Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to make an outrageously elaborate meal, just the two of us.  Something we have never made before and probably won't make again.

What is this one?
Lasagna

Now, before you roll your eyes and are like, "um, you've never made a lasanga before?" Let me elaborate.
We will be making our own pasta.  Our own cheese.  And our own tomato sauce.  There is some debate as to whether to use canned or fresh tomatoes for the tomato sauce, but I'm leaning towards canned because they are likely fresher than out of season imported tomatoes.  I'll report back how it went.

What are you doing?

English Lasagna (Freezer Meal)

I have gotten super-into freezer meals lately.  I'm dying to try Once a Month Mom, but I haven't had a chance yet to completely clear the freezer.  Once we have a house and a chest freezer though, oh man.

Anyway, when the Snowquester Storm hit, I hunkered down and spent the morning making freezer meals.  I did an enchilada casserole, which was mediocre, and I made an English Lasagna, which was spectacular.  I'm on the hunt for more good vegetarian ideas, if you have any to share.  I currently have a frozen baked ziti and a frozen fried rice meal all set to go, but I'm trying really hard to make sure we always have something to pull out and thaw when we don't have time to cook.

English Lasagna is made with a creamy bechamel sauce instead of ricotta cheese.  Or in addition to.  I didn't have any ricotta, and it was raining so I didn't go get any, so I improvised a bit.  It was so delicious that when we thawed it and cooked it, my husband ate my leftovers.

Ingredients (makes four servings in a loaf pan, double the cheese/milk if you want to use an 8x8):
-one package no-bake lasagna noodles
-one package veggie crumbles (or you can use real meat, but I don't know how to cook that, or how much to use - I guess half a pound?)
-two cups shredded cheddar cheese (plus more for topping)
-two cups milk
-2 tbsp butter
-2 tbsp flour
-half an onion, chopped
-a few cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 cup tomato sauce

Preheat oven to 350 even if you are freezing this for later (it's best to cook the pasta before freezing).
1.) Saute onion and garlic together until translucent.  Add veggie crumbles and tomato sauce.
2.) Saute butter and flour together until flour is brown.  Add milk and stir frequently until sauce thickens.
3.) Add cheddar cheese and melt.
4.) Layer no bake noodles, "meat" and top with bechamel sauce.  Continue until you have reached the top of the pan (I like to use thin layers and a lot of noodles.)
5.) Top everything with cheddar cheese and some extra tomato sauce, if you have any.
6.) Bake at 350 for 45 minutes, covered with foil.  Then allow to cool, cover the foil with saran wrap, and freeze.
7.) To reheat, thaw for 24ish hours and heat in 350 degree oven for 1 hour.  (Keep foil on for first 45 minutes, then remove for the last 15 minutes.)

Any other freezer meal suggestions?

Cabbage Pasta

We've been getting a lot of cabbage from the CSA lately.  I don't dislike cabbage, but it's a tough vegetable sometimes.  I found this recipe for cabbage pasta though, and gave it a try.  I don't do anchovies though, so I subbed in tuna fish and it was pretty tasty.  If you also hate tuna, try the white albacore stuff from Trader Joe's - it doesn't have the same tuna-y taste.

Ingredients:
-1 can tuna
-1/2 bulb garlic (I only had four cloves, but I would definitely use at least five)
-crushed red pepper
-1 box pasta (I used whole grain penne)
-1/2 cup breadcrumbs
-1/3 cup olive oil
-1/2 head shredded cabbage (I sauted mine in the crockpot the night before - combine with butter, cook for 6 hours on low)
-salt and pepper to taste
-grated parmesean cheese

1. Cook the pasta to al dente.
2. Meanwhile, saute 2 cloves garlic in olive oil, add tuna, then add breadcrumbs and saute until golden.  Pull off burner and set aside.
3. Saute remaining garlic and red pepper in olive oil for a minute, then add cabbage.  If you haven't already sauted the cabbage, cook for 10 minutes (check the pasta and drain it, it's done), or until soft.
4. Combine the breadcrumbs, then the pasta, with the cabbage.  Toss and top with cheese.

It was surprisingly tasty, although next time I'll slice the cabbage with the food processor to get it to be more thin and uniform.  I definitely recommend trying this one out if you have gotten a lot of cabbage this year.

Eggplant Parmesean

I am a sucker for cooked eggplant.  Especially with tomato sauce and pasta.  So a few weeks ago, we had some extra eggplant and I turned to How to Cook Everything Vegetarian for a quick eggplant parm recipe.  I was surprised that Bittman recommended using flour, since in the past I've just coated the eggplant with breadcrumbs.

Ingredients:
Eggplant, sliced into 1/4 inch slices and dried out for at least an hour or so
Flour
Vegetable Oil
Spaghetti sauce
Parmesean cheese

Recipe:
1. Dredge eggplant slices in flour to coat both sides
2. Heat oil in skillet, heat oven to 350
3. Toss eggplant slices into skillet, allow them to get crispy brown on both sides.
4. Drain eggplant onto paper towels.
5. Pour spaghetti sauce into pan; place eggplant on top, top with Parmesan cheese.
6. Cook at 350 for 10 minutes or until cheese is melted and browned.

Enjoy with pasta and more spaghetti sauce.

Spinach Arugula Pesto Lasagna

The first time I had pesto lasagna, I was in Rome.  It was amazing.  The kind of experience that ruins regular lasagna for you.  Handmade, fresh pasta, pesto, cheese...hello, lover.  I tried to duplicate it when I got home, but it just didn't work.  So this week, when our CSA share came in and we had arugula, garlic scapes, and spinach, I found a recipe for arugula pesto in Dishing Up Maryland.  I modified their pesto recipe a bit, and then was going to just do boring pasta, but we had lasagna noodles and I thought pesto lasagna might just be the ticket for a celebratory dinner after my first day on the new job.

Lasagna takes a long time to prep, so I probably shouldn't have decided that.  This recipe is inspired by a Cooking from the Garden recipe that we made for Valentine's Day and we didn't eat until nearly 10pm that night. Nonetheless, here is a great recipe for using up a whole heap-ton of veggies.  We were lucky to get ALL of Sister Barefoot's arugula (and far too selfish to share any of the delicious lasagna), but all is still a bunch, not a specific amount, so guesses are approximate here for quantities.

Ingredients:
For pesto:
1 bunch arugula
1/2 bunch spinach
4-6 garlic scapes (can probably use whole cloves of garlic)
1 tbsp pine nuts, toasted at 350 for 10 minutes
olive oil

For lasagna:
8-10 no-bake lasagna noodles
2 cups parmesean cheese
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
3 cups milk
Salt and pepper, to taste

Process:

1. Wash all greens, put in a food processor.  Process until chopped up into tiny bits.  Add pine nuts.  Add olive oil until it looks like pesto.  
2. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat.  Add flour. Cook for 1-2 minutes until smooth.  Add milk.  Stir frequently, wait for it to thicken.  
3. While waiting for the sauce to thicken, soak the lasagna noodles in water.  
4. Once sauce has thickened, line the bottom of an 8x8 pan with noodles.  Add pesto.  Add cheese.  Pour sauce over top.  Add more noodles, pesto, cheese, and sauce, until done.  If you run out of sauce at the top, just grate on some more cheese. 
5. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes with foil, and then another 15 without foil.  (Our 8x8 pan actually fits into the toaster oven, which cooks it much faster and doesn't create as much heat in the kitchen on really hot summer days, so that's another thing to love about this recipe.)  

Enjoy!  I would be interested in making this recipe with additional vegetables and maybe not quite so much cheese.  I was thinking zucchini or roasted eggplant, but what new and interesting vegetables would go well here?  

Cookbook Project: The Stinking Rose

So the Stinking Rose Cookbook's Pasta with Butternut Squash, Fried Sage, & Garlic Chips (p. 55) was a big ol' disappointment.  It's also two recipes in one, because you top the pasta with deep fried garlic, which is a separate recipe (p. 152).

Ingredients:
1 1lb butternut squash
1 tbsp olive oil
Salt & pepper
2 tablespoons butter (I had to substitute Earth Balance since we are out of butter)
1 bunch sage, stemmed
1 pound pasta
Garlic Chips (recipe follows)

I'm not going to repost the whole recipe, but basically, peel and cut the squash into little pieces (1/2 inch cubes), toss it with the olive oil and salt and pepper, then roast it in the oven at 400 for 30 minutes, turning twice.  My advice is then you skip the remainder of the recipe and eat the butternut squash with a fork.  Because that actually turned out excellent, and I was surprised that only a tablespoon of olive oil was enough to keep the squash from getting dry and crunchy.

Then you melt the butter, and add the sage until it is crisp and the butter is golden brown.  I think I cooked the sage too long, because it definitely tasted burnt.  I would pull the sage when it becomes aromatic, rather than crispy.

Cook the pasta, mix everything together, and then top with garlic chips.

Garlic Chips
Ingredients:
4-5 large bulbs elephant garlic (I used regular, and I used the better part of one bulb)
3 cups whole milk (I used 2% and skim)
Vegetable oil, for deep frying.

Process:

Boil a pot of water.  Take the garlic cloves with the crunchy bottom part chopped off and toss them all in the boiling water.  Let boil for thirty seconds, fish out, and peel.

Slice the garlic into tiny "chips".

Bring slivers & one cup of milk to a boil.  Immediately remove from heat, pour through a colander/sieve.  Repeat with the remaining two cups of milk.  I used less than a cup.  Drain well on a paper towel.

Heat oil to 375 in skillet or deep fryer.  Add cloves and fry them until golden.

Note: do NOT put the lid on the deep fryer.  Somehow the garlic chips will burn and explode.  It will get ugly.  Also add cloves in small batches after blotting them with a towel.

Bad chips

Good chips

Eggplant Parm, deconstructed

I'm totally coming around to crockpot pasta.  It's an easy way to deal with pasta, especially on a lazy Sunday when I don't feel like sauteing eggplant, boiling water, and cooking tomato sauce all at once.  This is a great recipe for a work-from-home person, since you do need to cook the eggplant first, and then add the tomato sauce and pasta later.

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant
1 jar tomato sauce
1/2 box whole wheat pasta (if you use a full box, use 2 jars)
Garlic and lots of it
Veggie crumbles
Parmesan cheese

Procedure:
1. Peel and chop eggplant and put in greased crockpot.
2. Dice garlic, add to eggplant.  Add some more olive oil and salt.
3. Cook on high for 1-2 hours.
4. Add tomato sauce when eggplant is soft and tasty.
5. Add pasta and crumbles when there is about 45-60 minutes cooking time left.  (I rinse the pasta in a colander so it has a little more water.  You may want to do this too.)
6. Serve when pasta is cooked through garnished with Parmesan cheese.

Crockpot Baked Ziti

I made baked ziti for Mr. Barefoot last week and it was delicious.  It's adapted from 365 Crockpot.  For anybody afraid of their slow cooker, it's also easy.  I know it seems really weird to add noodles to a crockpot when they are still crunchy, but trust me, it works.

Ingredients:
1 box pasta (I used a combination of farfalle and elbow macaroni)
1 1/2 jars of pasta sauce
Vegetables, if desired. (I used a green pepper)
1 cup mozzerella or italian cheese
1 medium sized container ricotta (I think it's 16 oz but it might be 12)
Grated Parmesan

Directions:
1. Rinse pasta in a colander (while still crunchy - this helps it cook).  Grease crockpot.
2. Combine ricotta and 1 jar of pasta sauce in a bowl.
3. Chop the vegetables.
4. Layer pasta, ricotta, vegetables, mozzerella into the crockpot and repeat until done.
5. Pour remaining half jar of tomato sauce over the top of pasta.
6. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.  Garnish with grated Parm and serve.

This was delicious, although I used a very spicy sauce and therefore was actually unable to eat it, but Mr. Barefoot is a big fan and since I made a huge pot of it, he had leftovers for several lunches during the week.

Butternut Squash Macaroni and Cheese

I went to make butternut squash pizza tonight and realized we didn't have any pizza crust on hand.  We did have macaroni, evaporated milk, and cheddar cheese, so I whipped up this macaroni and cheese.
You will need:
1 small butternut squash, sliced and diced into small pieces
1 onion, chopped
1/2 box macaroni
1 shallot
3 cloves garlic
Olive Oil
Flour
1 can evaporated milk
2 cups cheese
Breadcrumbs

Procedure:
1. Cook butternut squash and onion in oven on 400 degrees until soft, about 30 minutes.  Chop into additional pieces if necessary (the mixture should be a somewhat soft mash).
2. Boil water, cook pasta until al dente.
3. In a separate pan, saute shallot and garlic in olive oil.
4. Add flour and allow to cook for a minute in the oil.  Add evaporated milk.  Allow to cook for about 5 minutes, stirring.
5. Add butternut squash and onion to milk.  Add cheese.  Add pasta.  Add salt, pepper, spices to taste.  Top with breadcrumbs.
6. Bake pasta on 350 until bubbles - about 10 minutes.

Tofu alla Vodka

I'm a terrible housewife.  (I'm hoping I'll get fired.)  Last week, Mr. Barefoot went to work without lunch, because I hadn't cooked anything all week.  He asked if I wanted to meet up to go to lunch, or bring him lunch so we didn't have to spend money on eating out.  I asked him if he wanted to come home for lunch, and he agreed.  He works a quick bike ride away, so it was possible and I immediately hopped in the kitchen and started whipping up lunch.  Only...we don't have that much food and I haven't watched 30-minute meals in a really long time.  So I made pasta, with vodka sauce, and then I threw in some tofu and some baby spinach we had.

It was delicious.  I tried to fry up the tofu first, but it was a waste of time and cooking oil - instead, you should cut the tofu up into really small pieces and scramble it a bit, then pour the vodka sauce on top to cook.  This recipe would probably be better with time to marinate, but it was pretty good.

Ingredients:
-tofu (half a block)
-spaghetti
-vodka sauce
-baby spinach

Procedure:
1) Cook spaghetti.
2) Cut tofu up into tiny pieces and fry in a saucepan on medium heat.  Then add the vodka sauce.
3) Drain the spaghetti.  Add to saucepan.
4) Stir to combine.
5) Add leaves of baby spinach.

Serve and enjoy.  Like everything else in life, this probably would be better with cheese.  And some garlic.

Sharing

Two things:
1. Even without bacon and green onions, this salad is amazing. I'm not sure if I shared it before, but it's really good.
2. Kraft now makes homestyle mac and cheese, which is basically velveeta with breadcrumbs.  It's meidocre on it's own but it's fantastic with barbecue sauce and baked in the oven on 425 for 10 minutes.  

Moving

Okay, so a few moving tips, because I know summer is a popular moving time.
1.) Pack the can opener WITH the canned goods.  I'm serious.  It sounds so simple, but it's so key.
2.) Shut down the kitchen 1+ week before you move.  Last Sunday, I made pasta salad and a pasta casserole and we lived off that for the week.
3.) Just order takeout.  I think last time, we didn't do this.  This time, we ate takeout for three days straight and it was a major stress reducer.
4.) Use the crockpot once you move.  It means you only have to clean one thing, and you don't have to put anything away, since you don't know where anything goes yet.  Win-win.

That being said, here is my original recipe for pre-moving/clean out the fridge eggplant pasta:
Ingredients:

• 1 half eaten box of pasta (any shape, I used mini bows)
• 1 half-full jar of pesto 
• 1 eggplant
• 1 yellow squash
• 1 onion
• Garlic
• 1 can diced tomatoes

Procedure:

1. Put eggplant, squash, garlic, onion in crockpot with some olive oil on high for 2 hours. 
2. Add half box of pasta, dry.
3. Add diced tomatoes with juice.  Add half a can of water.  
4. Cook for another 2 hours or until pasta is tender.
5. Add pesto.  
6. Stir. 
7. Eat.  Or put in tupperwares.  Good with goat cheese.  Or feta.  

Are you moving? What are some moving meals that you make?

Pasta Salad with Arugula

This is from my Mac & Cheese cookbook - Macaroni and Cheese by Marlena Spieler, for my friend Susan, who I told I would post this for, because she has a CSA share and a lot of arugula.  But you should try it too, because it is amazing.  (And amazingly easy - the best kind of amazing.)
Ingredients:
1 large unwaxed lemon
12 ounces orecchiette (I used those piccolini bow-ties the last time and I think shells before that. Any pasta is okay, but I'd go for something flat if possible.)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
8-10 ounces Bulgarian, Israeli, or Greek feta cheese (I use President from Costco.)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 cups loosely packed arugula leaves (washed)

Process:
1.) Zest the lemon, put in a small bowl.  Squeeze lemon juice into the bowl. Mind the seeds.
2.) Cook the pasta until al dente, drain.
3.) Put pasta in a large bowl (I love a stainless steel mixing bowl for pasta salad since it transfers heat so much better in the fridge.)
4.) Add lemon juice and olive oil to the pasta, set for up to two hours to cool.
5.) Before serving, toss with feta, salt, and pepper.  Serve w/ arugula at room temperature.

This is great for bar review lunches and dinners, btw.  Anything I can eat cold is fantastic.

Gone Quiet

Apologies to all for the recent lapse and total failure of recipes.  I'm studying for the bar.
Studying for the bar is an arduous thing at best, but when you have a night bar review course, it also means that your eating habits go to hell.
I'm in week three now, and I still haven't figured out a great system for eating.  It seems that the best thing to do is eat a high-protein second breakfast after Bar Review Mandated Exercise, then hold off on lunch until about 2 or 3 pm, when I eat lunch.  Then, I just have some high protein snacks and eat them through bar review and come home to dinner.  Or come home to bed because I am no longer hungry.  It's not the best plan.

But what I wanted to write about is not my lousy eating habits during the bar.  It is how to freeze casseroles, then thaw and reheat them.

Last summer, when I went to Michigan, I made and froze a few lasagnas.  I read a great tip once that you can make mini-lasagnas in aluminum loaf pans.  Just follow the lasagna directions on the package, but put 3 noodles and the filling in each pan, then top with cheese.  Cover with foil and put in the refridgerator until cool, then freeze.

It turns out they freeze for up to a year, because we just ate the last one tonight.  To thaw, just put in the fridge the night before or the morning of.  Bake at 375 for awhile (Mr. Barefoot's very specific instructions) until warm and delicious.  

Any other suggestions for casseroles (vegetarian) that freeze and reheat well?

New mac and cheese.

I got a new cookbook for Christmas. You should all go buy it. I started out easy, with a recipe that made stovetop mac & cheese. I used this amazing pasta shape I bought from Safeway a few months ago but hadn't used. It's like elbow macaroni on crack. I'm so excited to make all these delicious and pretty recipes from this book.
This is Leah's Greek Mac & Cheese, which involves V8 and jack cheese and provolone and feta.
Interesting tip to add warm milk to the roux to make the flour absorb faster. Also contains allspice and cinnamon and oregano. Mr. Barefoot says it tastes like a creamy Greek dish that he has had before, in Greece.
I covered it with parm and served it with peas and broccoli. It was delicious. You should try it.

Beer Mac & Cheese

This is, I believe, the 6th macaroni and cheese recipe I have posted here.
Some foods are good foods. Some foods are fantastic. And some foods are proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy, to paraphrase Ben Franklin. Since Franklin said that about beer, then the same must hold true for beer macaroni and cheese.
I hate beer but I love to cook with it - so awhile ago, I thought about making beer macaroni and cheese, but I hadn't gotten around to it. I'm making mac & cheese for thanksgiving, so I thought for my friend's thanksgiving last night, I would do a different variation, and decided to try this out.
I looked around for recipes but a lot involved bacon. I found this one from Scrumptini and altered it a little.
Ingredients:

• 1 lb penne pasta
• 3 tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 2 leeks, chopped up (just the white and light green parts)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 12 oz bottle of beer (I used yuengling but Mr. Barefoot recommends a stout)
  
• 3 cups cheddar cheese
• 1 cup parmesean
• 1/2 cup parm (for topping)
• breadcrumbs
• salt & pepper
• Tabasco sauce

Procedure:

1. Saute leeks and garlic over medium-low heat in just a little bit of butter until soft and delicious smelling. Add 3 tbsp butter and stir until melted.
   
2. Add in 3 tbsp flour slowly, allow to cook for 1-2 minutes.
   
3. Pour in milk, allow to cook until thickened and bubbly.
   
4. Add beer. Beer will bubble at first, and then calm down. Cook until entire mixture is thick, about 10 minutes.
   
5. Meanwhile, cook pasta in a separate pot. Drain and put in a greased pyrex dish.
   
6. Once beer - milk mixture is thickened, add cheese slowly. Once cheese is all melted in, add salt and pepper and a little bit of tabasco sauce (to taste - you can try it and see what you like).
   
7. Pour sauce over pasta, stir to combine.
   
8. Mix breadcrumbs, parmesean cheese, and some salt and pepper together, sprinkle on top.
   
9. Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes until top is brown and cheese bubbles.
   

Yum!

On the Horizon

It's that time of year - no, not my usual pre-thanksgiving franticity, but pre-finals time. Time to focus on school and not making interesting new meals. So I end up making lists of foods I want to try, and putting them on the back burner for winterbreak. No surprise that a lot of them are types of mac & cheese.

So what's on the list?

Beer Mac & Cheese

Apple Mac & Cheese (omg it's gonna taste like the melting pot. And I'll probably try this sooner because apples are still in season.)
Leek Mac & Cheese

Pesto lasagna

Carmelized onion & feta sandwiches

also a Winter Lager Soup in a cookbook given to me by Z3P.

I also want to work on perfecting my pizza crust recipe. The one I'm using is pretty good, but it doesn't produce quite enough dough.

I would also like to start making myself breakfast burritos. I had one recently that was extremely delicious. They might be a good finals attempt, since they are quick and easy, and a good way to get nutrients, and will hold me over while I sit in the library for 5 hours.

What kind of cooking goals do you have?

More Pumpkinspiration

I posted awhile ago about pumkin lasanga. A few weeks ago, Mr. Barefoot's friend came over and we attempted pumpkin lasagna. Verdict? It was pretty good. Definitely a B+ meal.
We used this recipe, and it was good. (Plus, no bake lasagna noodles may be the greatest invention ever.) It was a little mild for my taste, and I like my lasagna to have the ricotta and sauce mixed together. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but maybe something a little more like my sweet potato mac & cheese. Like I said yesterday, I currently have 3 pumpkins, plus another 2 cups of pumpkin puree in my freezer, so there's a lot of room for experiment. I want to try a pumpkin mac & cheese, and also these.
We also had a pumpkin soup at the wedding over the weekend, and that was amazing.

What to do with a pumpkin?

This morning we hit up the Waverly Farmer's Market, which was not nearly as large and crazy as advertised.
We picked up a cheese pumpkin, because Mr. Barefoot is making pumpkin beer today, and I get to use the other half to do as I would like.
I was thinking pumpkin lasagna, so I went off in search of a recipe.
I found this and this, but both require canned pumpkin.
Omg. Also requires canned pumpkin. But omg.
This looks interesting, but I only have a half a pumpkin. You can bet I'll be trying it sometime soon though. How long are pumpkins in season for?
Ooooooh....want! I'm going to need to try this as well.
I think the answer for today is to cook the pumpkin, scrape out the meat, and then mash up the meat and refrigerate/freeze it.

Crab Mac & Cheese

So there is a bar around the corner called Crazy Lil's. And they make crab macaroni and cheese. So I decided to try it. Considering how expensive a jar of crab is, it was actually more expensive than getting it at the bar (although it did serve four of us instead of just me). I made it for a post-tubing meal for my hockey teammates and myself today.
I did it in the slow cooker as my friend does not yet have a stove (but she has a gorgeous kitchen.) The recipe isn't perfect yet, but it was delicious and Mr. Barefoot has spent the evening eating the leftovers I brought home and there are none left.
Ingredients:

• 3 boxes cream cheese (you can use 1/3 less fat kind)
• 1 box pasta (I used elbow macaroni, but I think next time I'll use penne)
  
• cheese (I used 2 cups of yellow cheddar, but it actually wasn't that cheesy, so I would add some white cheddar as well)
• 1 1/2 cups half and half (try it with milk and let me know how that goes)
• 1 lb crab meat (buy it at Costco - the Phillips lump crab meat)
• old bay

Procedure:

1. Pour pasta into slowcooker (uncooked).
   
2. Add half and half or other dairy liquid. Add old bay.
   
3. Add cheese. And more old bay.
   
4. Add crab meat. And some more old bay.
5. Cook on high for 4 hours (our slow-cooker cooks so fast I actually cooked it on high for an hour and then I switched it to low for 3 while we went tubing.)
   

This was delicious. I was really surprised that the pasta cooked in the half and half and the moisture from the cheese/crab meat. But it did. I stirred about an hour into it, combining all the cheese and the crab meat (and added more Old Bay). It came out sticky and creamy and a delicious combo of crabmeat and cheese and pasta.
Try it. Play with the recipe. Get back to me on how you made it and whether that worked for you.