AnchorMommy

Preparing to slow cook like a crazy person

November 5, 2009 by Shannon

Oh boy. You know what time it is, right? Slow cooker time! Yes, I’m talking about those handy dandy CrockPots, one of the great kitchen inventions of all time.

I slow cooked like crazy last year. By then, Kellan had graduated from baby food to table food, so I would throw something in the crock at least once a week before work so that Michael and Kellan would have something ready made when they got home. I didn’t want them to subsist solely on takeout, or worse, processed convenience food.

After some tasty dinners and some absolute failures, I think they were both ready for me to put the slow cooker away for a while. But now it’s time. It’s time to get that sucker bubbling again.

I’ve been poring over my pile of cookbooks — most written specifically for the vegetarian crockpotter — for some ideas. Oh, and of course I’m revisiting A Year of Slow Cooking. (Author Stephanie O’Dea submitted a great recipe for slow cooked Jamaican Pumpkin Soup for my Fall Recipe Series, and now’s the time to make it.)

In fact, I look at vegetarian slow cooking as a bit of a personal challenge. Everyone knows CrockPots are great for cooking cheap cuts of meat, and those recipes are a dime a dozen. It is much tougher to come up with good vegetarian recipes. A lot of times, the food can come out bland, or formless, or generally unappetizing. This year though? I’ll be around more to hover over my slow cooker like a mama hen, and therefore, tweak a recipe as needed throughout the day.

Do you use your CrockPot, or does it gather dust? What are your favorite slow cooked dishes?