My New Favorite Appliance... sorta

Yep, there he is. Our new favorite appliance.

Let me explain...

It seems that on Mondays and Wednesdays we are a bit strapped for time. Either I had to have all the cooking done before the afternoon mayhem began (yeah right)

OR

I would have to plan ahead and have something simmering in the pot.

I found a cook book at Costco called Slow Cooker Revolution which I promptly bought without even looking inside! CRAZY!

LOVE it!

Ok yeah - it is sorta a snooty cookbook that uses slightly crazy things like "canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce" and chickpeas (which will NEVER come into my house EVER).

That being said, everything that I have cooked has turned out as expected or better except one that was totally my fault. I guess there are some ingredients that cannot be left out!

We have only tried a few but ...TASTY!

Here is the list of what we have tried:

• Chicken in a Pot - my fault. I left out some spices (oops) but the chicken fell apart literally while we were wrestling it out of the crock.
• Sicilian Meatloaf - crazy good! Crazy that I cooked it in a 1980's crock pot and it turned out fabulous!
• Maple-Glazed Pork Loin - FABULOUS!!! The cayenne pepper added just a wonderful little kicker!

Next up is the Barbecued Drumsticks (tonight) and then the Everyday Shredded Pork Filling (burritos), and then Huli Huli Chicken and Sweet and Sour Sticky Ribs.  I can't wait!

As I was planning menus, I kept thinking that I needed a new crock but then I remember that there is only 4 of us and we only eat about 2.5 servings of anything! If I got a bigger and better slow cooker then I would have to recruit people to eat at my house every other day so I didn't have to throw great food out! So, we will still use our lovely old crock pot and I will start looking through the crafty blog world for ways to "cute" up the crock.