An Ode to Crockpots (the Slow Cooker Kind)

My twin found a lovely blog by a woman who for her New Year's Resolution decided to use her crockpot everyday of 2008. It is here, at A Year of Crockpotting. She's also a funny lady, so even if you don't use her recipes, it's still an entertaining read. She reports on her childrens' reaction to her latest creations in the crockpot.

Twin recently made one of the recipes, which was delicious. It was a chunk of beef with feta, a jar of roasted tomatoes and some white wine. The actual recipe is here. It was delicious, even with less feta than called for and a cooking time about two hours longer than necessary. That is one of the joys of crockpots: you can cook things for twelve hours and still have edible (even better, delicious!) results.

Another delightful recipe is from Rival: Crock-Pot: Slow Electric Stoneware Cooker Cookbook from the 1960s or 70s. We enjoyed making this shortly after our 21st birthsday. Despite the title, not rabbit is involved.

Welsh Rabbit

• 2 lb sharp Cheddar cheese, shredded
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons dry mustard
• 2 cups beer or ale
• Cayenne pepper
• 2-3 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 10 oz can of tomato soup
• toasted bread slices

Put all ingredients except egg yolks and bread into CROCKPOT. Cover and cook on High until cheese melts; stir wll. Beat in egg yolks, using medium or low speed of mixer; beat until smooth. Turn to Low until serving time--2 to 6 hours. Serve over toast slices or crackers, or as a hot dip with bread sticks.
Ingredients may be increased by half for the 41/2-quart model.

Lastly, for our birthday cake, I used a recipe I found at this LiveJournal. The chocolate cake cooked in the crockpot is wonderful. It's very chocolatly and gooey. Twin and I put the leftovers in the fridge, and ate them like those giant chocolate muffins for the rest of the week. You can see a photo of it at the top of the post. Like many foods made in crockpots, the cake tastes better than it looks.