Crock pots

[old honda rider]

Living alone and not having a whole lot of time after work to whip up dinner, I use my oval crock pot all the time. Quite literally, as I sit here, I've got a roast just starting that will be nicely done by the time I get home from work (in about 10 hours).

It makes great chili too.

[Pete]

We use one in our house once or twice a month, usually for a pot roast or some sort of stew. We just upgraded to one with a timer, but when it turns "off" it stays on warm, which overcooked our meal. I picked up a lamp timer, and it seems to be doing the job pretty well so far.

My mom sent me this hugemongous email forward thing that has a ton of recipies, I haven't tried any but if you want to send me a message with your email I can send it along.

[Stefan]

I love cooking with a Crock Pot! It has to be one of the most used tools in my kitchen.
Here's a link that has quite a few Crock Pot recipes. I have tried some of them and they all turned out pretty good...
http://www.50plusfriends.com/cookbook/cr...ex-5b.html

[dinga52]

I like to put frozen chicken legs in mine and some veggies with just a touch of water after work they are very tender and the meat falls off the bone , cheap meal just cook some instant rice when i get home and all is good !!

[Sololson]

I'm right there with you Entre Nous, we do pot roast and corned beef in ours and it comes out great. Likewise to you Old Honda Rider, the chili comes out pretty tasty too. I love how it fills the house with such great aromas all day long and just has my mouth watering for it to finish. We also do a 15 bean soup and a split pea soup, and then since it's just my wife and I, we ladle the leftovers into individual serving-size freezer bags and put it away for another day. Works out great!

[Janie]

I love the idea of the Crock Pot and I continue to use it but dishes don't always turn out. Usually the meat is overdone and the veggies (especially carrots) tend to be undercooked. I have a stew recipe though that I like.

BEEF STEW

2 lbs stew meat
1 tsp Worcestershire
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp paprika
couple minced garlic cloves
1 bay leaf
4 carrots, sliced
some pearl onions
2 large yams (the yellow-y potato ones, not the bright orange ones although they would be good too IMO)
regular can (10 oz) of soup (cream of mushroom, etc)
1 cup broth, water, wine... mixture of both... whatever

Coat meat with flour. Mix everything up in the crock pot, put on low heat for 10-12 hours or high heat for 4-6 hours. Serve with some cornbread. Call it done.

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I have a number of slow cooker/crock pot cookbooks but my favorite is: Fit-It and Forget-It (Ranck, Good). The recipes are pretty decent and I have good luck with them. I usually alter the recipes a little though.

[junglelord]

I use a crock pot all the time, especially in cold winter months.
I do not have a particular receipe, I just make them as I go.
What ever is at hand may be thrown in.
Two simple things I have learned.

I use chicken stock in all my beef stews.
I use a lot of chicken bones and beef bones for soups.

I love the pot.
Er, you know what I mean.

[Bageleth]

So far, I have made baked potatoes in my crock pot (last week). Delicious! Even my husband said so! My son wasn't so keen on them, but I also have to take into consideration that he's extremely picky, so I don't take his lack of compliments personally :^)

[Timmay!]

Somewhere at home I have a recipe for a sort of Mexican bean / taco soup that my wife and I used to make a lot. I'll have to look it up so I can post it here. It was GOOD stuff. Prep basically involved putting a bunch of beans and spices into the pot before work in the morning, and you could eat when you got home.

On the note of crock pots, we got a new one for Christmas, and it is GREAT. It's this one from Hamilton Beach.

The latches are REALLY nice, because they not only prevent the lid from coming off when you bump it or something, but now you can safely take the whole thing in the car to take a dish to someone else's house without worrying about spilling all over the place. The spoon that clicks into the lid is nice also.

-Tim