Attention What are you having for dinner?

[Vannie]

Someone feed me dinner

You could clamp your nose shut with a clothespin all day long!

I do this on stuffed cabbage night.

 

[me203]

My problem with slow cookers is that they require one to get started early in the day. I'm not terribly functional early in the day. (Not that I'm much more functional later. ) And one has to decide early on what to make. A lot of my meals are a decision made close to dinner time.

I got a slow cooker from Goodwill that is just like the one my mother had. It then collected dust for years, until I finally got around to using it to make vegetable soup. (Vegetable soup was the only thing she used hers for--and I'm sure it was on my mind the day I got that one at Goodwill.) I haven't used it more than maybe a few times each year since, each time for soup.

Part of me is curious to try slow cookers more. Part of me is thinking maybe it's time I donate them. (Yes. Them. I have three lying around.)

 

[me203]

I do this on stuffed cabbage night.

Perhaps it would be better to clamp shut some other orifice, not the nose, on stuffed cabbage night.

 

[Vannie]

Perhaps it would be better to clamp shut some other orifice, not the nose, on stuffed cabbage night.

I'll explode!

 

[me203]

I'll explode!

Hmmm....maybe instead you could use a long vent hose running outdoors that's attached to the orifice in question!

 

[me203]

Red lentils cooked with a bit of onion, carrot, and potatoes.

 

[jjonn3]

My problem with slow cookers is that they require one to get started early in the day. I'm not terribly functional early in the day. (Not that I'm much more functional later. ) And one has to decide early on what to make. A lot of my meals are a decision made close to dinner time.

Well what usually happens is I plan it for one day and don't get started in time - so then I aim for the next - which I miss - then on the third day it is cook it or toss it. And I am too cheap to toss it.

Part of me is curious to try slow cookers more. Part of me is thinking maybe it's time I donate them. (Yes. Them. I have three lying around.)

I often want to try more things in the crock pot - but the problem is most of the recopies make huge portions and if I try something and find I don't like it...

 

[gaysian85]

Food. Somehow eating rocks and dirt doesn’t work.

 

[fredroy]

Pot Roast is easy. You can get the parts ready the night before.

 

[me203]

I often want to try more things in the crock pot - but the problem is most of the recopies make huge portions and if I try something and find I don't like it...

And even if you like the recipe, it could get tiresome using up a ton of leftovers. I think that's one reason why I don't use slow cookers more, even for soup. I may make vegetable soup often, but there are things that vary pot to pot. If/when I have more freezer space, freezing leftovers would help fix this problem. The other possible idea is to get smaller slow cooker.

 

[me203]

Pot Roast is easy. You can get the parts ready the night before.

The worst part is getting the marijuana ready. (You did say this was pot roast, right?)

 

[rareboy]

I got it wrong inn the other thread.

We are having a perfect comfort food tonight...grilled cheese snadwiches.

 

[me203]

Bad pot jokes aside...

I should probably consider the idea of prep the night before (and it's something I've thought of before). I don't think potatoes would work well--it seems to I've heard "don't ever refrigerate"--but most vegetables could be hacked up and stored in the refrigerator, ready to just pour into the slow cooker pot.

 

[Vannie]

I got it wrong inn the other thread.

We are having a perfect comfort food tonight...grilled cheese snadwiches.

Yeah. No diet food for me tonight. I just made a white cheddar grilled cheese with bacon and tomato snadwiche. And I had some homemade potato salad that was still warm.

 

[fredroy]

The potatoes hacked up, just cover with water. And heck, the carrots can go in there too. A quartered onion or two can just be wrapped in plastic (no bowl to wash). Add a shake or two of salt as a preservative. Cover the bowl and put in the fridge.
Then in the morning, dump it all into a colander to drain. Maybe rinse, maybe not. Dump the veggies into the crock, lay the meat on top, add half a cup of water.
Yeah, and salt and pepper the meat. Be generous.

 

[fredroy]

I use a couple of small baking potatoes. Scrubbed and cubed. About an inch square. Carrots get peeled and chopped into half inch or so chunks. The onion gets peeled and quartered.
I like to salt and pepper the hell out of the pot roast and sear it a bit. In bacon grease. Like a steak. I use the side burner on the gas grill outside.

Put it all together in the crock pot, do a generous wave of garlic powder on top and put it on low for about 6 hours if room temp, make it 8 hours if everything has been in the fridge.

Sounds like a big deal. It's not once you done it a couple of times. And compared to "everything in the crock and sprinkle on a package of Lipton Onion Soup" recipes, no compare.

 

[fredroy]

I use to hate cooking. I didn't know what I was doing.
Yeah, I could fry eggs and make omelettes. Spaghetti and a can of sauce is super simple. But after several years of "good eats" was Hamburger Helper and then when any flavor started to taste like plastic.... time to figure this shit out. I'm still figuring it out.

 

[me203]

I use a couple of small baking potatoes.

That was pretty much what my mother mostly used. That would have been our slow cooker vegetable soup potato.

Carrots get peeled and chopped into half inch or so chunks.

I usually don't peel carrots--or anything unless needed. I'm too lazy.

 

[me203]

I use to hate cooking.

I don't precisely hate cooking, but I don't have much enthusiasm now. One factor: I'm cooking just for myself. It also doesn't help my situation having a limited kitchen. I'd say the kithen setup I have right now is the worst I've ever had.

I didn't know what I was doing.

I'm not sure I was ever particularly great. But one thing I have thought is that I was more competent 30 years ago than now. Skills have gotten rusty. There are times that I try to do something a bit more ambitious than usual, and feel a bit overwhelmed. I think: I did this, once, and I can do it again! But that once was so long ago...

Although at least I can do some things reliably, so I don't have to rely on processed foods for every meal.

 

[me203]

Split pea soup. Again. Rumor has it that I've used so many split peas that the CEO of the split pea factory named his new yacht after me.