The fourth time was a charm! After three failed attempts, my Crock Pot has finally produced something edible. The difference? I tossed the recipes and did what felt right – the method that I use when cooking on the stovetop or in the oven.

My first successful slow cooker meal was very simple. A large bag of frozen meatballs, a large can of Swedish meatball gravy, a dash of white pepper, and a heaping scoop of confidence!

The smell of slow-cooking ingredients filled the house for hours and I couldn’t wait to debut my newest dish. The idea to serve it over a bed of egg noodles (cooked on the stove) was a hit!

One of the benefits of having a slow cooker is that I’m able to cook larger quantities in one pot, which is ideal not only for cleaning purposes, but for producing leftovers. Of course, leftovers mean less time getting dinner ready to put on the table. We were able to enjoy yesterday’s dinner again tonight and since dinner was already done, I had a bit of free time to make my first batch of can-less biscuits. Another bonus!

The recipes haven’t been tossed forever. In fact, I plan to give my potato soup recipe another try tomorrow (armed with modifications) and on Sunday, I want to try a recipe for slow cooker sweet potato casserole.

For now, I am basking in the success of finally doing what countless other home-based chefs do – use a slow cooker.

What was your first slow cooker success, or disaster?

CC

Thanks to the recent Crock Pot craze, I am the proud owner of a new, shiny kitchen appliance that I have to figure out how to use. I owned one years ago before slow cookers were popular, but I’m still a slow cooker newbie.

I was a cooking novice who purchased a slow cooker based on a coworker’s advice. She knew that I didn’t know my way around a kitchen and often offered tips on meal preparation. I must admit that most of what she told me seemed impossibly simple.

At the time, my family was slightly smaller and my children were infants and toddlers who loved a handful of foods and needed nothing fancy. The slow cooker meals were more for the adults in the house. Well, sadly, after just one meal, the apliance was history. My eldest child tripped over the cord, the slow cooker crashed to the floor and shattered, and I gave up on trying to be a creative cook. So much for trying to use fresh ingredients and seasoning to create masterpieces. Back to boxes, cans, dry mix, and frozen foods!

Now, with a family of six that includes four tweens and teens, what passed as a meal 10 years ago doesn’t cut the mustard today. Everyone in my house expects me to be a chef, and not of the Boyardee persuasion.

Like most modern moms, I struggle with finding time to do everything that I think needs to be done, and that includes making meals using fresh ingredients. I don’t have time to spend hours in the kitchen whipping up new culinary pleasures for my increasingly finicky crew, but the slow cooker would make them think that mommy spent all day preparing meals.

My hope is that if I spend a little time on preparing food on the front end, the slow cooker will do the rest. I am dreaming of a world where dinner is ready at a decent hour, I won’t have to stand over the stove, and I won’t have to clean multiple pots and pans!

Wish me luck as I put this new toy to use on Sunday! Any ideas that you have would be greatly appreciated!

CC

P.S.

During my research trying to find a slow cooker, I discovered that Crock Pot is a name brand (proper noun) and not the general name (common noun) of the appliance. Who knew?