Crock pot cooking. Vegies and sides.

In the summer we have a lot of BBQ's, in fact often every night. It keeps the heat out of the house if I want to cook something. I also use the crock pot lots. I am just not going to turn the oven on in the heat!

One handy use of the crock pot especially when I am having visitors is to fill it with potatoes and let them go all day on low. Then in the evening they can be served with whatever is on the BBQ or made into a quick potato salad. I love warm potato salad so this only means throwing over a handful of chopped onion, some mayo and herbs. It looks wonderful too. This has a lot of food ready to go and is really filling.

Other possibilities are filling the crock pot with corn on the cob. At serving time I just put them all into a serving dish, add dobs of butter and sprinkle with pepper. It is yum and so very easy.

If I have a pie thawing for dinner or meat to cook I might put a mix of vegies in the crock pot to be ready when I need them.  Mainly to make the evening easy if I know I will be in late. It is just done!

Other really good crock pot vegies are potato bake. The easiest one I do is Hilde's recipe. Grease the crock pot. Fill with sliced potato, sprinkle with dried french onion soup mix (about half a packet for a large potato bake) and pour over a small carton of cream or half a tin of evaporated milk. Let cook all afternoon. This is yummy.

Another is to cook a whole cauliflower. If it won't fit then cut it up into big bits. I sprinkle it with grated cheese and pepper in the last hour or so.

In all of these vegie dishes I would put about two tablespoons of water in the crock pot first. That's it.

However you could fill your crock pot with carrots and pour over some honey for honey glazed carrots.
Or fill it with baby onions. Or half baby butternuts and serve them along side a roast. Or fill with carrots and parsnips and drizzle with a balsamic glaze. It is just endless! When you are feeding a crowd a big serving of something like this just makes it so easy.
For the family a crock pot full of vegies will make you meat portions go a long way. Any left over vegies could become a soup. Left over onion, pumpkin, sweet potato etc become pizza topping.

BBQ nights are really easy nights! If Andy cooks the meat I will bring out corn on the cob, potatoes, honey carrots etc that have all been cooking and there is basically nothing to do but serve them in the evening. I really like those days!

So think of any side dish that you really love and seldom actually do. Pop it into the crock pot in the morning instead!  Growing up my favorite vegetable dishes were bakes ie Nan's tomato bake, scalloped potatoes, cauliflower cheese, baked baby onions.... all of these are perfect for crock pot cooking and they produce so much good food!

This is just another way my crock pot is wonderful. Winter or summer it is a help. So many times I have something that is a potential meal (ie a meat pie from the freezer) and I will think to put on some potatoes and carrots or something to go with it. This turns my little meal into a big healthy feast usually for very little.

Writing this up has made me think of making some kind of vegetable bake for tonight as it is cold and wintery! I will see what is on special as I am shopping this morning. I would say cauliflower cheese but cauli's have been almost $8 each. So it might be Hilde's Potato Bake.

Here we are in a new week! The last few days of July! I am heading out to get as much done as possible and get my week going.  I try to run most of my errands on a Monday all at once so that I can mostly stay home later in the week. My number one enemy for getting things done is being out too much. This week I want to get some sewing done. I have a lovely little project (easy sewing) that I will feature next Monday as it is something useful and something that would make lovely gifts. Also it costs a few cents each to make!

Have a wonderful week! xxx

Crock pot series. Super easy Cheesecake.

This is so good it deserves a post. I have found any desert that needs to set (rather than rise) works so well in the crock pot.

I put this on and went to the shops. All I had to do was cool it when I got home and a fancy desert was done. Also I gave away slices to the girls and we had three nights of a lush desert!

There is not much to this. Other than to say if you feel at all the Cheesecake is at all fancy and you have not made one try this as it is soooo easy.

You could use any baked cheesecake recipe. If you have one you love then use that.

All you need is a dish, cake tin, that will sit flat in the bottom of your crock pot.

Line this bottom and sides. I use non stick baking paper.

Make sure it fits! Place a couple of cups of water into the bottom of your crock pot.

My recipe is this:

One and a half cups of biscuit or cornflake crumbs. (I had sweet biscuits and I belted them senseless with a rolling pin in a large plastic bag)

3 tablespoons melted butter.

Mix these two together and press into the pan as your base.

Make the edges look neat as it will look nice!

Then soften up 3 blocks cream cheese.  (8oz or 226 g)

When soft blend in 3/4 cup sugar, a large teaspoon of good thick vanilla extract, 3 eggs, Blend until smooth as silk!

Pour this into your dish and smooth the top.

Put this into the crock pot then top up the water level to come up 3/4 way of your pan.

Turn on, cover top with a clean kitchen cloth and put on lid. (I have shown this in previous posts, towel goes under the lid to catch moisture)

On high this takes about two and a half hours. 

Test it with a skewer. You can see it is firm not liquid. 

At the end the top may be moist. I blotted it lightly with a paper towel.

Remove when you are happy with it. Let cool and as it cools it becomes solid and can be removed like you would remove a cake from a cake pan. If in doubt refrigerate it and remove it once really hard.

Decorate with berries or a glaze or whatever you like. Imagine a great pile of fresh berries!

This is rich, it cuts perfectly. It is rich enough that I think fruit with it is necessary.

A Cheesecake looks fabulous on a cake stand. It could be a lovely birthday cake. Also it is quite stable and would be good for taking to a function or as a lovely gift.

A ribbon tied around it would look beautiful!

It was a bit of a treat last week for us. 

Next week I will get back to the gift making. I am working on a tutorial to make roses. I have been making roses for years. If you love them as I do this is for you! Bouquets of these look beautiful in vases and bowls and make into bunches, wrapped in tissue paper and a ribbon, are wonderful as gifts. They are really easy and super cheap to make. To send a bunch of roses to someone here is easily $100.  A bunch of these will look pretty for years and cost you about $6  (for a dozen or so).  Just now I have a large case I am wanting to fill with flowers so this is my project. I thought they would be a good thing to teach as they look lovely and many of us are lovers of pretty things and flowers!

Have a wonderful week! xxx

Crock pot cooking. Pot roasts and cold meat.

It has been cold here and is dark well and truly by five thirty pm.  It is the weather for hot food!  This week I am covering pot roasts.  Now, this is also useful in summer as you can cook meat and use it as cold meat, warm chicken salad, platters and sandwiches etc. Here we do both. A roast is a hot comforting dinner. Then left overs re appear as other meals. Sometimes many other meals!

A roast usually contains some fat. So the first thing is to lift the meat up from the bottom of the crock pot so the fat will drain down and away. Why oh why crock pots don't come with such a thing I don't understand.  I use two metal trivets that fit just right. This comes from the traced template that I take with me to watch for things that will fit. These are perfect. They keep everything up a little bit and nothing falls through except fat. You could use anything that will fit and do the job, in an emergency scrunched up balls of al foil could work.

You can do any roast you can think of I think. This is my recent lamb roast. 

Think of the flavor combinations you like. With lamb I put in rosemary and I often cover the lamb with mint jelly and reserve some to serve with the meal. This is yum. Add in your vegies. Put on high and forget. About 8 hours ish... more or less is still fine. If it went on earlier I often will turn to low the last couple of hours. There is no water in the bottom, I thought I should mention this...

It is fall off the bone tender. 

Very comforting and warming for dinner! The next day the lamb became wraps for dinner in soft round wraps, spread with tatziki dip, cucumber, tomato, lettuce, onion and cheese. Then two of those became  work lunches. This was great and like a night off.  I warm the meat for dinner wraps but it can be cold. These are DELICIOUS and the kids can assemble them. 

On the weekend we had a chicken pot roast. With a chicken as the meat is delicate I place a square of baking paper just on the spot where the chicken sits on the racks. I put the chicken breast side down as you want the juices to run into the breast meat. 
In this case I cover the chicken with some cranberry sauce/jelly as we like that...

This had been cooking for a while when I remembered to take a picture!  It was just lovely and so tender...

Of course I had cold chicken for the next day. This time I am making Wendy's chicken flan (My Abundant Life.) but other times I would make wraps, warm chicken salad, cold meat and salad or work lunches. There are so many things you can do with left over chicken. 

Other pot roasts I love are pork with whole apples, turkey, cranberry and apple, beef or venison and winter vegies...

Any combinations that you love and lots of vegetables will make it go so much further plus be so good for you. As I am thinking of baby food these can be lifted out and mashed and voila you have instant baby meals!

These are the kind of meals you put on and forget. If you have been out when you walk in the house smells like Nana has been making you a meal. It is a huge help and relief. If you have a baby and dinner is a tiring time, it is all done. You just serve. If you are running children around to after school sports etc. dinner is cooking. You have left overs for other meals. Just so helpful. Let your crock pot help you out. The number of times my crock pot has saved us from having take away would be some ridiculous number! 

Any time I need to make lots of sandwiches or rolls I cook some meat this way and use it then instead of Deli meat. This is usually a fraction of the cost and healthier. If you see a roasting piece of meat take a look at that price and compare it to the same weight in the deli department or pre cut packs. It is a big difference! Plus it is going to be so tender and good!

I hope you have a great week! We are nearly into July! I have so many things I want to get done...

and I love to get going on a Monday and start the week off well. See you on Wednesday! xxx

Crock Pot series. Casseroles, Pies and Curries.

My crock pot has been working hard and each week I think of ten more things I should be posting to do with slow cooking generally!  One of the best things in the world is when I forget I put the crock pot on early and come home. As you approach the door to open it you can smell something beautiful. Then the penny drops "Oh yes! I already put dinner on!" What a feeling of relief! That has happened to me many times. It's the best!

Today I will concentrate on casseroles and pies. These go together as I am saying please make good quantities when you make casseroles so that you have left overs! Well cooked down meat is tender and flavorsome and makes perfect pie fillings. This gives you at least another meal and one that is different and could be frozen.

If you have any casserole recipes you love making them in the slow cooker is just so easy. The only variation might be you will possibly need less liquid in your recipe. Alternatively do it as per usual and later if it is too much liquid toss in some baby potatoes, or some rice or something to soak up the juices. It is not a problem.

It is optional to brown meat before you put it in the crock pot. Many recipes say to. I NEVER do. The whole idea to me is easy, less dishes, less washing up... so I never do. And things are always rich in color and fine. But that is a choice.

I will give some of my total cheats recipes in case you need a starter. Or you could buy some of those packet mixes that you throw over your meat and add some vegies to. If this gets you going then go for it. Overall this is still healthier than getting takeaway any day! This is very easy cooking!

Some of my easiest combinations are:

Chicken... could be fillet, thigh, pieces... add lots of vegies thickly sliced... carrot, celery, onion, a drained tin or corn, beans or peas... anything you want. Throw over a can of cream of chicken soup. Cook all day. Stir a couple of times along the way. Is yum and a simple country chicken flavor. Serve on night one with mashed potato or over rice. The rest becomes chicken pies.

Beef... any... sliced or cubed. Onions, carrots, mushrooms, capsicum (optional). Sprinkle with a little soy sauce. Pour over a tin of tomato soup. Let cook all day. Serve with potatoes with sour cream. It is yummy. I used a lot of sliced mushrooms in this. And again the left overs make wonderful beef pies. Beef and Mushroom pies actually!

Lamb... shanks, chops, fillets... onions, any vegies including tiny potatoes or potatoes quartered... pour over a jar of tomato pasta sauce or a can of tomato soup or some other tomato mix. Add a few sun dried tomatoes if you have them.  This cooks down to a rich flavor and if it's shanks to the point where the lamb is falling off the bone. It is so good! The left overs still make pie, I just remove them bones and the filling is perfect. This is really good with mashed potato too as the sauce is very rich.

Apricot chicken. Chicken, dried apricots or a drained tin of apricots or both. A small tin apricot nectar. A packet of french onion soup mix. Carrots, anything else you want. Serve with rice. I do not make pies from apricot chicken. Andy likes this meal so I make it but it doesn't seem like pie filling to me!

These are simple and versatile. I tend to use lots of vegies. If I am planning potatoes ie to add sour cream and potatoes I just pop whole potatoes in and they will be cooked too.

They are all surprisingly good and will use up the vegies you have on hand. I tend to use way more vegetables than meat. As the flavors cook down everything tastes beautiful. These are all good hearty meals in cold weather.

Then to your left overs...

I keep puff pastry in the fridge always! With your left overs simply line a pie dish with pastry, add your filling and top with pastry. Or top with mashed potato and make a kind of shepherds pie. This is really good!

I freeze pies the right size for us or make individual portion sized pies. They look nice I think. For children or smaller pies a muffin tray becomes a pie maker. Just cut circles to fit and add tops! This gives you 12 individual pies that can be frozen or used for dinner another night. So handy! Pies are so portable, can be a whole meal, freeze perfectly and transform your casserole into something different! I always think pies are nice gifts.

If my pies are going into the freezer I lightly bake them and not over brown them. (So that when they are heated they don't end up dry or too dark).

With pies in the freezer you never need take away. You always have meals for when things go crazy and you are too busy. And people will rave over your famous pies. How do you get the filling so tender they ask?

I also always keep tomato relish and various sauces that are good with all of these. I think a relish is great with a pie.

Really, your own family favorite casserole recipes will work. Otherwise if you have certain ingredients to use up try googling for recipes. I like to use up what I have.

The other thing that is simply fantastic in the crock pot is a curry. Long slow cooking develops flavors and tenderizes meat. I am a terrible spicy cook. Terrible. So I am not even sharing a recipe here. If you have curries you like I say make them in the crock pot. But Andy likes a curry and so do the girls. Sooo I cheat. I add a flavor base and there are many to choose from that are brilliant. The first time I did these everyone was so impressed. I confessed I did nothing except toss it all in and pour over a packet of mixture. And no one cared they were too busy eating.
On the weekend I made a large amount of Butter Chicken this way. It was wonderful and made three meals, two for us and one for the new baby family!

Curries could also come under the stretch a meal classification as the extras that go with a curry mean a little bit goes such a long way. You can have your rice, naan bread, a little cooling salad (I just finely chop cucumbers and tomato) and a raita. Mum has mint in the garden. I pick a big bunch, wash it and get rid of thick stalks and any nasty bits and then blend that into a couple of cups of thick yoghurt. Add a dash of cumin. Blend until smooth. I like a really creamy yoghurt for this. It is so easy and lovely. (and makes it seem like I did more than just use a packet mix!)

All these bits and pieces mean your curry goes a long way and is delicious. I serve this as a serve yourself meal and it seems really nice but is so easy.

It is winter here and warming meals are just the thing. All the girls who are in summer, I hope this will be helpful later when things cool off!

For all of these ideas my general rule is to get them on by mid morning and let them go until dinner. I always use high setting. And I always have my crock pot at least half full. If you have a small amount I would cook on low. Overall I would rather cook on high and turn it down later than the other way around. Mix your ingredients so your liquid part is coating things. Stir a couple of times. If you are out stir before you leave and when you come back in the door.

Slow cooking is so good to bring out the flavor of things, tenderize the meat and bring a richness to your meal. Perfect for stews, curries and casseroles. So easy. And food like this improves over a day or two so making enough for two meals or your pies gives you at least one night off.

Getting dinner on in the morning and not having to cook in the evening can be a life saver.  This one thing has helped me so much in my life!

Have a wonderful week! It rained here last night so I am very pleased I did heaps of washing over the weekend and it is all dry. Now the rain looks like settling in.
I am off to the supermarket so that I can finish my post for Wednesday on Pantries and Preparedness. Talking to the supermarket staff about the baby formula etc I made another discovery. One that boggled my mind! And one that greatly affects what I think about storing some reserves. That is coming on Wednesday. I had better get busy! xxx

Crock pot cooking. Baked Apples, stewed fruit, Corned Beef...

Thank you for all the comments and mail on this series! It looks like lots of you have your handmaidens  working hard to help you. Good! We need all the help we can get. If we have help we can do more and do better. And get some rest as well!

Last week I used the slow cooker to make baked apples. This is another one where there are several advantages. One is I can put it on and at dinner time, evening, I have way less to do. The other is slow cooking and fruit are a match made in heaven. Apples turn pink when cooked slowly for a longer time. When the girls were little pink apples were a favourite.
In the case of baked apples the humble apple becomes intensified, caramelised, delicious, making it a wintery thing and a hearty warming desert. Also apples are on special :)
This is all I did... place half a cup of water in the crock pot. Take the cores out of the apples and pack that space with sultanas, walnuts and brown sugar.
I did six. That meant one each for dinner. One each the next night. Warm baked apples for me for two breakfasts! (this was lovely).

Sit the apples in the crock pot and sprinkle over extra brown sugar. This is personal taste. I say add a little bit extra as your water is going to become caramel sauce.

I cooked on low about 4 hours. This you don't need to be too fussy about, more or less would have done.  At this point the sultanas have become plump and juicy and the nuts have become soft and chewy. They are delicious. You could use dates, raisins, cranberries or anything else you think.

When you serve scoop a spoonful of the sauce off the bottom of the crock pot and drizzle over the top. I served with cream. 

This was so good!

Now while I am talking about fruit in the crock pot think of stewing, poaching pears, adding dried fruit in with other fruits and cook until thick and rich. Cook up apples or pears or both and puree with a stick blender and you have baby food. Or apples for apple sauce. Add more water to the baked apples and do sago as well. The kids loved this, we called them little hailstones.

Dried fruits cooked up with fresh or tinned fruit will give a rich delicious hot desert which could be served topped with a crumble topping or cream, custard or ice cream. Kept in the fridge this becomes breakfast on it's own or with porridge or other cereals. Yum!

So many options!

Next I made Corned Beef.  Andy loves this. Traditionally it is served with mashed potato, vegies and a cheesy sauce.  It also gives you cold meat. I did the cold meat option as I don't love it, I think it's a man thing as Andy is mad over it and so is Dad.

You 3/4 fill the crock pot with water. Add a splash of vinegar, bay leaves and about a tablespoon of peppercorns.
Add your corned beef and then enough water to cover it just.

Let this go on high all day. Or overnight. I think 8 hours is good but more or less is ok.

It comes out pink and moist and once cold slices very nicely and you have a ton of cold meat for making up lunches or a cold platter. That is if you don't eat it as a hot meal!

This is much cheaper than buying sliced meat from the deli. Once you have this the other option is to roll it in thick cracked pepper. Once you have that crust on it you bake it for an hour on low. Then you have pastrami. Woolies pastrami is about $25 a kilo! I can do that for about $8.  This slices thinly and is fabulous as the flavor is strong and rich. Either are a big hit made up into rolls or eaten as they are around here. I made up a heap of rolls for a fishing trip with corned beef and mustard. This pretty much equals guaranteed popularity!

Perhaps the best combination is to have a hot dinner and have left over cold meats for the next day. It is just useful!

I wanted to do casseroles and pies this week as well but it will be too long. That is a huge subject! So that's coming up!

Let your handmaidens work hard. No slacking off in the kitchen lol. Put on that bread maker and made bread, pizza dough, scrolls etc. and make it work hard for you. A tray of sweet or savoury scrolls is so handy and so easy if you have dough already made up for you. Let your crock pot be quietly making soup or desert or your favourite curry or something for dinner while you are busy with other things. It just lightens your load so much.  Cook plenty. I didn't need 6 apples but I am not going to cook 2! It was lovely having two mornings with apples for breakfasts (I warmed them in the microwave) and the desert was so nice a second night was welcomed with nothing to do. I would never think of cooking every night. You don't ever need to if you have cooked extra and made a pie or cook something that becomes something else the next night. I will do a post just on that. A lot of people say they can't serve the same thing twice. You can alter things or freeze a portion and a month later it is dinner. Or cook something like I cook pot roast lamb and serve with vegetables and mint jelly. In the next day or two that left over lamb is served in wraps with Tatziki dip and salad. This is so nice and is so different from the first meal. Or a pot roast chicken and another night a chicken pizza or cold chicken and salad. One is cooking the other is assembling only. I love assembling only meals as that is really like a night off.

This week I will cook pears as they are on a big special at the moment. And stock and pumpkin soup as this seems to be my most popular soup. And a curry as the weather is pretty cold. Once night we will have it with rice. Another night it will re appear with naan bread a little salad and raita. It gives me two nights anyway and a little change and it seems different! The girls gave me beautiful indian serving bowls to serve things in. They make it look so nice!

Have a wonderful week! We have some rain which we need! 

xxxx

Crock Pot Cooking series no 2.

Last week we started off with some setting ourselves up. Finding dishes, racks etc. that fit your crock pots is an ongoing thing. And even with my list I forgot some things! Why oh why manufacturers don't make the fittings I have no idea but as far as I know none do. Maybe I need to design my own!

This week I'm going to cover the things I made since last post as they are useful things.

Firstly I made Chicken Stock. My large crock pot makes 5 liters of soup or stock. It doesn't matter what size you have though. Stock is great because you can save all kinds of left overs and use up things. I pop things in the freezer all the time towards the next stock. You can use any recipe or make any kind you want. The long slow cooking will extract the maximum flavor and goodness from your ingredients.

My basic chicken stock recipe is....
A chicken carcass raw or cooked OR chicken pieces on the bone or some raw chicken... ideally stock should include bones as a lot of goodness comes from the bones. But this week I just used a few bits uncooked chicken. In lamb or beef broth bones cut through release wonderful bone marrow. When the girls were little this is how I made baby food. It would be bones with a little meat on them and lots of vegies then blended. So healthy.  oops back to the recipe...
Some cloves of garlic chopped.
Some celery.
A couple of onions, plus leeks if you have them.
A couple of carrots.
3 bay leaves.
A sprig of rosemary.
A few (sprigs) of parsley.
A few of thyme.
Black pepper or peppercorns.
As much water as will fill your pot.

This is all very flexible. Think flavor, goodness and using up whatever vegies you have. If I have zucchini, pumpkin etc that goes in too. In this case I had chopped parsley and a bag of celery in the freezer. The herbs in the garden. Bay from Mum's tree... I had carrots, garlic on hand. I used raw chicken fillet. Save all the celery tops to go into your stock, nothing adds to stock like celery. Carrot peelings can go in. So many things suddenly are worth saving!

The advantage of the crock pot is it can go all day and it won't boil dry or catch. You can make stock while you sleep. You will end up with a deep flavorsome broth full of nutrients and all natural.

In order to not have to strain all this I use a stainless steel steamer that fits nicely into my crock pot. You could use a colander, steamer.... anything that will fit and the lid with still fit firmly. Mine is from my saucepan set.

I fill the crock pot 3/4 full of water and sit my steamer in the middle. Then I pack that steamer with all my chicken, herbs and vegies.... Once that is packed I might add more water if there is much room left in the crock pot. Always leave some gap at the top so it doesnt overflow when bubbling.

The whole point is then at the end you just lift your steamer up and let it drain and voila you have clear broth and the bones etc are contained and easy to manage. A couple of times during cooking I jiggle this around a bit to ensure water and ingredients are all flowing freely but the slow boil takes care of that pretty well.

I put my mix on and let it go all day. Longer is better than shorter with stock.

At the end it is a really good broth.

So now you have made a beautiful stock mostly from left overs!

I refrigerated a pot of stock and a bowl of my solids as well.

The next day I put some of the stock back in the crock pot. I fill the crock pot to about 1/4 full only. Then I fill it up with chunky pumpkin, onions and sweet potato. A couple of carrots sometimes. Then let that go on low all day or if you are around until it is all tender.  If I think there might be too much liquid I remove a couple of cupfuls with a ladle. It is easier to add it back in than reduce it. I like it to be thick! Then I blend with a stick blender until smooth, taste and season if needed. That is it. Now I have about 5 liters of beautiful thick pumpkin soup.

I serve this with a little cream and cheese. It is so nice. Sometimes I take a cup of this and add it to scone mix and then you have pumpkin scones. For children this soup can be used as a pasta sauce with the addition of cheese. It also freezes well. Made even thicker it is baby food.


The other bowl with the saved chicken and vegies... I fished out the bay leaves and thyme stems. Added liquid stock, soup beans, corn, more onion and let that cook slowly all day. You could add chopped carrot, small pasta shells or alphabet noodles, anything you like... then you have chicken soup. This can be served as is or blended to make cream of chicken soup.

So I ended up with about eight liters of beautiful stock and soups. Some stock was frozen.
Making your stock first then your soup gives you wonderful flavor.

So this alone is a very good, healthy, economical way to make your crock pot work for you. Stock is also wonderful as a glaze over vegies or as a base of a sauce or gravy or in risotto. Rice can be cooked in stock anytime to fill it with nutrition and flavor. Stock can be frozen to be ready for soup making also.

You can make any soup you like, use your own best recipe or try any flavor you think your family will like. Soup is such an easy thing really and so comforting and good. I make soup according to the specials. If cauliflowers are on special then it will be cauliflower cheese or cauliflower soup!

Next I made Creme Caramel.
The reason I do this in the crock pot is then I don't have to deal with a tray of boiling water out of the oven. That always is difficult and I slosh it etc. In the crock pot I can just lift the dish out of the water. Later when that water has cooled I empty it on a plant. It is just so much easier!
Cooking creme caramel, baked custard or baked rice custard in a tray of water is what gives you the smooth velvety texture. It is one of those little miracles.

You can use any recipe for any of these that you might have. I do not bother with the toffee on the bottom so technically this is not a true creme caramel in its entirety. (usually you put toffee over the base of the dish. Then when you flip it and turn it out this becomes the top. Alternatively you can pour toffee over the top) If you want to do the toffee just use a traditional recipe or make a toffee glaze for this.
The one I usually do has the lovely velvet smooth texture and vanilla flavor. But any baked custard, rice custard recipe works in the same way.

Mine is....

1/3 cup castor sugar (fine white sugar)
2 plus 1/3 cups milk,
4 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla. (I use thick vanilla concentrate as I LOVE vanilla)
Blend all this until perfectly smooth.
Pour into a baking dish.
Bake in tray of water (in this instance your crock pot) until set.  Mine was 2 hours on high from cold water to set time.

This serves 4.

I put some water into the crock pot. Carefully test out how high to put your water by putting your dish in empty and press it to the bottom or put your dish in and then very carefully add the water around it. You want water 3/4 up the sides. If you put too much water it will end up in your custard. So work this out first. The water must be cold. If you hurry it up with boiling water you don't get the smooth texture. Don't ask me how I found this out....

Then sit your dish of custard in this. You could also do 4 individual dishes which looks lovely to serve. (A bit fancier)
Turn on the crock pot to high. Place a tea towel/kitchen cloth under the lid...

This catches the drips. This is what you do for anything like cakes, bread, custards...
Mine from beginning with cold water to done takes two hours. This is going to depend on the size of your crock pot, dish etc.
It's like anything.... do it once and see how it goes and next time you will have the timing perfect. Two hours is my perfect time. The custard should be set softly. If done and you are not ready to serve it then take the lid off, turn it off... it will stay warm for ages.
I serve this with a strawberry on the side. It is lovely. It is good cold too.
Baked egg custard, creme brulee (this is similar but thicker and richer as made with cream) baked rice custard... all beautiful. All cooked in the crock pot in this same way.

These are simple nutritious and economical things that are delicious and the crock pot does most of the work for you.  In the case of stock the long slow cooking works for you. In the case of the custards the slow delicate cooking works perfectly for these.

Coming home or just after a busy day at home, beautiful soup already made is so good. It is winter here so that is why soups are featuring! I usually add cornbread, pumpkin scones or even toasted cheese sandwiches and dinner is done. I will have soup for lunch everyday too if I have it. Also it is good to keep some serves of soup in the freezer for emergencies. We virtually never have take away as if I know it's going to be a busy day, or we will not be home I will have dinner cooking. Otherwise I will have a meal from the freezer.

Next week I will cover stews, casseroles, pies and Shepherds Pies. In this case you get great casseroles and the let overs make the most wonderful tender pies and Shepherds Pies which are a new meal and can be frozen for another night. These are real family fillers and so good!

Thank you to everyone who sent links to tutorials! I have decided to do a post about good tutorials and link to them all. Nanna Chel even made a tutorial especially! Hers is how to make lovely soap with Calendula flowers and with a no caustic soda method which will suit a lot of us. It looks amazing. But she also has recipes for other methods as well. If you ever wanted to make soap this would be perfect to get you going! Thank you Nanna Chel! Nanna Chel's soap tutorial.

Have a wonderful week! Every new skill we learn or skill we get better at is a big help to our household! xxx

The Crock Pot (Slow Cooker) Your number one handmaiden.

There is nothing nicer in the world than getting to the end of the day when you are tired, worn out, and frazzled and you walk through the door to the aroma of a beautiful meal cooked for you. Oh, what a relief. I hope you have experienced this a few times!

It doesn't matter if we have been out all day and returning home or perhaps home after a busy day, the meal all cooked and ready to serve is just the nicest thing.

Everyone loves the aroma of hot food as they walk in. What a welcome home and it builds anticipation of a wonderful meal. 

When my children were babies I was a single Mum. I noticed right away four or five in the afternoon babies were grizzly, I was tired, feeding would be difficult and it all came when I needed to start cooking dinner. There were times when cooking then was hard.

Later this time became busy with baths and bed time, homework, after school activities and tired and hungry children. Five o'clock seems to be the time for everything!

If you are working outside the home you are heading home after five. I can't imagine then also having to face decisions about dinner, cooking and cleaning up. Plus everything else...

Whether its tiredness or too many things happening someone at home cooking your dinner is just a dream come true.

Knowing dinner is beautiful and will be ready has another effect. You are not stressing about it. You are free to talk with the family, help with homework, relax and chat or take a soak in the bath if you want. You are also not running to the grocery store and trying to work out what to cook for dinner or tempted to grab takeaway. None of these things enter your head. This is a money saver and time saver. And massive stress saver. 


If this sounds perfect to you then you can start a new life next week and have your dinner cooked and ready and avoid the five o'clock crazy hour forever. 
You just need a crock pot/ slow cooker. And you don't need to use it everyday. It will provide extra meals that are not recognisable as repeats or left overs. And you will have lunches you could take to work or send with the kids to school. It will save you so much... cooking, time, money, stress and worry.

There are lots of things that just taste better after long slow cooking. Soups, casseroles, roasts, curries and so many things develop beautiful flavours over time. Even inexpensive meats become glorious when slow cooked. Lamb shanks fall off the bone. It is really divine.

But more... you are not standing at the stove, you are off doing things you need to be doing. 


An abundance of soup or meat from last night also gives you tomorrows lunch or perhaps another dinner in a night or two. And many casseroles turn out to be perfect tender filling for golden flaky pies. Suddenly you are famous for your pies.

All of my recipes are designed to get you going and to increase your confidence to cook meals your family will love. In reality you can cook almost anything and so many things you didn't think you had time to cook!

Much of it can be pre prepared, specials can be taken advantage of. I decide much of my menu from marked down meat and amazing vegie specials. These go straight into the crock pot or I freeze ready to go.

Even times I am having a summer BBQ or entertaining the crock pot might be full of sides, like baked potatoes or corn on the cob or a lovely bread to serve hot. Or a hot desert to serve later.

Another huge advantage is saving energy. Here in South Australia power is very expensive. Last summer I stopped using my oven altogether in an experiment. I used either the crock pot, the BBQ or we had cold meals. Our electricity bill was $400 cheaper for the quarter. Yes $400. And since I have found the same and compared the bills. It has been my oven eating the power. 

In summer keeping the house cool is another issue. The oven just heats up the kitchen which is the last thing you need on a really hot day. On those days I usually serve cold meat and salads. Other times I have used the crock pot and it does not heat up the house. I will cook a piece of meat and use it in wraps, or serve salads with it. Wonderful. The house stays much cooler.

You can make beautiful baby food. I worked out that my crock pot full of pumpkin to puree or apples or pears.... results in pureed baby food that in the store would cost $77 to buy. The ingredients to make would be well under $7 so lets just say that is abut $70 saving every time you do it! Isn't that crazy?

You can also stew your fruit. Apples let go long enough turn pink. I used to add sago and the girls loved this for desert and eat it cold the following days. The scent of quinces cooking as they turned pink was another lovely one. Stewed fruit hot in winter or cold in summer is just yummy!

Your crock pot is your trusty helper there to serve you. It will make meals while you are busy or while you sleep. What could be better?

Lets get started!

I have several crock pots. They are inexpensive to buy and I have some from op shops too. If you have never used one a really good way to start is to make your favourite soup. Whatever recipe you love. If it is a blended soup you will blend it at the end of the day. Use less water than you normally would but otherwise just pop everything you normally would put in, get it started in the morning and let it go all day. You have no stirring or checking, you just come home to cooked soup. If using vegies that you would normally cut up small don't both just throw in big chunks and save yourself the bother.

Most recipes you love can be used. Less water is usually the key. I only add water to soups. Or around corned beef.  Nothing else! As moisture doesn't escape so things are more moist than you might first expect. And most meats and vegies are moist, it is surprising how much moisture comes out of things.  For flavour or gravy you can use all kinds of things from balsamic vinegar, cranberry sauce, tomato paste, a tin of soup, mint jelly... think of all the flavoursome "liquids" that go with the combination you are using. ie I think Pork.... goes with apples... Lamb goes with mint jelly... chicken goes with cranberry... beef goes with tomato... whatever you think are combinations you love! What else goes? Mushrooms go nicely with beef or chicken. So you could use mushrooms, mushroom soup, a tin or dry... and so on. Apples to go with pork could be whole apples, diced apples, a tin of apples... It is very flexible!

Now my husband said to me that he didn't like crock pot meals. He said they are "too creamy" so somewhere along the line someone had cooked him something he didn't like much and he doesn't like creamy meals. End of story. I just took it as a challenge. I soon knew he loves curries. And I am not a curry maker. So I bought curry bases in the supermarket and went from there. We had butter chicken and I did sides of Nann bread and raita and little salads in pretty bowls and rice. And beef Korma and Tikka Masala and he thought it was all so fabulous. It was all in my crockpot. Then I did a lamb leg and loads of vegies with a rich gravy, and then lamb shanks with tomato and red wine... well it was an easy conversion! 

Your best bet is going to be cooking things your family really loves. I am all for trying new things, introducing more things, packing in a lot of vegies and making things healthy. But start off with things you know they are going to love. I don't mind a bit if you use flavour bases from the supermarket or stock or a can of soup. I am a country style cook. I cook rustic wholesome food. I understand country flavours and my priority is to cook wholesome meals and for us to eat a lot of vegetables everyday. I like us to have seven or so serves of vegies. Everyday. I like to have meals on hand for when I am sick. I get migraines and I factor that in. I always keep meals in the freezer and soup in case anyone is sick. But I don't know how to balance the flavour of a curry and feel intimidated by that. So I buy lovely curry sauces and use them. They have all turned out so well. These do not have to be especially for the crock pot. I keep some on hand. My Mum has abundant mint in her garden so I learned to pick a bunch, blend into yoghurt and add a dash of cumin so I have a raita to serve with curries. This is yum and I love it! What I am saving is it is ok to improvise,substitute, experiment, cheat and learn. We are all learning. And even if we use something like a flavour base or can of soup, over all that meal is still likely to be much healthier than take away. 

Left over vegetables and a chicken carcass can be put on in the evening and let go over night. While you are sleeping you are cleverly making wonderful stock.

You could make a thick heartt soup and in the morning fill the thermos with this and send these to work or to school on cold days. 


Getting set up. 

Having a few basic things ready to go is going to help. Things that you do not want to "stew" will need to be placed on something to raise them off the base of your crock pot. Simple things like egg rings will work. I would do this with a pot roast chicken, for instance. I like to have some cake airers that are just the right size for this. And some casserole dishes to insert that are just the right size. These will be for cakes, custards, creme caramel etc that need to be placed into a water bath for divine results! So see what you have and then see what you can find. I make a template of the base of each crock pot and keep that in my purse. This way I have perfectly sized things when I need them. 
My most often used inserts are a vegetable steamer thingy that I sit over the top of other ingredients to cook peas or other vegies that I might want separate...

This is kind of collapsible and fits a variety of things. Other ones are the old triangle shaped inserts with holes through them. They will work fine.

Non stick baking paper is another essential. With something like a cake or loaf of bread you might rather use a tin inside the crock pot. Otherwise you can line the crock pot dish with baking paper and place it directly in. I just find that makes things easier to lift out. Also you can use baking paper to create layers or "pockets" to separate sections of food from one another.

Next is oven bags. These come in different sizes. These make it possible to have vegies cooking in one bag and baked apples in another all that the same time.

Then you need cake tins, casserole dishes, ramekins etc that sit nicely inside your crock pot.  These casserole dishes fit in just right for individual baked custards where you are sitting them into a water bath so they cook like velvet...

Or this larger baking dish for custard, creme caramel, rice pudding...

Filling the bottom of the crock pit with water and sitting these in is much safer than juggling a tray of boiling water in a baking pan in the oven. When making something like this I will put a tea towel under the lid so there are no drips. I would do that too for cakes, breads etc. Anything where you don't want condensation dripping back into food.

Here I have just used a foil tray for my meatloaf and surrounded my vegies around that. I would put a couple of desert spoons of water in the bottom and that is it. Toward the end I might add grated cheese over my cauliflower ...  or perhaps pour over a sauce.

The other thing to have is a stick blender. To puree soup or vegies I blend it right there in the cooker. Quick and easy.

After you have used the crock pot it is easy to clean. Fill it with water and let it sit. If it is really dirty with stuck on food add some fabric softener or a dish washer tablet and let it soak. You can even run it a while and let this brew do it's thing. It will clean so easily after that.

Next in this series I will start on recipes. They are my tried and tested ones. But whatever recipes are your families most loved recipes they will work. It is easy to adapt and things you never feel you have the time for now you will cook all the time!

Also the large amounts you can cook lead to other meals. I will show you how a chicken casserole will be just that on night one and the left overs can become a family chicken pie, individual pies to freeze or a version of a Shepherds Pie with mashed potato over the top. The crock pot gives you the most tender pie fillings ever! 

You can make baked custards, creme caramel, scrolls, bread, anything! All without worrying about stirring, burning etc. You can put things in before bed time and wake up to cooked breakfast on a cold morning. 

People also seem to think things all need to be casseroles or stews or soup. But you can separate layers or sections so that different components never even touch each other.

You can also divide your meal so one side is main and another side is desert.

Things like boiled puddings or steamed puddings are easy as you never have to worry about them boiling dry.

I will leave it there for today. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to find inserts and accessories that fit your crock pot so that you can make all kinds of new things as we go along.

Have a really good week! We have a fresh new moth ahead of us! xxx