of crock pots and childhood

I've been enjoying my crock pots a lot lately. Possibly the best part for me is having hot, moist, long-cooking sorts of meals that take only minutes of my attention.

I love, really love, hanging out in the kitchen and spending all day on a sauce. I truly do. But I absolutely, positively do not enjoy coming home tired and hungry and grumpy after a day of work and hoping for a creative impulse. I'm not going to find creativity then not matter how hard I look. So instead, especially in winter, I try to keep something simmering and ready. Something that satisfies on all sorts of levels. Winter is serious comfort food time.

My favorite food memories are almost all of Syrian or Lebanese meals, the food my grandmother cooked (and my mother, though mom was always a southern girl at heart.) I don't make many of these dishes anymore, unfortunately. Many, if not most, use grains as a mainstay and gluten is abundant. Still,  I long for those flavors.

 One of my favorites was a long, slow cooked dish we simply referred to as green beans and rice. It started with ground lamb or beef (most often beef during my childhood years due to relative costs) that we browned with chopped onions, salt, and pepper. Next we added lots of green beans, fresh or frozen, and a can or two of tomato sauce and an equal amount of water. This simmered, covered for hours and hours and hours. Seriously. The green beans almost, but not quite, melted into the sauce. This was then served over mounds of rice, first browned in butter (probably margarine when I was a child) and steamed. I loved it, still do to this day, though when cooking in my own kitchen I made it with diced lamb or beef more often than ground. These days, of course, I don't eat rice and I also can handle only the tiniest amount of tomato. In reality, I should probably stay as far away from any tomato as I possibly can, but every once-in-awhile I use a little. Just a little. Still, that means no tomato sauce at all, since it's pretty darned concentrated.

A few tomatoes in a large pot of food can add the flavor without so much tomato.

While trying to find a good lazy-day plan for a leg of lamb from Lava Lake Lamb, I inadvertently discovered an easy dish that is becoming one of my favorites. I love their lamb, and while I was not in the frame of mind for hours in the kitchen, I was sure as heck not going to waste that lamb. I decided to put the lamb in the crock pot and hope for the best. Then those green bean thoughts started dancing in my head. What if I put a couple of pounds of green beans in the bottom and layered the other ingredients? Now, when I say layer, I mean toss in randomly for the most part. They just end up in natural layers. I used what I had. Not wanting to chop an onion, seriously I was feeling that lazy, I used frozen pearl onions. I grabbed 3 small Roma tomatoes from the freezer and tossed them on top. Then I plopped the lamb on top of the veggies. I figured with that many watery vegetables, I would not need to add any more moisture. Good call, since there was plenty of broth produced without the addition of liquid.

What a delightful surprise. It was far better than I ever expected. The flavors were wonderful and even reminded me a bit of stuffed grape leaves, another childhood favorite. I have made this dish since, evening starting with a piece of frozen meat. I did mention the lazy part, right? It's virtually foolproof and not time-sensitive. It can cook 6 hours or 10 without issue.

I still love to spend hours in the kitchen when I have hours to spend, but it is utterly delightful to come home to dinner that's hot and ready and a house that smells like childhood.

slow cooking fun, a book review

For the next few days I plan to keep a few crock pots busy in my kitchen as I continue to try out as many recipes as I can manage from Carrie Forbes' (who we know and love as Ginger Lemon Girl) The Everything Gluten-Free Slow Cooker Cookbook.

I've been playing with these recipes for a week or two now, and I'm no where near through the list of dishes I want to try. So far, one of my favorites has been Dijon Beef Roast. It is so simple, yet the Dijon mustard adds just enough depth to the flavor to make it interesting and keep it familiar at the same time. This is one of those toss it together and it works kind of recipes as far as I'm concerned. I could make it every week and not get tired of this tender, tasty roast.

If you've recently started on a Paleo diet, have been eating this way for awhile, or are just removing wheat and other gluten-filled grains, Carrie's book will be a big help. While this is not a grain-free or Paleo cookbook, per se, many recipes fit that lifestyle just as they are, while others are easily adapted. I love thumbing through cookbooks for ideas just as much, if not more, than for recipes to try. This one is great for that. She shares so many ideas for different approaches to slow cooking that it just becomes a fun-filled adventure. Seriously.

I have never used a slow cooker for more quickly cooked dishes before. I must confess on my first attempt with salmon filets, I was a little too nonchalant and did not pay enough attention to timing. For dishes like this, timing matters, and the directions say so quite clearly. I'd suggest following the directions, unless you have someone like I do in the house who doesn't believe protein can ever be too done.

Think I'll head back to the kitchen now. I have two large Crock Pots going, but I still haven't tried the blackberry preserve recipe. Onward...

don't cook (much) on thanksgiving

Sacrilege, I know, but hear me out.

I love Thanksgiving, and I always, always, always insist on hosting our family's Thanksgiving dinner. I've been doing this since my now adult children were tiny. I've always loved the planning and the shopping and the days of preparation. But by the time Thanksgiving rolled around, I was tired and cranky and pretty hard to take.

There are just over 20 of us for dinner these days, and somehow over time, we seem to have taken a holiday known for its excess and skyrocketed it to new dimensions. Seriously, we have a roast turkey or two, a faux turkey for the vegetarians, two or three kinds of stuffing or dressing (one of which will be vegetarian), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, turkey gravy, vegetarian mushroom gravy, fruit salad, tabbouleh, Brussels sprouts, creamed onions, corn, a few additional vegetables, fresh cranberry sauce, jelled cranberry sauce, several varieties of dinner rolls. Then if someone wants to try something new like mashed cauliflower, it is added to the list. We don't replace; we don't substitute; we add. I didn't even mention pies here, as that would be another full page, and usually, I don't make any of the desserts on Thanksgiving. I should be clear here, very clear. I do not do all the cooking, not by a long shot. Many, many other people work for days, as well.

I mentioned recently to my daughter, Kristen, how much I enjoyed entertaining, having parties. Her response startled me at first, then I realized she was right on the money. She said, "No you don't, you hate it. You like the idea of having parties." What an awful thought, worse because it was true. I love the preparation and planning, but by the time a party has materialized, I am so damned tired and irritable, I just want to find a quiet corner and curl up for a week or two.

Working our way through this has not been quick, nor has it been very easy. One recent year, after we raced to get the 1500 dishes on the table, get everyone seated, trip over those who wanted to hang out in the kitchen to visit, and finally sat down to cold food that should have been hot and warm food that should have been cold, it hit us. If it's going to be cold anyway, why worry about cooking the gravy just before you serve it? Why boil, drain, and mash the potatoes in a kitchen already filled with pots and pans and people running in all directions? If it's going to be cold anyway, why try to time the turkey so that it has precisely 30 minutes to rest? Phooey, let's make it ahead and serve it dry and cold and tasteless. Yeah, that won't work, but something has got to. And something certainly does.

 I have, at long last, found a way to enjoy it all. After all, restaurants don't cook everything last minute. They couldn't. Good ones know what holds for a few days or a few hours, what can be frozen even weeks in advance, and what really needs that last few minutes of your time.

Today, 9 days ahead of Thanksgiving, I plan to make creamed onions and freeze them in an oven-safe serving dish that will make it all the way to the table. I love making creamed onions, though I don't eat them anymore. I love to take my time and enjoy making them. I can do that today; I cannot do it next Wednesday or Thursday. Other dishes that can be made a week ahead and frozen include many vegetables, sweet potatoes or squash, even gravy. Mashed potatoes can be made a day ahead and kept in the refrigerator. They are incredibly easy to reheat in a crock pot (at our house we sometimes use two.) 

Tonight I'll also start turkey stock, continue really, I started it yesterday. I'll cook a turkey breast and hind quarters separately the day before Thanksgiving to be sure we have enough to slice and serve without my brother, Bob, having to stand and carve the turkey I'll roast on the big day, all through dinner.

turkey hind quarters, browned under the oven broiler and ready to simmer with aromatics for stock

I will make vegetarian foods one day and those with meat on a different day. This not only keeps the vegetarian dishes meat-safe, it keeps them from contaminating the gluten-free, dairy-free, Paleo-friendly dishes I look forward to eating.

I'll add some more details in the next few days, including my suggestion for exceptionally good, though not dairy-free, mashed potatoes.

For some really good ideas of what to serve and suggestions for even more sources, check any of these recent posts. They're all good and mostly all Paleo. Some are even Whole30 approved.

Whole9 Thanksgiving
Ginger Lemon Girl Thanksgiving
Food Lovers Primal Palate Paleo Thanksgiving Recipes

time to prep for the holidays

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays. There's one reason, only one reason, of course: the food. Short, sweet, simple. For many years now, I have insisted, I mean seriously insisted, on hosting our family's Thanksgiving dinner. It is a combination of seriously traditional and somewhat innovative with the innovative usually coming from my siblings and children.

Our family is fun and diverse. We are also not without our distinct and sometimes unwavering positions about what holiday food should be. We have family members who are vegetarians, family members who fondly remember brown-and-serve rolls and don't think it's Thanksgiving without them, family members who love stuffing from a box or cranberry sauce from a can,  family members who like to make sauce from real cranberries and pies from real pumpkins, carnivores, omnivores, sugar-holics, health nuts, you name it. And I love it all, the cooking and trying to please part at least. I am embarrassed to say that I get excited about making food for people I love that cannot conceivably do their health any favors, but it's true. To the variety of tastes and dietary restrictions, this year I have added the complication of Paleo consciousness. What should be one pleasant meal, shared with gracious thankfulness has become what could turn out to be a political and dietary minefield.

For years our meals have had two or three of many foods that traditionally focus on meat. There's turkey gravy and vegetarian mushroom gravy. There's stuffing (dressing really) with meat, which usually has homwmade croutons, and without, which usually has Mrs. Cubbison's Corn Bread Stuffing from a box. We have a roast turkey, two sometimes, and a vegetarian wanna-be turkey. I love to roast turkeys, no smoking or deep frying or other nonsense for me. I do like turkey, but as far as I'm concerned, the primary reason for cooking a turkey is to have a basis for making gravy. If I could, I might just live on gravy. Luckily for me, or not depending on one's perspective, I'm really good at making gravy. I started making gravy as an adolescent, maybe even earlier, and have worked for years to perfect it. I make phenomenal gravy, sorry about the lack of modesty here, but I really do. It's smooth and silky and rich and flavorful. It's just not really healthy, and that's a serious issue, holidays or no.

I have a couple of issues going with trying to work on healthier gravy, not the least of which is that I really like the gravy I have been making, just the way it is. I like it, but actually, I can no longer eat it the way I've made it for years, not even a taste. Traditionally, I've used milk, cream, wheat flour, and a dash or two of soy sauce and Worchestire for color, in addition to turkey stock and pan drippings from the just-roasted turkey. Last year I substituted sweet rice flour for the wheat flour and made it without milk (sigh.) Sweet rice flour is wonderful for straight across substitutions in gravy and sauces. It is, however, a grain, a highly processed grain at that. This year, no grains will be on my plate at least, and I selfishly would like to eat some of the things I look forward to on Thanksgiving. I'm working on a couple of possibilities, one a simple reduction and the other using coconut flour. Lots of gravy expected around our house in the next week or two. We will see which wins this year.

Either way, this year the turkey gravy as well as the vegetarian mushroom gravy will be made at least a day ahead. I have realized how easy it is to do many dishes ahead and have them ready in the freezer or refrigerator for reheating on Thanksgiving Day. And forget about trying to perfectly time potatoes for mashing while you're juggling a hot turkey and too many guests hanging out in the kitchen.  I'll go into detail in a day or two about mashed potatoes (and mashed cauliflower) prepared ahead and perfectly, painlessly reheated in a crock pot.

the whole30, day twenty-seven

Did I just write 27? Yes! Yes! Yes! While I may not be making any radical changes at the end of thirty days, it will, nonetheless have been thirty days. Not that I'm excited or anything.

When I have food ready to go, mornings are so easy. I know I've mentioned this before, but overstating it seems impossible and repetition is almost demanded. This morning I grabbed the container pictured below and an apple and was on my way.

Last night I grilled a rib-eye steak on the stove using a Le Creuset grill pan.  GK was having bean soup, and my planned vegetable soup had not quite materialized. I was at a loss for what to cook, as I'd planned on the veggie soup and hadn't made it. He asked, "Don't you have a hunk of meat you can cook?" He loves to give me a tongue-in-cheek bad time about my meat consumption, partly, I'm sure, because I prefer it rare, and he prefers it on someone else's plate. I did have meat, though, hard as a rock in the freezer. I am almost ashamed to say that I pulled it from the freezer, added a bit of Kosher salt, and laid it still frozen on the heating grill pan. As it started to thaw a bit, I sprinkled a bit of dried garlic and ground some black pepper over the top. It cooked surprisingly well given my less than careful preparation. I kept the heat lower than I normally would to grill a steak and let it thaw as it cooked. The outside caramelized nicely with dark grill marks as the interior stayed rare, though heated through. While it cooked, I threw (almost literally) a halved zucchini sprinkled with sea salt on the grill pan along side it. I had a rather nice dinner with plenty of leftovers for breakfast and lunch today.


rare steak and grilled zucchini packed for lunch

Remembering how unlikely I am to want to start a slow-cooking process when I get home from work, I also tossed half an onion, a dash of cider vinegar, a quart or two of water, and what was left of my roast chicken in the crock pot. The only tricky part is that GK is going to turn it on this morning, and I do not dare insult him by calling to see if he remembered.


soon to be chicken soup

When I get home, hopefully, I'll just need to strain the broth and add it to a few sauteed vegetables. I'm looking forward to it. And when I wake up tomorrow, it will be Day 28.

whole30, day sixteen

Today begins the second half of my Whole30 experience. The food choices are easy and tasty, which I don't mind in the least. I'm cooking a bunch today getting ready for the work week ahead. My plan is to grill some chicken and a rack of lamb, though I will have to get over wanting to take a nap in order to get that done.

Yesterday I started two pots of broth, one chicken and one a beef and lamb combo. I am not too sure I like simmering broth in crock pots all night. Our experience is that it did not make for a restful night. Garlic and meat are not on par with ocean breezes when it comes to creating a restful ambiance. But at least today we have lots of broth, and I've spent a bit of the day straining it and putting it in mason jars for the freezer. I finally got smart and moved my almost-never used P-Touch into the kitchen. Why haven't I done this before? It's so nice to not only have broth in the freezer but also know what it is and when it got there. In the past, I've stared at jars trying to decide if I was looking at a frozen fruit juice or fish stock.

As with so many practices that involve specifics or limitations of any kind, I've found it critical to not let myself get too hungry. That may sound a bit silly, but it's so easy to do when your mind is elsewhere or your day is busy. As much time as I spend in the kitchen and around food or writing about food, I can sometimes forget to eat. Breakfast this morning was eggs over easy, his were scrambled, with sauteed green pepper, red onions, and mushrooms, topped with sliced tomatoes. I forgot about lunch. Didn't cross my mind until I was getting grumpy and whiny. That I have to work on.

slow-cooked marinara sauce with a chicken option

For years one of my favorite pastimes was simmering a large pot of marinara sauce, sometimes two, on the stove. I'd end up with jar upon jar of rich, thick sauce for the freezer. Though in recent years, I've cut way back on my use of tomatoes, there's something comforting about the slow simmer of that sauce. The house just smells wonderful all day, which, of course, is one of my favorite things about slow-cooking and braising.

Though I used large, heavy pots for the fun of it, a crock pot works beautifully, too. The crock pot also has the advantage of needing much less attention during the long cooking process. This sauce goes together so quickly that you could even start it before work and come home wondering if you're in an Italian restaurant.

2  large yellow or white onions, sliced or chopped
5  cloves garlic, chopped
1 or 2 carrots, finely diced
1 pound mushrooms, sliced (canned will work here in a pinch)
2 to 4 tablespoons olive oil
2 to 4 tablespoons Italian seasoning blend*, preferably one with red pepper flakes
2  15 ounce cans diced tomatoes
2  28 ounce cans tomato sauce**
sea salt and pepper

• Brown onions and carrots in oil in a large saute pan.
• Stir in mushrooms and brown slightly.
• Add garlic and cook another minute or so.
• Pour onion mix into crock pot and add seasonings, tomatoes, and tomato sauce. 
• Stir in 1 tablespoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper to start.
• Cook on low for at least 8 hours. The long, slow cooking is what creates a rich sauce.
• Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.

*a combination of dried or fresh herbs such as basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, and parsley with a pinch of red pepper flakes can be used if you prefer.
**whole tomatoes may be substituted for tomato sauce, resulting in a lighter, though still tasty, sauce.

This sauce can be used as is over spaghetti squash or pasta, or it can be the basis of any number of dishes.

For a quick and easy chicken dish, one of my all-time favorites, add chicken pieces of your choice (I like thighs for this) to the uncooked sauce before beginning the 8 hour cook time. The chicken cooks with the sauce and comes out tender and moist, as it adds more depth to the sauce.

Freeze leftovers for quick dinners on weekdays.

who needs wheat?

Sometimes now when I look at older recipes, both mine and those of others, I am dumbfounded at how often we add gluten when it doesn't even add to the dish, certainly not substantially. The same holds true with dairy and soy, though I'm still holding fast to my right to whine where heavy cream and luscious cheeses are concerned. I'm thinking of this today partly because I'm reviewing dozens of my own chicken dishes and partly, too, because I recently read a comment from a newly diagnosed young mother who is cooking separate meals for her family and looking for better options.

When I look at my old notes---I don't often write recipes per se, at least not for my own use---I notice wheat flour and bread crumbs in most dishes. Few, if any, of these need the wheat. It was just always our go to grain. It was just there. It almost feels quaint now and a little foolish that I never questioned it. It would not have occurred to me that breading didn't have to be wheat or that gravy didn't have to start wit a wheat flour roux. Of course, I was familiar with corn meal or arrowroot or corn starch for these uses, but they never seemed adequate, and I never thought of any as good substitutes. Still, that was then, this is now, and I'm delighted to see that wheat is almost always replaceable with something, often something better.

For many, many dishes, sweet rice flour makes a beautiful sauce or gravy. It can even be used as you would wheat flour to make a roux with oil, pan drippings, or butter if you can use it. If you haven't tried sweet rice flour, you're in for a pleasant surprise. It is milled from short-grained, sticky rice, so it's more glutinous than that from long grained rice, making perfect as a thickener.

One way to use sweet rice flour when preparing crock pot dishes that adds a good deal of flavor is to dredge the meat in the flour and then brown it in small batches. Chicken pieces are especially good this way. Though they can be tossed into the crock pot raw with good results, coating the pieces in rice flour and browning first by sauteeing them on the stove in oil is worth the extra effort. When using whole chickens, sprinkling the rice flour over them before placing in the crock pot also works well. Whole chickens will usually brown nicely on their own in the crock pot.

With almost any recipe, you can mix the spices, herbs, salt, and pepper with the rice flour first and then use this mix to coat your chicken pieces before browning. Any unused seasoned flour should be added to the crock pot to flavor and thicken the dish.

Chicken Chile Verde is quick and easy in the crock pot. This dish can be made more or less firey by adjusting the quantity of hot peppers. Remember to check them when your cutting them if using fresh jalapeno or serrano  peppers. The heat varies so much from one to another that some may taste like bell peppers and others set your mouth on fire. I usually cut off the stem and touch the stem end, the part headed for the compost bucket, to my tongue. Do NOT do this if you are particularly sensitive to to hot and spicy foods. If you're really in a hurry, skip the browning step and layer all ingredients in crock pot. Browning adds to the flavor, but the dish is still very good without it. This recipe can easily be doubled. Note, too, that by leaving out the rice flour, which is in the dish to thicken primarily, this fits into a Paleo plan.

• 1 onion, sliced or diced
• 4 cloves garlic
• 2 cans, about 8 ounces, of mild whole or diced chiles
• 1 15 ounce can tomatillos, drain most of the liquid
• 2 to 4 serrano or jalapeno chiles, or a few tablespoons canned
• 4 ounces chicken broth
• 2 ounces sweet rice flour
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 to 3 tablespoons oil
• 8 chicken thighs, cut in eighths (boneless, skinless thighs make it easier)

1. Mix rice flour with dried herbs, salt & pepper. Add chicken pieces and mix well to coat.
2. Brown onions and chicken pieces in a small amount of oil.
3. Place chiles, garlic, and tomatillos in crock pot with any leftover flour mixture. Add browned chicken and onions.
4. Pour broth evenly over top.
5. Cover and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours.
6. Check seasoning, add more salt and pepper if desired.

This is great served with rice, gluten-free tortillas, noodles, mashed cauliflower, or spaghetti squash.
Add a garnish of avocado slices, finely sliced green onions, and sour cream (if dairy works for you.)

More crock pot recipes to come.