Corned Beef Brisket

100_1990, a photo by jarmstrong23 on Flickr.

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post-- 2 months, to be a little more exact. Life seems to speed up when all you really want is for it to slow down, and as a result, I haven't been as adventurous with my cooking as I'd like to be.

With all the new recipes I read and save each week, I'm never at a loss for new ideas. Time to think and plan, however, is another story. Trying a new recipe, for me, requires some "think-time" (as we teachers like to call it). I like to mull an idea over in my head before executing the plan, and when life speeds up that time slips away.

Today I decided that enough was enough, and that I would take 10 minutes to blog a meal that I'm trying for the first time: Corned Beef Brisket. With St. Patrick's Day well behind us, I have had some time to read all the recipes others use for this traditional dish. For some reason, I found myself drawn to the CrockPot method. :) (You all know how much I love this appliance, and a hands-off recipe is just what I needed for this hectic time of year.)


Source: Adapted from Fisch Foods


Ingredients:

3-4 lbs. corned beef brisket, plus seasoning packet

1 onion, sliced

1 c. chicken broth

1 T. Worchestershire sauce

Sprinkle of red pepper flakes

Directions:

Line bottom of CrockPot with onion.

Thoroughly rinse brisket and place atop the onions.

Combine chicken broth and worchestershire sauce. Pour over brisket. Add red pepper flakes and seasoning packet.

Cook on LOW for 5 1/2 to 6 hours.

Verdict: KEEPER!

The meat was so tender and flavorful... I can't wait to make sandwiches with the leftovers! Tonight I served it with sauerkraut and horseradish sauce, and The Mr. was practically drooling :) We will definitely use this again.

BBQ Ribs

If I don't make goals for myself, nothing happens. As an example, I made a New Year's resolution two years ago to cook at home more often.  At the time I was depending on drive-thru's and takeout for dinner every night, and I was tired of spending all the extra money (you all know how cheap I am by now, so that was a huge motivator for me!) Flashforward to today, and it's now a common practice for us to have dinner at home 3-4 nights out of the week. We're saving money, relaxing more at home, and enjoying the thrill of making new dishes that we'd otherwise get at a restaurant. Progress!

So it only makes sense that I make another culinary goal for myself.  This year, I want to be less dependent on recipes and exact measurements.  (Yeah, I know... it's a cheater goal because I already hate measuring... but hear me out.) It takes a confident cook to just put a bunch of ingredients together and create a meal-- and I'm not there yet. 

But, if I am to grow as a cook, I need to learn to trust my instincts.  If I want to make something, but cannot seem to find "the perfect recipe" for it, I should be able to come up with something on my own.

And today, I did!


Ingredients:

ribs (I had some frozen, and I didn't bother to thaw them)

2 cans of beer (I used Miller Lite this time)

1 onion, quartered

garlic salt (Enough shakes to coat the top of the ribs/liquid)

pepper (Enough shakes to coat the top of the ribs/liquid)

brown sugar (I just placed a handful of brown sugar on top of the
ribs, then spread around to create a thin layer).

BBQ sauce (Montgomery Inn, anyone?)

Directions:

Pour beer into CrockPot.

Place onion in beer, then top with the ribs.

Add seasonings, then pack brown sugar atop the ribs.

Cook on Low for at least 8 hours.

After cooking in the CrockPot, transfer ribs to a broiler pan.  Baste ribs with BBQ sauce.  Broil for 5-10 minutes. 

Verdict: Keeper, with revision  

I loved how tender the meat became from cooking in the CrockPot. Next time, I think I'll broil the ribs for a little longer to carmelize the BBQ sauce.  Also, I may try a different beer, just to see how it affects the overall taste.     

Chicken 'n Dumplin's-- CrockPot Style

If it's chicken smothered in a gravy-esque sauce, The Mr. can't get enough.  Throw in some doughy/carby goodness, and he'll call it his favorite.

Recently I compiled a recipe book for a friend's Christmas present, and gave it to The Mr. to peruse.  "Where's the Chicken 'n Dumplin's recipe?" he asked.

"The one for the CrockPot?" I replied.

"Yeah, that one.  It's probably my favorite thing that you make."

Beat.

.... I cannot tell you the last time I made this meal, but it apparently left quite an impression.  Had I known that it was held in such high regard, I probably would have made it sometime in the last year!...

This is a great basic recipe because it only has a few ingredients. The bonus? It's another one of those throw-it-in-the-pot-and-leave-it-alone kind of recipes-- and you all know how much I love those :)

Source:  www.allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts (And yes, I just threw them in still frozen.  Have I told you lately how much I love my CrockPot?)

2 cans of Cream of Chicken soup

2 T. butter

1 onion, diced

Water (enough to cover contents of the pot)

2 10-oz. cans of refrigerated biscuit dough

Directions:

1.  Combine chicken, soup, onion, butter, and water in CrockPot. 

2.  Cook on HIGH for 4 hours.  

3.  Tear apart pieces of the biscuit dough and add to the mix.  Use a spoon to submerge pieces (This will help the dough to absorb the flavors).

4.  Continue cooking on HIGH for 60-90 minutes.

Verdict: Keeper (with some revision)
While The Mr. is crazy about this meal, I'm still not ga-ga over it.  I'd like to add more herbs and seasonings to see how it goes, maybe some poultry seasoning and pepper.  I'll definitely make it again, though. 

Pasta Fagioli

I love my Freezer.

This is only a recently developed relationship.  It has only been within the past year that I have truly come to embrace and utilize this under-appreciated half of the appliance.

You see, the Freezer was the Black Hole of my childhood kitchen.  Once something was placed in the freezer, you could forget it. It was gone-- if not forever, at least long enough that you would wonder how long it had been in there when you did see it again.

Chicken breasts that were on sale and required buying them in bulk? Forget about those for another year. 

Pork chops that we could grill out?  Forget about those for at least a couple of months.  

A gallon of ice cream? Well, we never let that get too far out of sight:)   

(Right now, my Mother is reading this and cringing, or laughing, because that's exactly how it was. Sorry Mom! :))

Now that I'm cooking for The Mr. and myself, we often have leftovers.  I will eat leftovers for days and days, until it is all used up.  The Mr., on the other hand, will only eat leftovers for 1 or 2 days before he begins to worry about food poisoning.  There would be recipes that would make so much food we couldn't finish it all before we'd have to throw it out. 

I. Hate. Throwing. Away. Food.

Enter the Freezer. Once I realized that many recipes' frozen/reheated leftovers tasted as good as the first time, I fell in love.  Some soups and chilis taste even better than the first time.  This revelation changed my whole outlook on recipes yielding 8 servings or more.  Now, on days when I don't feel like doing anything, I can pull something out of the Freezer, heat it up slowly on the stove, and dinner's ready. 

Seriously people, that's about as close to food-magic as it gets.

Tonight I reheated Pasta Fagioli, a recipe I tried about a month ago.  As expected, it was (magically) as good as it was the first time.  Just another reminder of why I love my Freezer so much.

Source:  Crockpot Tuesdays (slightly altered, since I don't like to measure veggies)

Ingredients:

1 pound lean ground beef, browned and drained
1/2 large red onion, chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped
2-3 celery stalks, chopped
2 cans (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
4 cups beef broth
1 jar (16.5 oz) pasta sauce
2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1/2 cup dry pasta (to add at end)

Directions:

Brown the meat and drain well. Set aside

Combine all ingredients EXCEPT PASTA in the CrockPot.  Stir.

Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours (or HIGH for 4 hours). At end of cook time, stir in 1/2 cup pasta. Cover and cook for another hour on LOW.

Serve with parmesan, mozzarella, or any other kind of cheese you like.  Enjoy!

Black Bean Soup

For me, soups are like appetizers-- I don't think I've ever encountered one that I didn't like! So when I found a recipe for a black bean soup, I immediately wanted to try it.  Beans are good for you, and cheap, so how bad could it be?  

This recipe did not disappoint, and it is now on the regular rotation for The Mr. and I.

Source:  Cooking Light, March 2009

Ingredients:

1 lb. dry black beans
4 c. chicken broth
1 c. water
2 c. onions (but I only had about 1 cup available)
1 jalapeno-- ribbed, seeded, and minced (This was my first time cooking with a fresh jalapeno, so I had to learn how to work with the pepper. I found this website that was very helpful.)
3 bay leaves
1 T. cumin
1 T. lime juice
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/4 c. fresh cilantro, chopped
3 T. sour cream
Cilantro sprigs, optional

Directions:

Soak the beans overnight in bowl of water.  To do this, cover the beans so that the water is at least 2 inches higher than the beans. Let soak overnight (8 hours) Drain when ready to use.

In a CrockPot, combine beans, water, broth, bay leaves, cumin, onion, and jalapeno.  Cook on LOW for 10 hours.

After cooking all day, add lime juice, salt, and chopped cilantro. (Before serving, I pureed the soup using an immersion blender to make it creamier, even though the original recipe did not call for this.)

Serve with sour cream and hot sauce, and garnish with sprigs of cilantro.

Verdict:

It's a keeper!  I'm glad I pureed it a bit, because I really liked the creamy texture.  

CrockPot Chicken Stroganoff

It's fall.


Okay, so maybe the calendar still considers this to be summer, but once we can sleep with the windows open and snuggle under the covers, I'm ready for football, beautiful trees, and comfort food!

...like I need an excuse for comfort food...


(To clarify, I reserve the title of "comfort food" for dishes that meet the following requirements):


1. It involves some kind of meat in some kind of thick sauce. Gravy qualifies as a sauce.


2. It involves a starch of some kind. Potatoes, noodles, rice, etc.


3. It cooks while I get to watch football :)

Since this recipe looked to satisfy all those requirements, I went ahead and tried it. 

Source: Modified from allrecipes.com




Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts

1/2 c. water

1 (.6 oz) packet of Italian salad dressing mix

8 oz. mushrooms, sliced

8 oz. fat-free cream cheese

1 (10.75 oz) can fat-free cream of chicken soup

Directions: 

Place chicken, water, salad dressing mix, and mushrooms in a CrockPot.  Cook on LOW for 5-6 hours.

Combine cream of chicken and cream cheese.  Add to the CrockPot and cook on HIGH for 30 minutes.

"Chunk" the chicken in the CrockPot into smaller pieces.  Mix well, and serve over egg noodles or rice.

Verdict: Keeper!

This has officially been added to the recipe box! :)

CrockPot Pulled Pork

While reading this recipe, I had a hard time believing that it would be any good.  Growing up, I was always taught "if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is."  Well, this recipe meets all the qualifications to fall under the "too good to be true" category. 

• It has 3 ingredients.
• It is low maintenace.
• It makes a lot of food, cheaply.
• The Mr. and I both like this meal.

I was hopeful that this recipe was as tasty as it was simple, because if it was, this could easily become another staple in our house!

Soure:  allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

3 lbs. pork shoulder

1 can diet root beer

Your favorite BBQ sauce (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)

Directions:

1.  Place pork shoulder in the CrockPot.

2.  Pour root beer over the meat.

3.  Cook on Low for 8 hours or High for 4. 

4.  During the last hour, use a baster to remove most of the juices.  Remove the bone, and place the meat in a separate container and shred  it with two forks.  Also, remove any excess fat from the meat.  Add desired amount of BBQ sauce, stir, and place back in the CrockPot to cook for approximately another hour.

Verdict:

This is a KEEPER!  It sounded too good to be true, but it wasn't! The trick, I think, is using the pork shoulder cut of meat... there was enough fat within it to not only give it great flavor, but it made it very easy to pull apart after it had cooked. The only thing I may try differently is using regular root beer instead of diet root beer, but that's because I can't ever leave a recipe alone :)

CrockPot Beef Stew

Oh CrockPot, how I love thee...

Okay, Okay.... I know it's summer, and in our part of the world, we've been battling temperatures in the upper 90's with humidity like that of a sauna. Beef stew isn't exactly what I would call a summer dish, but celery and carrots needed to be used up...  and when I need to use up those items, I am always drawn back to my quest of making a great beef stew.  Plus, since it's a CrockPot meal, the heat in the kitchen was not as intense. 

As easy as beef stew can be, I've never been happy with mine.  The meat was too dry. Or too tough.  Or the flavor was too bland.  Or it was too watery.  Whatever the case, I hadn't met "the one" when it came to beef stew.  

But today, I got it right!  And here's what I did...

Ingredients

3-4 lbs. beef chuck shoulder

2 c. water

1 packet of "Crockery Gourmet" seasoning mix-- So I cheated a little, what of it?

1 lb. carrots (about 5-6) peeled and chopped

1/2 bunch of celery heart, chopped

1/2 onion, quartered

6 New Potatoes, quartered

Directions:

1.  Mix together seasoning packet with water.

2.  Place beef in the CrockPot, and cover with seasoning/water mixture.  

3.  Add celery, carrots, onion, and potatoes.

4.  Cook for 4 hours on High, or 8 hours on Low. 

5.  Before serving, cut the meat into chunks.  Stir till mixed well.

Verdict: 

Keeper! The only change I might try is cubing the meat before cooking.  And since my trial run of making Beef Gravy went so well, I'll definitely do it again with this meal.  

Salsa Chicken

Once while I was browsing other cooking blogs, I came across this recipe from Courtney over at Ice Cream &Wine.  In case you've never visited, she's all about simple pleasures in cooking.  This Salsa Chicken is a perfect example of said simplicity. 

As soon as I read it it, I thought to myself, "Now this is my kind of CrockPot recipe!" Know why? Because it's one of those recipes where you just throw it all in the crock and let it do it's thing. If CrockPot cooking is supposed to make my life easier, I don't want to have to do a lot of prep.  And that's exactly what this recipe is-- no prep.  I didn't even thaw the chicken breasts!   

Source:  Courtney, at Ice Cream & Wine

Ingredients: 

4 frozen chicken breasts

1 15 oz. can of black beans

1 12 oz. bag of frozen corn-- she listed this as 1 1/2 cups of frozen corn, but again, I don't like to measure.  So I just used the whole bag.

1 16 oz. jar of salsa-- I used a "sweet garden salsa" this time.

Directions:

Place the frozen chicken breasts in the CrockPot.

Rinse and drain black beans, then add them over top of the chicken.

Add corn atop the beans

Add salsa atop the corn.

Cook on LOW 7-8 hours or HIGH 3-4 hours (Today was a rush, so I did 4 hours on HIGH)

During the last hour, shred the chicken with some forks and mix well.  It'll look something like this:

Serve with tortillas and rice. 

Garnish with sour cream, scallions, or whatever else your heart desires.

Verdict:  KEEPER! 

This will be a new staple in our household.  It was so easy to make, relatively healthy, and it made plenty for leftovers.  And you can trust me... these leftovers won't go bad in the fridge :)

Chicken in Honey Sauce (a.k.a. Sesame Chicken)

Today I was home from work and decided to make something in the CrockPot.  For Christmas, my mom gave me 2 different cookbooks: one that focuses on Campbell's soup products and one that is a Rival CrockPot cookbook.  Flipping through the pages of the Rival book led me to a recipe titled "Chicken in Honey Sauce," and I picked it because I had all the ingredients waiting for me in the kitchen.

Much to my disappointment, this dish didn't taste half as good as it smelled while it was cooking during the day.  In fact, the longer it cooked, the less-appetizing it smelled--which leads me to believe that IF I cook it again, I'll have to cut the cooking time WAY down. The recipe called to set the CrockPot on LOW for 6-8 hours, and I cooked mine for 8 hours (I used frozen chicken breasts, so I wanted to make sure they were cooked through).  The outcome of this particular trial-run was gross.  Something in the sauce (maybe the honey?) tasted burnt, and infused that same taste throughout the chicken.  

It was bad enough to throw away two plates that were more than half-full.  ::::hangs head in shame:::: Luckily, The Mr. was willing to go out and forage for dinner at a local pizza joint. 

If you plan to try this recipe, pay careful attention to the cooking time.  Perhaps my CrockPot cooks hotter than others, or maybe I just need to cook it for less time.  Either way, trust your nose-- when it smells the best is probably when you should go ahead and serve the meal.


--adapted from the Rival CrockPot Simple 1-2-3 Slow Cooker Recipes

Note: The following recipe is 1/2 of what was listed in the cookbook.

Ingredients:

3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

Salt and Pepper to taste

1 c. honey

1/2 c. soy sauce

1/4 c. ketchup

2 T. oil

1 clove garlic, minced

Sesame Seeds (to garnish)

Directions:

1.  Place chicken breasts in the slow cooker. (I used frozen chicken breasts for the first time in this recipe).

2.  In a bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, ketchup, oil, garlic, salt and pepper.  Pour mixture over chicken breasts. 

3.  Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours or HIGH 3-4 hours.

4.  Garnish with sesame seeds befre serving.  Serve with rice.

Verdict: Disappointed, but may try again... someday.

I need time to let my broken heart heal from this travesty before I try to make this one again.

Buffalo Chicken Dip

This little ditty may be turning into one of those dishes that I'll always have to bring to parties.  I've only made it a couple of times; but each time I do, someone always asks me to send them the recipe. 


Actually, I was doing just that when I realized I hadn't blogged this recipe yet-- which is why I don't have a photo yet.  Next time I make it (which will be soon... another party is approaching... ) I will add a photo.   Till then, you'll have to use your imagination-- but trust me, it's good enough to make "sight-unseen." :)


Source: My Mommy :)

Ingredients:


2 10-oz cans of cooked chicken, drained


1/2 c. (or more, if you prefer) of red pepper/buffalo sauce (I used Frank's Buffalo Sauce)


2 8-oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened and cubed


1 cup of either ranch dressing, bleu cheese dressing , or a combination of both (I used all ranch in the last batch)


2 c. shredded cheddar cheese


Directions:


1. Combine all ingredients into a CrockPot.  Warm for 30 minutes, stirring periodically.

2. Serve warm with celery sticks, Fritos, or Tostitos. Enjoy!



Verdict: It's addicting!!

CrockPot Pork Chops and Veggies

It's cold.

I know, I know! I'm a sissy.  But seriously, when the temperatures get to 35 degrees and lower, all I want to do is eat hot, gravy-covered, stick-to-your-ribs kind of meals.

Like this one. 

Ingredients:

4-6 pork chops (I used 4 boneless chops)

4-5 potatoes (but I only had 3)

1 onion, sliced

3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced

2-3 celery stalks

1 can of either cream of mushroom or cream of celery soup (I used cream of celery because it needed to be used up!)

Salt and Pepper to taste. 

Directions:

Grease the slow cooker.

Add onion, potatoes, carrots, celery, pork chops, salt and pepper, and soup (in that order). 

Cook on LOW for 6-8 hours. (It smelled "ready" by 6 hours, but we ate it closer to 8 hours because The Mr. was sleeping off a cold)

Verdict: Keeper, but needs revision

This was definitely not my finest first-time try with a recipe.  But I will try it again sometime, because it has potential.  Here is what I may do for the future:

1.  Add another can of soup to the mix.

2.  Season the chops themselves before putting them in the slow cooker.  The meat was good, just kind of bland.  Also, I may consider putting the onions on top of the pork next time, so the meat can absorb some of the flavor.

3.  This version cooked for too long-- next time, I'll eat it closer to 6 hours than 8.