Sweet Mustard Roast Beef

I was at the grocery store this morning, standing in the produce section (one ear cocked for the sounds of my kids screaming at each other as they did their part of the shopping - more on that later), and trying to figure out what the heck to fix for dinner that we hadn't eaten in the last week.  I was paging through one of my go-to blogs, "A Year of Slow Cooking", and came across this recipe.  Sounded easy enough and I was definitely in the mood for a crockpot dinner, so I gave it a go tonight.

Wow.  This was REALLY good and super easy.  It took about 3 minutes to prep, 6 hours to cook, and no time at all to serve.  I used Stephanie's suggestions of mashed potatoes and green beans to go with the meat and it was the perfect combination.  Mike got home a bit late, so the kids ate first and they devoured about 2/3 of this.  All three of them loved it!  Mike and I ate after they went to bed and found we had just enough for the two of us.  I would probably use a little bigger roast the next time, knowing how much we all enjoyed it.

Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients:

3 large russet potatoes
2 Tbs. butter
2-3 Tbs. sour cream
1-2 Tbs. green onions, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Wash and peel potatoes. Cut into 1 inch cubes.
Put potatoes into a pot and add enough water to cover by 1/2 inch.
Boil potatoes until tender, 15-20 minutes.
Drain potatoes and put into a bowl.  Mash to desired consistency.
Add butter and mix until incorporated (add more if desired).
Add sour cream, salt, and pepper to taste.
Add green onions to taste.
Let potatoes sit for 5-10 minutes to allow onions to flavor potatoes; reheat if necessary before serving.

You could also use this recipe (see Topping) if you prefer a lower-fat version and like the flavor of parsnips.

Crockpot Chicken and Biscuits

I've been wanting to pull out the crockpot again, but didn't feel like doing anything we've had in the past. I love pot pies, so I thought there had to be a recipe for one in the crockpot. This recipe really appealed because it doesn't use cream-of-something soup. Because I was short on time (baseball sign-ups were tonight and I didn't want to wait another 45 minutes to eat after I got home), I just made frozen biscuits to eat with it instead of baking homemade biscuits on top. I'll give that a try next time.

Ingredients:
4 cups chicken stock
1 roasted chicken, meat removed and diced
1 large onion, diced
2 carrots, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 stalks celery, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
3 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup frozen peas
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
3/4 cup flour
2 tsp. salt
black pepper

1 batch or your favorite biscuit mix/recipe
OR
1 dozen frozen biscuits

Directions:
Melt butter in a pan and add onions. Saute over medium-low heat, about 7 minutes, until translucent. Add salt, several grinds of black pepper, and stir in flour until it is smooth and bubbly.

In the meantime, turn your 6-quart crockpot on Low. Add chicken stock, carrots, celery, and potatoes. When onion roux is ready, stir it in as well. Cover and cook on low 4-7 hours or until potatoes are tender. Make sure you check it periodically, especially after the 4 hour mark, so your veggies don't turn to mush. Stir, turn to Warm, and add diced chicken and frozen peas.

Preheat oven to biscuit-baking heat. If desired, spray the top edges of the slow cooker to prevent sticking. drop biscuit dough in like dumplings. Place crock in the oven without the lid and bake for 15-20 minutes (usually about five minutes longer than recommended for cooking biscuits on a baking sheet).

Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.

If using frozen biscuits, bake according to package directions. Split biscuits and serve either under or over chicken.

This was really good! Definitely a recipe I'd do again and great comfort food. This recipe makes a LOT, but it should be great as leftovers. The kids gave it two thumbs up (the girls) and one thumb down (our son, although he liked the biscuits), so it's easily something we could do for a family dinner.

Barbecued Pork

I decided to pull out the crockpot again today and did a pork roast for the first time. I shredded the meat after it was cooked and we ate it on hamburger rolls with cheese and coleslaw. It was really good! This is definitely a recipe I'd do again. (Sorry I don't have pictures - we ate it before I thought about photos.)

Here is the link to the original recipe. My version is below.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder
1 onion, sliced in rings (I used a sweet onion, but any should do)
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup barbecue sauce (I like Stubbs)
1/8 cup warm water
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/8 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions:
Use a 4 quart crockpot. Trim meat, and place into your crockpot. Add sliced onion, ketchup, and barbecue sauce, then pour the warm water into the measuring cup and rinse. Pour the saucy water into your crock. Add vinegar, brown sugar, Worcestershire, Tabasco and salt.
Cover and cook on low for 8-10 hours, or until meat shreds easily with a fork. Remove meat, shred into small pieces, and then add back into crockpot. Turn it up to high and vent or remove lid to reduce sauce for 1-2 hours, until desired consistency.
Make sandwiches on rolls or sliced bread, adding cheese of your choice, mayo (I like Miracle Whip, but I'm the only one), and coleslaw.

What a crock!

I'd been talking with some friends at the kids' school about cooking with a crockpot and some of them absolutely swear by it, so I finally got a new crockpot (our old one was way too small to make anything that would feed all five of us) and decided to give it a whirl. One of those friends sent a link to a crockpot cooking blog A Year of Crockpotting, where I found a recipe for ropa vieja, a Cuban beef dish that Mike really likes. It seemed easy enough - get the ingredients, put them into the crock, and let it go for the day. We even had most of the stuff for it, so there was minimal shopping involved (a big plus with 3 kids home for spring break!).

It turned out to be a phenomenal success! (I'll bet you thought I was going to say it was horrible.) Mike was home for the day on Saturday - his first day home in almost 2 weeks - so he took over after I got it set up and started and tinkered with it a little bit. Not much though, so what we had was pretty true to the recipe. He also made some Cuban rice to go with it that was fantastic. The one thing we forgot was bread, which would have been great for soaking up the sauce, but otherwise, it was a wonderful dinner and one we would definitely do again. And it was even better for lunch today.

Ropa Vieja

Ingredients:
--3 lbs meat (get what's on sale. Stew meat, chuck roast, steaks, whatever.)
--1/2 cup chicken broth
--1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (could use white)
--1 T cumin
--1 tsp smoked paprika
--1 tsp salt
--1/2 tsp black pepper
--1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
--1 large red onion, chopped
--2 red bell peppers, chopped
--2 med yellow apples, grated
--3 stalks celery, chopped
--3 cloves smashed and chopped garlic
--1/2 cup cilantro leaves


Directions:
I used a 6.5 quart crockpot. I think you'll need at least a 5 quart----this is a lot of food.

Combine all of the dry spices in a bowl. Rub the spices all over the piece (or pieces) of meat you are using. Put the meat into your crockpot. Dump any extra spice on top.
Coarsely chop the vegetables and add to the pot.
Smash the garlic, take the leaves off the cilantro stems, and add.
Peel the apples, and grate them into the pot with a cheese grater.
Add the chicken broth and vinegar.
Cover and cook on low for a very long time, or on high for a pretty long time. I'd go for at least 10 hours on low and at least 7 hours on high, checking about 2 hours before serving to see if you can shred the meat with forks. (This is when we added the tomatoes.) If you can't shred the meat, cook for longer, or remove the meat and cut in long slices, then return to the pot.
Ropa Vieja means "old clothes"---the meat and vegetables should be shreddy and fully intertwined. The longer and slower you cook this, the better. There is plenty of moisture from the chicken broth and vinegar---if you are a peeker, you may need to add more chicken broth; but otherwise, you'll get a good amount of juice at the bottom of the pot.
Serve over brown or white rice, with a ladle full of broth.


Cuban Yellow Rice

Ingredients:
1 cup converted rice
1 small red pepper (or green, or mix)
1 small onion
3 small cloves garlic
2-3 Tbs. vegetable oil
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/8 tsp. saffron, ground (or 2 Tbs. annato oil)
3 Tbs. boiling water
1 tsp. salt
1/4-1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. paprika (half hot, if desired)
1/8-1/4 tsp. ground black pepper
2 cups low salt chicken stock

Directions:
Measure spices. Steep saffron in boiling water.
Chop pepper, onion, and garlic to small dice. Saute in oil over medium heat until translucent, about 10 minutes.
Add rice, saute 3-4 minutes until rice is translucent.
Add spices and saffron water and cook another 30 seconds to 1 minute until the saffron water is absorbed and the rice turns deep yellow.
Add stock and peas, stir well.
Cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow to rest undisturbed 10-15 minutes.
Remove lid, fluff with fork, and serve.