions, wanting to make my busy life easier. I being the stubborn child always thought it was not a appliance that a young adult needed and kept telling her I did not need such a thing. I finally came to my senses this Christmas and let her give me a gift card to Target so I could pick one out. What changed my mind?! Stupid Facebook, I know... I'm shaking my head too! In the past few months articles have been posted showing the fabulous meals that you can create whilst at work. Here is the HuffPost article that changed my mind: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/26/slow-cooker-recipes_n_1029031.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063
To my defense I only recall one meal ever being created in our family crock pot growing up, sorry mom. It was stew over mashed potatoes and it was created by Soup Starter. 

Any one else remember this 80's staple?! It was a good meal, I do love hearty comfort foods. I just didn't think I needed an appliance for creating this one meal. Thanks to those articles my life with a slow cooker has been filled with delicious options. 

This is my new bff of the kitchen!

Here is a few of the tasty dishes I've created thus far! I did some tweaking to remove my arch nemesis, allium, from all the recipes but to my taste buds delight everything still turned out delish. I just added more of the other spices in the recipes to keep the flavor high. I'll put a link to the recipes used under each, enjoy! 

Turkey Taco Chili. This was the morning after when it became Breakfast Turkey Taco Chili w/ 2 eggs!

http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/slow-cooker-turkey-taco-chili-recipe/

Honey sesame chicken. 

http://www.thecomfortofcooking.com/2012/08/crock-pot-honey-sesame-chicken.html

Beef stroganoff, this was my favorite so far!

http://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/beef-stroganoff-10 

Creamy chicken with biscuits (slow cooker pot pie)

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/slow-cooker-creamy-chicken-with-biscuits

plentiful rhubarb

I grew up hating rhubarb. My mother was always making rhubarb crisp from our rhubarb plant in the backyard. I only loved the crispy top and was scolded often for picking it off of her lovely baked treat. As most kids do, I grew up and now I kinda like it. Still not a lover of it but I am working on becoming an appreciator of this strange plant which is a vegetable but most often utilized as a fruit. 

Well I'm going to honor it's vegtable-ness and make rhubarb pickles!  I've gotten a recipe from Rachel Ray's magazine to do just that. I will tell you now that I cheated... I used 2TBS of pickling spice instead of her recommended spice concoction. 

Ingredients...

Chopped and stuffed....

Pickling liquid added & Ta-Dah... Rhubarb Pickles!

They are actually kinda tasty too. A bit like bread & butter pickles, a little sour a little sweet. 

candied orange peels

I'm all about using everything when it comes to cooking. So when I finally realized how easy it is to candy my citrus peels instead of chucking them into my compost, I ran out and bought organic oranges at the Co-op.  Boy, do I miss having fresh citrus off the tree since leaving Phoenix. 

Blanching the peels to get rid of the bitterness.

Rolled in Sugar and drying.

Got a few stored before I ate them all!

I found several different recipes on line for making these lil' treats. So, I co-mingled them all a wee bit and here is what I did:

Slice peels into 1/4" strips
Blanche 3x in skillet so they all have room
Simmer peels in mixture of sugar water till translucent:
1cup H2O/ 2-1/2 cups of sugar
Roll translucent peels in sugar and let dry for approx. 4hrs
Store what does not get eaten in a jar so you can behold the lovely yummies you've made! 
Oh! and save the simple syrup mixture you simmer the peels in!
It works great in cocktails and morning espresso.

P.S. you can do this with all citrus peels! I'm planning on trying limes next. Maybe even my Cutie's peels?! 

makin' booze

The privatization of alcohol sales in Washington State has made booze pricey! Luckily Costco has big bottles of cheap vodka & my new favorite cookbook The Homemade Pantry has a recipe for Amaretto (there is also one for Kahlua). I'm feeling like a naughty bootlegger! 

One recipe, five ingredients, & one empty bottle waiting to be filled. 

Brown sugar & water combined then melted on the stove. 

Yup, that recipe says cheap vodka!

Three & a half cups o' Vodka, measured! Glug, glug. 

Split that vanilla been to get to the flavor filled seeds inside.

Everybody's in and starting to muddle for some sweet booze! 

Drink time! No ice cubes? Frozen blackberries work just fine.

I have to admit by the time I finished making this recipe I was tipsy! My empty bottle was not big enough to hold all of the ingredients. So, like any smart individual would do... I kept sipping till everything made it in. Note to self find bigger bottle for next go around, because we will be making this again cuz' damn is it good shtuff!

ghosts in the p.o. box & purple soup

It's Halloween. 

My friends and I already dressed up and went out on Saturday. I brought back Effie Trinket for that night out (I even won $50 for my costume).  Since the festivities were finished I decided to stay home and hunker down with The Avengers and have fun cooking. 

Spooky Netflix package brought me The Avengers & Mom sent a fun card!

What's more fun than cooking something average, like soup, in a fabulous color?!  I love buying the purple cauliflower at the farmers market but I normally just add it to pasta or steam it as a side. I've been loving warm hearty soups with the cold rainy weather. The epiphany of making cauliflower cheese soup with my purple cauliflower was very exciting. I used a mash-up of cream of vegetable & cheese soup from my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook.

Purple cauliflower & Beecher's Cheese soup

Steaming the Cauliflower 

Puree the cauliflower and add the rest of the ingredients

Mixing it all together for some purple Halloween soup fun!

Lunch is served. Purple soup with grilled cheese & sungold tomatoes. 

The best news of this colorful experiment.... It was sooo tasty! 

blackberry inspired morning

Finally my flu induced fog came to an end & I was hungry!  No more soup, tea, or pills.  I wanted some thing to fill me up.  Inspiration struck me as I perused a food blog my mum told me about, Plain Chicken.  Scrolling few pages in there it was... Pancakes!  I was a total cheater by using Bisquick to make mine.  But I added fresh picked blackberries and candied pecans, which I must say was a brilliant idea. 

Blackberries right out of my yard.

I found a bunch of blackberries!! 

I've got everything I need for breakfast. 

Cook faster.... 

Coffee, butter, syrup, & nectarine slices.... breakfast is served!