Crock Pot Cooking

Laura’s Blog Entry

As promised, here is an entry on everything crock pot. My love affair with these little slow cookers began when I was a kid. My mom would put vegetable soup or Swiss steak in the crock pot in the morning and when I got home after school it always smelled divine!

When I had my first apartment I got a tiny little one that holds about one quart. I made little tiny dinners for myself. I still have it! In fact, I own three of these babies, which I would consider excessive, if I didn’t use them all regularly. Now I use the baby one mostly for entertaining. It’s great for hot dips – like artichoke – yum! Or for making a small batch of shredded BBQ chicken for sandwiches.

I got the medium-sized one early in our marriage as a Christmas gift from Neil’s parents. The tiny one wasn’t big enough for soups and stews.

The one I use most is the huge one Mari and Neil got me for Christmas two years ago. The best feature is that it has a “keep warm” setting. This is great once soup is done and I just want to let it sit while the flavors blend. Plus I can make a massive batch of Cincinnati Chili in it. Or roast a whole chicken. Oh yes.

And on that note, here are a few of my latest masterpieces:

Ina Garten’s Roasted Chicken. Only changes I made were to brown the stuffed chicken in the oven first. Then slow cook 6-8 hours on low. Oh and I skip the fennel. It was very cost effective for us – one chicken gave us three meals. The first was the traditional roasted chicken served with mashed potatoes and a vegetable. Later I shredded the meat and made a BBQ Chicken Pizza. Tonight I am warming up the last of it with some BBQ sauce and serving on buns. None of us generally like dark meat, but this is so tender that when you shred it and mix it the light and dark together, even the dark meat is delicious.

Asian Shredded Beef. This recipe originally came from Cooking Light. It is amazingly good and now I make a large batch and freeze it for future meals. I serve it on whatever buns we have on hand, hamburger, hotdog, hogie. All good. Note: I despise Chinese five spice powder, so I leave that out.

BBQ Ribs. I was always afraid to try these, but with my recent successes I gave it a try. Soooo good. And easy! The recipe is from the little cookbook that came with the crock pot. I will type it up and post it in a separate entry.

Beef Brisket / Pot Roast / Pork Roast. All of these work great. I now make sure that I also plan to make either soup, or beef and noodles with the leftovers to make sure we use up every last morsel. Frugal, frugal, frugal.

And now I am going to share with you what I think is the most important secret to get good crock pot results. It adds a step, but is so worth it. Brown or sear your meat before placing in the slow cooker. Not only does it make the food much more visually appealing when it is done (sometime crock pot meals are a bit pale and sad looking) it adds an important depth to the flavor. The ribs recipe calls for them to be browned under the broiler before slow cooking. If the weather is nice next time I make them, I may pop them on the grill for this step.

A website I have found to be a great resource is A Year of Slow Cooking, which I linked to above for the shredded beef recipe. It is a great resource. I find I use it mostly when I want to take a regular recipe and adapt it to work in the crock pot. I can search her recipes and get an idea on cooking time as well pick up other tips on cooking that item.

So anybody have any crock pot favorites? Share in the comments if you do!

Why I ALWAYS Wear Black

Laura’s Blog Entry

Lots of great new footage of Depeche Mode’s tour of Europe out there. This one is from the other night in Hannover. I love all the audience singing.

The audio on this clip is better than the video – but that’s what’s really important anyway, right? The dreamy audio. Although the black trousers should not be too quickly dismissed. That would be a crime.

Pasta Fagioli

Laura’s Blog Entry

After a delicious dinner at the reopened ZZ’s Pizza on Gilbert Avenue, I was inspired to come up with a beanless version of Pasta Fagioli. If they can do it, why not me!

While this is hardly authentic, it is yummy.

Pasta Fagioli

Note: 1 can of white beans could be added if you want to include them. You might need another can of chicken broth in that case.

Also, this could easily be made vegetarian with vegetable broth and some sort of meatless sausage. I think it needs the sausage to get the flavor right.

1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 cup diced onion
2 stalks of celery, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 small zucchini, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 links of mild Italian sausage, casing removed and cut into bite sized pieces
2-14.5 oz cans of chicken broth
2 Tablespoons of tomato paste
4 springs fresh thyme
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 bay leaf
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes or ground red pepper
¾ cup uncooked elbow macaroni
salt and pepper
Parmesan cheese for topping

In a large soup pot or Dutch oven, heat olive oil to medium high. Add all vegetables except garlic. Saute until they begin to soften, 5 minutes or so. Season with salt and pepper. Add the garlic and continue to cook, stirring, for 1 additional minute.

Remove vegetables. Add sausage and brown slightly. Add the vegetables back in. Add broth, tomato paste, herbs and red pepper flakes.

Simmer soup until vegetables are tender and flavors have time to blend. It tastes better if you make it early in the day and let it sit to blend. Then just reheat it to serve. I put mine in a crock pot on low and let it simmer for a good 4 hours or more.

In a separate saucepan, cook the pasta until al dente. If you are eating the whole batch at once, you can cook the pasta in the soup at the end. Otherwise, keep the pasta separate and combine when serving. This keeps the pasta from blowing up and getting slimy.

Spoon a bit of pasta into each individual serving bowl. Fish out the herb stems from the soup, then top the pasta with the soup. Sprinkle on Parmesan cheese.

This is great served with bread to soak up the last bit of broth in the bowl!

Serves 4.

An Itsy Bitsy Favor

Laura’s Blog Entry

OK folks, this is the last time I am going to post this… Well, perhaps except for Twitter… I’ve got a lovely recipe for Pasta Fagioli that I will put up, but first I need a favor…

Our band The Sleep has be nominated for a Cincinnati Entertainment Award. It’s kind of a big deal around here.

I am in complete and utter shock about how this nomination happened. Craziness!

So here’s where you come in. We need your vote! It only takes a second and DOES NOT, I REPEAT, DOES NOT involve registering for a site or anything.

Just go here and enter your email address. Scroll down to the “experimental and electronic” category and select THE SLEEP from the drop down menu. Hit the “submit your vote” button at the bottom, and BOOM, you’re done!

VOTING ENDS NOVEMBER 9!

We would be ever so grateful! And when I say grateful, I mean grateful!

Thanks everyone! You’re super-swell! Enough with the exclamation marks, don’t you think?!!!

SOP035 – Very Wonderful on Many Levels

Download this episode

Show Notes
It’s November! But mercifully we’re not raking Thanksgiving over the coals again! There’s lots of new music this fall, and we’re personally delivering it to your iPod. First up are new tracks from Venus Hum and an interview with Tony Miracle about their album Mechanics & Mathematics. In What’s the Best Show on Television? we talk about our fascination with Project Runway. Mari brings a lovely seasonal tune, and just when you think you can’t take any more, we delve into freshly released music by Compact Space. Finally, we beg for votes for The Sleep, cause even though it’s an honor to be nominated, winning would be nice, too.

Music Guide
“Mathematics & Mechanics”
Artist: Venus Hum
Album: Mechanics & Mathematics
http://venushum.com
http://www.myspace.com/venushum
iTunes

“Tell Me Secrets”
Artist: Venus Hum
Album: Mechanics & Mathematics
http://venushum.com
http://www.myspace.com/venushum
iTunes

“Leaves”
Artist: Mari Smith

“Push Push”
Artist: Compact Space
http://www.myspace.com/compactspace
iTunes

“My Legacy”
Artist: The Sleep
Album: Never in a Million Years
http://thesleep.net
http://www.myspace.com/thesleepmusic
iTunes

Miscellaneous Links and Goodies
Do you Twitter? Swell! Follow us at http://twitter.com/smithsocc.

Synth Britannia Trailer

Cincinnati Entertainment Awards
PLEASE VOTE FOR THE SLEEP IN THE EXPERIMENTAL/ELECTRONIC CATEGORY BY NOVEMBER 9!

Gallery of Guys Neil Finds Attractive

The obligatory Depeche Mode Link
http://www.depechemode.com

Apple Dumplings

Laura’s Blog Entry

Last Saturday we got out for a bit and visited the local Renaissance Festival. It was the final weekend of the season, so if we wanted to go, it had to be that day. Mari and I were just getting over a nasty virus, so it was a somewhat shorter trip than usual. But we hit the highlights and Mari got to dress for the occasion.

We visited our favorite vendors, refilling our supply of glitter, otherwise known as fairy dust.

FYI – mixed with lotion this stuff makes killer body glitter. It is very fine and shimmers like Martin Gore on a moonlit night. Or so I hear.

It was quite cool and windy, so we bundled up in our knitwear and boots. We arrived famished and hit the food stands. Half the experience is eating the yummy treats and enjoying a restorative beverage. They manage to make a quite tasty beef stew served in a bread bowl. On a cold day, it was perfect. But not as perfect as dessert: Apple Dumplings. A whole apple, wrapped in pastry and baked in a cinnamon-laced syrup, served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Holy smoke! That was delicious!

I found myself craving it for days afterwards so I searched around for recipes and worked out my own version.

Apple Dumplings

Sauce
¾ cup water
½ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cloves
1 Tablespoon butter

Dumplings
1 prepared pie crust, flat and unbaked
2 large or 4 small apples, peeled and cored. (If using whole apples, don’t cut through the bottom when coring.)
2 Tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

For syrup, in a small saucepan, combine the water, sugar and spices. Bring to a simmer and cook, covered, for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the butter.

Mix the 2 Tablespoons of sugar and ¼ teaspoon cinnamon and set aside.

Flour a surface and roll out the prepared pie crust to make it slightly larger. Cut the dough into 4 triangular pieces. Brush off any excess flour.

Place an apple in the center of each piece of dough. If using 2 large apples, use one half apple per pastry, sprinkle some of the sugar mixture in the center of the dough, place the apple cut side down, and then sprinkle more sugar on top. If using whole apples, fill the center with the sugar mixture.)

Wet the edges of the dough with water and fold them up around the apple. Pinch it together. If it doesn’t quite cover, that’s OK.

Place the wrapped apples in an 8×8 baking dish.  Pour the syrup over the top. Bake 35-45 minutes, or until the fruit is tender and the pastry is browned. Pierce one gently with a sharp knife to check for doneness.

Serve with ice cream. Top with the syrup.

I’m imagining it might be tasty with a glass of mead. Yes indeed.

Menu Planning

Laura’s Blog Entry

This past year I took on a personal challenge: To go to the next level with my menu planning. I wanted to eat everything we were buying and not let anything go to waste. I know many people find it challenging to plan a week in advance, so I thought I’d share the way I go about it.

We are a shop-once-a-week family, as a rule. There are enough errands to do during the week. Heading to the store a number of times seems to put me over the edge. It just makes more sense to sit down and plan out the week ahead of time and make one trip.

So what have I found to be the most important step in making this menu planning endeavor successful? This may sound obvious, but first of all, I check the calendar. What is going on this week? Do we have any evening meetings or dinner events? That’s one less meal to prepare. Also, I look at what nights we will be getting home later. Those dinners call for something pre-made or quick on the menu. The rest of the nights can be meals that take a moderate amount of preparation. I have learned to be realistic about when I can put in more effort and when things need to be easy. This took a long time to learn but seems to be the key!

Our weekly schedule is pretty predictable. I generally cook dinner Monday through Thursday. Lately I have been trying to do leftovers or something simple on Fridays, to cut down on eating out. Saturday and Sunday we do head to a restaurant occasionally, but mostly grab take-out. This is what works for us. You might be the opposite and want to cook more on the weekends instead.

To come up with meal ideas, I rely heavily on Food Network for inspiration. I get so bored making and eating the same recipes over and over. I am constantly finding new things to make. It’s nice because as I watch cooking shows I can go to the website and quickly add recipes to my virtual “recipe box.” Then when the time comes to put together the week’s meals I have a head start. I also have a number of food blogs I check on a regular basis. (You can find ones I have written about in the past by searching through the “Food” category in the sidebar.)

For example, this meal was a big hit for us. Hot Sausage Burgers with Broccoli Rabe. Really liked the homemade sweet BBQ sauce. We got two dinners out of it, plus a few lunches. I made the sandwiches much smaller and served them on little slider buns.

During the school year it works best to have at least one crock pot meal for the nights we are chauffeuring Mari to and from dance. Or I might slow cook on a day when I know I can hole up at home and enjoy how it fills the house with yummy smells. I’ll follow this entry up with a crock pot blog. It’s a subject worthy of its very own entry!

So back to putting together a weekly plan…

Choose a day for shopping and try to stick to it. Food shopping usually happens on Sunday for us. I try to get a list together by late morning and then my darling husband takes it and magically returns with bags of food. I can’t express how grateful I am that he does this. I really could not bear to do the weekly shopping any more. I don’t mind the planning and the cooking. The bagging and the carrying was eating away at my soul.

Now it’s crunch time. Finalize what these meals are going to be! My method for generating the list is to first check for the new recipes I may have gathered online or from magazine that week. That is usually my starting point. I print out the ones that will be used. Then I flip though my recipe books and binders to fill in the blanks.

I put these binders together a few years ago and they are my saving grace. There is one for entrees, sides, salads, soups, and things like that. The other one is for desserts, baking, brunch, beverages, etc.  I organized them in categories that make sense to me. As new recipes makes the cut, they slide into a plastic page protector and filed away. I worked a long time to build a recipe arsenal to choose from. Plus experience has taught me what has good leftovers. If we don’t eat the leftovers, I consider that recipe a failure. I want to avoid throwing out any food. I see money just going into the trash when that happens.

I have a file folder where I place the recipes I’ll be using that week. Once I check those over and add any needed ingredients to my list I move onto our other food needs.

To stay on top of my pantry staples, I have a little list of regular items we buy – milk, bread, juice, lunch and breakfast items, etc. I give that a quick look as I make the weekly list and check my supply on everything. I am really bad at doing this by memory, so I have to have it written down.

My other tip is to put a blank list on the fridge and write down things as they are used up. Even Mari is trained to let me know when she wants certain snacks by writing it on the weekly list. I rarely run out of things since I began this method.

It takes some effort, but I feel like I am at a really good place now with this system. So how about you? What are some of your meal planning strategies?

Transformer Kitty Crossover

Neil’s Blog Entry

Hey there blog readers! Been a while since I’ve blogged and so today I decided to highlight some of the stuff I’ve got going on at my Zazzle store. Recently, I’ve been playing around with some funny Transformers-but-not-really-Transformers-because-Transformers-are-copyrighted-and-so-I-can’t-technically-say-they’re-Transformers shirts and bumper stickers. So go check them out – and while you’re there, be sure to take a look at the other items as well. They’re a bit on the darker side but just as fun to wear.

Still with no pithy catchphrase,

Neil

Mechanics & Mathematics

Laura’s Blog Entry

It’s here, folks. The new Venus Hum album is fresh off the presses:

In my humble opinion, it is up there as one of their best. It’s a quirky combination of killer dance beats, infectious bass lines, one-of-a-kind vocals and imaginative storytelling… all with a sugary, happy synth-pop coating. Nothing out there quite like it.

If you are unfamiliar with the band, here’s a little introduction nabbed from their website:

Venus Hum is a trio consisting of vocalist Annette Strean, multi-instrumentalist Tony Miracle, and filmmaker Kip Kubin. The band formed in 1999 in Nashville, TN and have released three albums… Venus Hum (mono-fi), Big Beautiful Sky (Geffen/BMG UK)  and The Colors in the Wheel (mono-fi/Nettwerk). Their 4th record, Mechanics & Mathematics, continues the mission to marry pop songs with strange electronic sounds.

Tony Miracle not only co-wrote the songs and programmed the synths, this time he took on the role of graphic designer for the tri-fold CD packaging. It is all very Venus Hum-ish – retro and modern, all at the same time. And isn’t that Annette just cute as a button?

Well done, kids! The album is on constant play at the Smiths’ abode. If you would like a sample of the delicious sounds, check out this entry on their blog where you can hear a condensed version of the album in one minute and eight seconds. Or tune in for our November episode of The Smiths’ Occasional Podcast where we’ll be playing a song or two and hopefully chatting with Mr. Miracle about the record.

Visit Venushum.com for information on how to order the CD or for links to digital download versions.

Why I Love Twitter

Laura’s Blog Entry

For those of you that have been standing around, with your fingers in your ears, hoping Twitter was going to go away… no chance! It is here to stay. At least until the next big trend hits, anyway.

Twitter and I didn’t start off on the right foot. My friend Random Nicole used to annoy me about getting on Twitter. She would post weird, handwritten notes on my Facebook page that said, “Twitter, Laura!”

So of course I dug in my heels and said, “No way! I don’t need anything else online to waste my time. This social networking stuff is eating my life. Go away!”

But after a reasonable amount of time, so that it would look like it was my own idea, I signed up during a fit of podcasting promotion.

At first, like a lot of people, I didn’t get it. I would write something and then I sat there in silence. Waiting. For something to happen. What exactly, I wasn’t sure.

Turns out the key is it’s all about whom you choose to follow. I knew a bunch of people who were already on, so I followed them and just watched the stream go by. It was entertaining, if not entirely overwhelming. But through it ran a thread of smart and funny “tweets.”

So I stuck with it and jumped in the stream. Here’s what I like about it. I can be feeling crappy or sad about something, pop up 140 characters about the situation and I immediately get back a few supportive or humorous replies.

I’ll be honest, I am totally on Twitter for my own benefit. I like witty banter. And trying to inject witty into banter that is limited to 140 characters is a little mental exercise for my brain. I love words, and seeing people use them to great effect or humor makes my day.

Here’s one of my favorites… prepare for visual aids:

Ah, Merlin Mann, you are indeed clever and sarcastic. My brain will never run as fast as yours does, but I love watching.

Also, I follow quite a few Depeche Mode fans. One such person is the fabulous Betsey Booms. I’d like her even if she didn’t tweet about Depeche Mode cause she loves zombies and robots. Here’s a sample of her work.

She is of course referring to the Depeche Mode song “Somebody.” Anyone who had Depeche Mode music in their wedding is a kindred spirit.

But there is nothing, and I mean nothing like getting a reply from a celebrity. Like Neil Gaiman. (Famous super-cool author. Google him.)

Yes, he was talking to me folks. Too long to explain what we were talking about. Like I could care what it was about. Neil Gaiman, people.

And on that note, there is something I just discovered today, a site called Favstar, which tracks anyone that favors one of your tweets. I was positively giddy to see the following:

That is Jon Armstrong, husband to my favorite blogger, Heather Armstrong of Dooce.com. He favored me, ya’ll.

That could only be topped by this:

Me. Favored by Depeche Mode. ‘Nuff said. So yes, I am one of the dweebs who chatters away on Twitter during the day. And I like it. And I am still able to accomplish things in my life. So there. (Can’t speak for you though. It might just eat your brain. Proceed at your own risk.)