What I've Been Cooking

Some of the latest recipes I have tried and enjoyed include:

Slow Cooker Black Bean Enchiladas - we didn't have corn, so I subsituted green pepper.  It was still pretty tasty.  I also used whole wheat tortillas and you couldn't tell.  This would be a great recipe for a chicken/veggie household because you could divide your crock in half with foil to separate the two.

Pecan Encrusted Salmon - seriously amazing.  We've been using a lot more nuts in our cooking, and this is recipe that is going to become a regular.

Slow Cooker Indian Spiced Chickpea Quinoa Stew - this was just so easy to put together.  I didn't have turnips or celery so just used other veggies we had on hand, which included onions.  I also found that it was somewhat lacking in flavor, so I added more salt and a dash of heavy cream, which made it pretty delicious.

Pecan Quinoa Stuffing - our acorn squash went bad before I made this, so Mr. Barefoot roasted up some sweet potatos and we had it with that.  Like I said, we've been using more nuts.

I found pretty much all of these recipes on Pinterest, which I both like and dislike as a search engine.  I like it because it allows me to sidestep all the spammy responses I get from Google that take me to sites which then force me to search again and only have terrible recipes.  I dislike it because when you google an ingredient, sometimes you just get a pretty picture of brussels sprouts and sometimes you get 300 of the same brussels sprouts recipe.  Does anyone have any way around that?

Sweet Potato Cashew Curry

We have finally gotten the hang of menu planning for two people with busy jobs, I think.  The trick is to plan meals that allow for advance prep, but don't require it, and to allow for a few slacker meals.  This week's menu plan:
-Pear, Leek, Goat Cheese Pizza
-Potato, Mushroom, and Leek Croquettes
-Pad Thai
-Sweet Potato Cashew Curry

Theoretically, we were going to do all the prep work on Sunday.  That didn't happen - we got to the leeks, the onions, and the stuff for my grandmother's 90th birthday party.  So instead, last night, I prepped everything for the potato, mushroom, and leek croquettes and the sweet potato cashew curry while also making pad thai.  This means that this morning, I just tossed the curry in the crockpot and came home to a really delicious meal.  Since I adapted the original recipe, I'm going to share my changes here.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil
1 sweet onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 cup raw cashews
3 tbsp (or a conservative pour) Trader Joes yellow curry sauce
2 sweet potatoes, peeled, and cut into small chunks (I only used one, but two would be better)
1 can diced tomatoes (with juice)
2 cups water
1 cup frozen corn
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
3 tbsp (or generous pour) yellow curry sauce

-Heat oil in a pan over medium heat, saute onion, saute until translucent, then add cashews.  Saute until golden brown.

-Add yellow curry sauce and sweet potatoes, fry for another minute or two.  Transfer to crockpot.  

-Add can diced tomatoes, water, frozen corn, tomato paste, hoisin sauce, and remaining yellow curry sauce.  

-Cook on low heat for 4-6 hours.  Serve over rice.  

More Chia Granola

I've made three batches of burned granola lately - I keep leaving it in the oven, and it's just not quite dark enough - not quite - and then BAM - burned.

So I switched to the crockpot.  Which meant when I burned it around the edges, I spooned that part out.  I've also added coconut, so here is a new recipe.

Ingredients:
2 cups oats
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/4-1/2 cup chia seeds
1 stick butter, melted
1/4-1/2 cup honey (or "a generous pour" as I measured)
1/8-1/4 cup corn syrup (or "a generous spurt" as I measured)

Procedure:
1. Combine oats, chia, butter, 1/4 cup coconut flakes, and honey and corn syrup in crockpot.
2. Cook on high for approimately 2 hours, leaving a wooden stick in the crock so that the crockpot vents.
3. Once done cooking, add remaining coconut flakes, stir, and put lid on.  Allow to cool completely.

The granola on it's own is pretty good, but this morning I added chopped dates which took me from pretty good to "best breakfast ever."

Cookbook Challenge: Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker

Yes, the project is still going on.  Today I tried a new chili recipe from Fresh From the Vegetarian Slow Cooker - Three Bean Chili with Chive-Flecked Cornmeal Dumplings.  I've adapted it slightly to accommodate the ingredients in my pantry and my personal taste.

Ingredients:
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, diced
1 small red pepper, diced
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tbsp chili powder
One 28 ounce can giant tomatoes
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can light kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 1/2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste

Dumplings:
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup cornmeal
2 tsp baking powder
salt
1/2 cup frozen corn
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp olive oil

1. Saute onion, garlic, and red pepper over medium heat until soft.  Add tomato paste and chili powder.  Add to crockpot.
2. Add tomatoes, beans, salt, and pepper.
3. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
4. Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, frozen corn, and milk, together.
5. Drop spoonfuls of cornmeal mixture into crockpot.  Replace lid, and either cook on low for another hour, or cook on high for 30-45 minutes.

Cookbook Review: Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker was the first crock-pot cookbook we purchased when we got our crockpot, and it's always the one I recommend to friends who say, "uh, I got a crockpot...how do I, like, make food?"  All of the meals are balanced, substantial, and delicious.  I've made several recipes from this book and never had a flop.  The directions are straightforward and easy to read, any weird vegetables have instructions for how to clean them and what they taste like, and the book is well organized.  You should definitely buy it.  And then make some chili.

Lentil Chili

I've been looking for a copycat recipe for the TastyBite Madras Lentils for a little while without any luck, but tonight I was craving some healthy chili goodness so I found this recipe on AllRecipes.  I wound up adapting it quite a bit, but I love the use of the bulgar wheat.  It creates a similar mouthfeel to the ground beef substitute that we put in chili sometimes, but isn't so many questionable chemicals, and it's cheap.  And we have it in the house.

I adapted the recipe quite a bit, so this is what I did:
Ingredients:
5-10 cloves garlic
1 cup lentils
1 cup bulgar wheat
1 onion chopped/1 tbsp dried onion
2 cans diced tomatoes
3 cups vegetable broth
2-4 tbsp chili powder
salt & pepper to taste
1 cup heavy cream (optional)

Process:
1.) Soak the lentils for an hour or so or boil them for a bit - maybe for about 10 minutes.
2.) Saute garlic and onion until clear.
3.) Add lentils and bulgar, then toss in tomatoes and juice, and vegetable broth.  Add chili powder and salt and pepper.
4.) Bring to a boil, and then simmer for 20-30 minutes, adding more water/broth if necessary.
5.) Once lentils are soft and delicious, serve up and add heavy cream to taste.  I find I need a bit of it to help offset the heat of the chili powder.

You could also do this in a crockpot by just tossing everything in and cooking for 4-6 hours on low.

Cookbook Project: 350 Big Taste Recipes for the 1 1/2 Quart Mini Slow Cooker

There are almost no cookbooks out there for the mini crockpot, and I got tired of scaling the 4-6 crock recipes back, so I asked for this book for Christmas.

It's a terrible cookbook.  All the recipes in it are made for people who do not know how to cook, and are missing their tastebuds.  It's also poorly written.  For example, the recipe I made from it includes garlic on the ingredient list but does not say when to put it in.  A lot of the recipes are high in sodium, since they involve canned ingredients, but supposedly this book has an "emphasis on healthy cooking."

But last week we had extra shrimp, so I made this recipe.  We got rid of our 1.5 qt slow cooker when we got a rice cooker, and since this was a rice recipe, I used the rice cooker settings.

Ingredients:
1 lb medium shrimp
1 1/2, cups instant long grain rice (I used parboiled)
1 1/2 cups hot tap water
1 small onion, diced (1/2 cup)
1 can tiny spring peas (I used frozen peas)
1 tsp garlic, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

Process:
Oil the crockpot; add rice and onion.  I also added the garlic at this time.  Let cook for 2 hours (or cook on rice cooker setting.)

Fluff the rice, add the shrimp and cook for 45 minutes; add the peas and cook for 15 minutes more.  (I added the shrimp and the heat from the rice cooked them almost instantly, so I added the peas at that time.)

If you do make this, add some hoisin and soy sauce.  Once we did that, it came out pretty tasty.  I do feel like I cheated more than usual on this one by using the rice cooker, but there is nothing about this dish that being cooked more would have improved.

Taco Casserole

Last night I made rice to go with dinner, but the fish was done before the rice.  We made couscous in a hurry and then ate that, and I decided to use the leftover rice to make boxed lunches for us, since there wasn't really any leftover fish.  I checked our pantry but we were out of, well, a lot of stuff.  So I plugged the ingredients into Allrecipes.com and found this recipe for Easy Mexican Rice.

You will need:
1 can kidney beans
1 can (large) tomato sauce
1 can diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups brown rice, cooked [if using a slow cooker, use uncooked rice and 1 1/2 cups water as well)
Taco seasoning

Procedure:
1. Drain and rinse kidney beans; drain diced tomatoes.
2. Add beans, tomatoes, and tomato sauce to brown rice, stir.
3. Add taco seasoning.

You can heat everything together over a stove or in a crockpot if you would like, but if you are making boxed lunches, they'll all be microwaved together anyway.  Next time you make rice, just make an extra cup and a half and make some taco casserole to have in stock for healthy lunches.

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.

The Truth about Slow Cookers

Slow cookers are great for all people, from lazy people to people that like to make fancy things.

For lazy people, the general rule of thumb is "you put sh*t in and food comes out".  A few good starter lazy crockpot recipes?  Black beans and rice and taco casserole.  Also barbecue tofu.  Also sweet potatoes, if you're heading to a potluck type of dinner.

For people who work late, crockpots let you do almost all of the legwork for a really great meal, but you can do it the night before or the morning of.  This was great for days I didn't have to be on campus until noon, but had class until 7 or 8pm.  The truth about crockpots is that you do need to do some prep work, at least for a lot of the really good meals - you should soften the onions and garlic, etc. But the great thing about a slow cooker is that it lets you do all that work at 9pm the night before, and then do all of the dishes, and then the next day you have a great day and a clean kitchen.  If you get into a good cycle with this, dinner is eaten and then dinner is cooked - it avoids rush-job dinners or reaching for the phone to dial out for pizza.  Some good recipes to try out?  Fish in foil or sweet potato barley risotto.

For vegetarians, crockpots are a great way to cook a lot of vegetables together, and also to try new things.  I learned to like curry from my crockpot.  Sweet potato tacos?  Would have been totally weird to me, but I love them.  I also love sweet and sour tofu in the crockpot.  Chili with Seitan?  Never would have tried without a crockpot.  Since vegetarian meat substitutes tend to be pretty tasteless, the crockpot lets these substitutes absorb the flavors in the dish over time, which is awesome.

For people who like good food, the argument is that a crockpot lets you buy things like cheaper cuts of meat and do good things to them.  It also lets you make really good dishes that seem fancy but are made with cheap ingredients.

For people who work from home, there is nonetheless an argument for the slow cooker.  I love the slow cooker because it lets me take care of dinner in the middle of the day, or in the morning, and then I don't have to worry about starting it later, and more importantly, because the crockpot doesn't burn stuff or leave things on the burner just a little too long or forget to preheat the oven.  Once you get the hang of crockpot cooking, pretty much everything comes out pretty darn good.  The crockpot doesn't let you use starting dinner at 3pm as an excuse for not getting work done.  It also lets you make a nice dinner without having to stir the pot constantly.

For example, tonight I made leek and potato soup on the stove.  I would have rather done it in the crockpot, but I started cooking around 3.  I'll share the recipe in a separate post, but I will say that I was constantly fussing over my soup and making sure it wasn't boiling over - not really a concern in a crockpot.  When I caramelize onions, I don't have to worry about them burning.  So if you've written your crockpot off already, dust it off and give it another chance.

Taco Trials

I just threw dinner in the crockpot for Mr. Barefoot, since I have a legislative briefing tonight. (But no job, so I'm still playing housewife.) Tonight's menu item was tacos, so I opened up the new jar of taco seasoning he got for Christmas and went to work.  I hope this turns out well - I'll let you know the verdict.  This was literally a "throw a bunch of sh*t in the crockpot and hope food comes out."
Ingredients:
1 can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 can black beans, drained
1 can kidney beans, drained
2/3ish cup frozen corn
1/2 cup frozen green and red peppers
4 cubes frozen cilantro from those freezer spice packs
1 cup dried parboiled rice
1 cup water
salt, pepper, dumps of taco seasoning

Procedure:
Dump into crockpot.  Stir.  It'll be cooking on low for about 6 hours.

I suspect I put in too much water, which will result in the rice being too fluffy, or the mix being too wet, but these are better than the rice being dry and crunchy.  I didn't put in jalapenos, but would have, but the plant is all the way upstairs and I didn't feel like harvesting or chopping.  It was really nice to just throw together a canned/frozen meal like this, and I'm excited to see how it comes out without my having to do any real prep work (you'll notice there are no minced onions or garlic, etc.).

Sweet Potato or Butternut Barley Risotto

Whenever I go on a Costco food purchasing binge, it's kind of a challenge to get to see whether we can eat everything I bought in the last week.  If we have to throw something away, Mr. Barefoot gets to be right and tell me I can't buy produce at Costco.

So how are we doing?  Last week, I bought a 6-pack of peppers, a 2 lb bag of green beans, 2 lbs of butternut squash and a giant bag of onions.  This week, I used the peppers as pizza toppings, and in the Quinoa and Pepper Saute, which was not very good.  Although it's better if you douse it in Greek yogurt or cheese. I used the green beans and butternut squash for the Indian Shrimp and Squash, which actually was pretty good.  Today, I used the last of the butternut squash in Sweet Potato Barley Risotto in the crockpot.  I went to link to this recipe and realized I'd never shared it.  How sad for my poor readers.  This recipe is from 125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes and you must go buy this book.  Seriously.  

You will need:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 onions, finely chopped

1 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 tsp dried rosemary leaves

1 1/2 cups pearl barley, rinsed

3 cups vegetable stock

2 sweet potatoes peeled and cut into 1/4 inch cubes (I actually cut them into 1/2 inch cubes - with the butternut squash, I just used about a cup and a half.)  

Optional: mushrooms.  I've added baby bella mushrooms to this a couple times now and it's generally pretty good.  

Recipe:

1.  In a skillet, cook the onions until soft.  Add garlic and rosemary and saute for another minute.  Add barley, stir until coated with onions/garlic mixture.  Add stock and bring to a boil.  

2.  Place sweet potatoes and/or mushrooms in crockpot stoneware.  Add barley mixture.

3.  Cover and cook on low for 8 hours or slow for 4 hours.  

I'm not normally a person that eats barley, but firstly, I'll eat anything with sweet potatoes, and secondly, barley is actually pretty good - it has that nutty, wholesome flavor that anything "good for you" has, but this doesn't taste that much like a crunchy-granola type of meal.  Plus, it's very good for you.  I don't really eat anything else with barley in it, but I think I would like to branch out a bit - any suggestions?

Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Tonight we had our good friends over for dinner.  You know how you have that group of friends that every time you call them, they've got something going on and it's impossible to meet up?  Well, these aren't those friends - we have those friends too.  But somehow, the one night a month that we are free and have nothing planned, and we call them, it's miraculously the same night they have free and have nothing planned.  So we get together and eat food and play board games and it's awesome.  We usually play Ticket to Ride, but sometimes we go for Settlers of Catan.

Tonight, I made baked cod (this recipe, but I used garlic parmesean dressing and regular panko instead of croutons) with a leek and pea risotto and pumpkin bread pudding for dessert.  I made pumpkin bread yesterday, but when I went to take it out of the loaf pan it self-destructed and I got a mess of pumpkin bread - perfect for bread pudding.  So I tossed everything in the crockpot with some milk and it was pretty good - could have been improved with vanilla ice cream, but definitely something I would consider making for the holidays, especially for people that don't really like pumpkin.  Mr Barefoot doesn't care for it, but he made extra-sure to tell me how good the pudding was.  (I didn't use the allspice that the recipe called for, since we were out - I think that helped.)  I adapted the recipe from the "Best Loved Slow Cooker Recipes" cookbook we have, which is a great general slow cooker guide.

Pumpkin Bread Pudding:
Ingredients:
1 loaf pumpkin bread, left sitting on the counter all night because you were too lazy to put it away (or baked in the oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes to dry it out.)
1 3/4 cups milk
2 small apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1/2 cup dried fruit (cranberries or raisins)
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1 egg
1 8oz container greek yogurt (I used vanilla but you could probably use plain)

Procedure:

1. Cut bread into 1-inch pieces, place in a greased slow cooker
2. Pour milk over bread, let soak in for 10-20 minutes while you core and chop the apple
3. Stir in dried fruit and apple pieces 
4. Combine egg, butter, yogurt, brown sugar, and any spices you would like into a small bowl
5. Pour over bread and apples.
6. Allow to cook on high for 2 hours (if you have a demonic slow cooker like ours) or on low for 4 hours.  

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?

On my own

Mr. Barefoot has been out of town for, essentially, the last month.  This kind of stinks, because he was doing all the cooking this semester and surprisingly, I liked it that way.  I got used to it.  So now, I'm living like I lived in college - I get home, stare at my kitchen, and make food that comes in a box.  I haven't had time to go grocery shopping, so I'm now down to my pantry and concerned about scurvy.
Tonight, I had my last law school class, and I threw something in the crockpot before I left so I didn't have to stand up and cook (I ran a half marathon over the weekend and the doctor no longer recommends standing.)  I've been using my small crockpot as a rice cooker lately and it's great.
Crockpot black beans and rice:
1.) Put 1 cup rice, 1 can black beans, and 1.5 cups water in a crockpot.
2.) Add salt, pepper, garlic powder, dried onion, oregano, cumin, and a little chilli powder.
3.) Plug in crockpot.  Cook on low for 2-2.5 hours.
4.) Eat (garnished with cheese, if you are high maintenance).  Marvel at how easy it is to cook a healthy, cheap meal for yourself while you are at tax class.

What are your favorite single person recipes?

Crockpot Oatmeal

Yesterday, at an open house, I was asked how Mr. Barefoot and I balanced our relationship our first year.  I didn't want to tell her the truth, that there was no balance.  That we only saw each other when we watched law and order during my study breaks and hit happy hour on Friday, after which I came home and studied more.  What did I say instead?  Something that was true, but more truthy, "we bought a crockpot, and that helped a lot."  It's true.  It did.  It was great to come home to a home cooked meal.  And I've never ceased to be amazed at the depth of what I can do with my little 1.5 $4 crockpot.  Like the soft, delicious oatmeal I'm currently eating. 
Ingredients (serves 2):

• 3/4 cup rolled oats (I used jumbo scottish rolled oats.  They are not Scottish Porridge Oats, which are the best kind.)
• 2 cups cold water
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• raisins to taste
• craisins to taste
• 1 banana, chopped up (next time I will use an apple)
• Salt, pinch.  Recipe probably called for a teaspoon, but I under-salt stuff. 

Procedure:

1. Put all ingredients in crockpot, stir.
2. Cook for 6 hours on low.  (This will probably mean using a timer.)
3. Serve topped with granola if you would like.

The raisins/craisins plump up and get really soft, and the fruit helps flavor the oats.  Oatmeal is a great winter food, because it's all warm. It's also a good diet food, because warm foods seem more filling, but as you can see, this oatmeal has no sugar in it (other than what is in the raisins and craisins).  (Facebook ads, you can suck your "wedding diet".)  Next up, I'm trying Gingersnap Oatmeal.  Then I might try to make a high-protein pre-long-run oatmeal for half marathon training (which starts next weekend when Boston gets back!!!!!) 

Crockpot Tip

When you are cooking something in a crockpot, and the food is kind of well, wet, or looks watery, just put a dishtowel under the lid to soak up the excess moisture. I use this for caramelized onions, mac&cheese, sweet potatoes, and some vegetable dishes.

Pizza

I'm trying out a new pizza recipe today - and what I did that I think is pretty interesting is the sauce. I got sick of buying designated pizza sauce, so I started making my own - can of tomatoes, pot, and immersion blender - mix well, you've got sauce. But it's not very thick or interesting - so today, I tossed 2 cans of tomatoes, a can of white beans, and a whole lotta spices in the crockpot. I cooked it for about 8 hours on low, and when I got home I blended it all up. (I'm trying to use our immersion blender more so I can either convince myself that we should keep it, or convince Mark it's really not that great and we should get rid of it.)
The sauce looks good - creamy, red, thick, and tomato-smelling (it smelled like beans and tomatoes when I got in, but once I blended it, just tomatoes.)
It tasted a little too bean-y though - so next time, probably half a can of beans, and maybe some tomato paste. It's a good way to sneak in some protein though. (I might try silken tofu sometime.)
The pizza crust is good. Mark complains about my pizza crust, so I tried a new dough - from The New Best Recipe Cookbook. I'm not going to post it here because well, you should buy it.
It doesn't taste like restaurant pizza, but its less doughy than my usual pizza crust. I also cooked it at 525 and not 425 (I didn't know our oven went up to 525.) I didn't precook the crust and that was my only mistake. Always precook!
The dough makes 3 pizzas, so I'm gonna freeze it and do some kind of pesto pizza next week, and maybe a white pizza sometime soon. Or another brie pizza. Brie pizza is delicious. It's like heaven in a crust.

Crockpot Caramelized Onion Crostini

I can't believe I've never posted this recipe! It's one of my favorite appetizers. It comes from 125 best vegetarian slow cooker recipes. I make smaller portions usually.
Ingredients:

• 3 lbs onions
• 3 tbsp melted butter
• 1 tbsp granulated sugar
• 1 tsp salt
  
• 1 tsp cracked black peppercorns
• 1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 16 crostini
• 2 cups shredded Swiss or Gruyere cheese
  

Procedure:

1. Slice onions really thin.
   
2. Cook onions and melted butter in crockpot for 30-60 minutes until onions are softened.
   
3. Add sugar, salt, and peppercorns. Put a towel or two under the crockpot lid to absorb moisture.
   
4. Cook on high for 4 hours, stirring a few times.
   
5. Stir in thyme and balsamic vinegar.
   
6. Preheat broiler.
7. Spread onions evenly over crostini and sprinkle cheese on top. Place on baking sheet and broil until cheese is melty - about 3 minutes. 5 results in charcoal.
   

I like to use more crostini and less onions on each one, and use a full loaf of french bread. I've also used this to stuff tomatoes (it wasn't very good) or to make a caramelized onion filling for sandwiches, or just to have caramelized onions at dinner. I love that I don't really have to babysit the crockpot, although I do feel I can't leave the house for a super-long period of time.

BB-Fu

I've been wanting to try barbeque tofu for a little while now. I tried it last Friday and served it up with some No Mayo Potato Salad, and some corn on the cob.
I don't have a kitchen timer yet, so I actually cooked everything when I got home from work, then tossed it in the crockpot to keep it warm while I collected Mr. Barefoot from the airport. I'm going to try it again soon (I found an Asian grocery store that stocks cheap tofu) without pre-cooking everything. I may still fry up the tofu because I like for it to be a bit crispy - although if I got some sub rolls, a messy barbeque sandwich with slightly soft/shredded tofu might be amazing...
Ingredients:

• 1/2 package of tofu, cut into 1-inch chunks. I froze mine and then thawed it out - for stuff like this, the tougher the better.
  
• BBQ sauce - I used some I bought at Trader Joes. Whatever flavor you prefer.
  
• 2 ears Corn on the Cob.

Equipment:

• 1.5 quart crockpot
• Stove, frying pan
• Microwave
  

Procedure:

1. Thaw and drain tofu. Saute in a frying pan until crispy on all sides (either kind of yellowish or brownish).
   
2. Pour BBQ sauce in the crockpot until bottom is covered. Add tofu. Pour more BBQ sauce on top and stir tofu until well coated.
   
3. Microwave corn for 4 minutes, in husks. Shuck corn under cold water. (Seriously - try it. It is the most helpful thing my grandpa ever taught me. Well, that and never try to exit a burning building via a revolving door. But I use this tip more.)
   
4. Cut corn cobs in half. Add to crockpot on top of the tofu. Don't worry if it gets a little saucy.
5. Cook for 2 hours.
   

If anybody wants to try doing this with the corn un-cooked before putting it in, I would say cook it for 4-6 hours and let me know how it tastes and whether the tofu holds up.

Overall, I hadn't really considered using the crockpot at a good way to keep things warm/finish things off before a dinner party - but it really is excellent for that, and I think it will come in handy at future family parties.

Ya'll are smart people.

Okay people. When I say I love my crock-pot because "you put shit in, and food comes out," I do mean it. And I meant it when I said you can put anything in a crockpot.
Recently a friend was telling me about a girl who had heard from somebody (and I feel guilty, as I'm pretty sure it was me) that she could put anything in a crockpot. So she put in some leftover turkey, some rice, some canned tomatoes, and some grape jelly.
People. Let's regroup. I'm almost 2/3rds a lawyer, so I can tell you this: A reasonable person in the reader's position would not have thought that anything meant that turkey and grape jelly would go together. Let's be reasonable here!
Possible crock-pot combos:
Beans, tomatoes, garlic, onions, and rice. Just make sure you have enough liquid that the rice cooks.
Tofu, a marinade, and fresh vegetables.
Tofu, potatoes, peas, green beans, peppers, a helluva lot of curry, and some coconut milk.
Maraschino cherries, pineapple, cake mix, and butter.
Chili beans, chili powder, and a whole hunk of meat.
Salmon in foil packets with lemon juice and olive oil over a bed of potatoes.
All of these things are what I meant by "you put shit in, and food comes out."
I realize that not everyone can cook well - but here's the thing - the crockpot cooks food for you. It is not magically able to transform grape jelly into gravy.
Are we clear?