Slow Cooker Basics Part 2

A slow cooker is a useful tool for any busy household. All that is required of you is to add your ingredients to the crock pot and be ready to eat a sumptuous meal when you return. Slow cookers come in many sizes to accommodate singles and larger family units. Before you begin to lick your lips, here are some basic tips about how and what to cook in your slow cooker.

First, there are slow cooker cookbooks on the market. They turn some of our favorite stovetop and oven recipes into slow cooker sensations. Dishes you may never thought of cooking in a crock pot cooker can be prepared without you even being there. I don’t know about you, but that idea sounds fantastic to me.

What you must remember when cooking anything in a slow cooker is the liquid component. There must be some type of liquid in the bottom of the cooker to begin the cooking process. Without it, your dish will cook to the bottom and burn. There doesn’t need to be a lot of it, just enough to cover the bottom in most cases. The juices within the meat will mingle with the other liquid during cooking to create more of a stock.

When using a crock pot it should be at least half full for maximum cooking potential. Keep in mind that the more food you add to the cooker, the slower it will cook. The temperature will cook the food evenly without overcooking if the heat settings are adjusted accordingly. If you aren’t careful and don’t adjust the crock pot heat settings, you may find that an eight hour setting cooked your dinner in two and spent the other six drying it out.  

Meats are the most common food cooked in a slow cooker. People use a crock pot to cook main dishes for dinner since this is the meal we struggle with preparing most on a busy schedule. Any meat used needs to be thoroughly drained before adding it to the cooker. Since meat takes longer to cook, they need to make up the bottom layer. This will also help keep the meat moist since it will cook into the liquid underneath.

For safety, cook meats at least three hours so that an internal temperature that is high enough for proper cooking can be reached. This is not usually a problem since many use the crock pot at its lowest setting (six to ten hours depending on the brand of cooker). Just a word of advice, whole chickens should not be used in a slow cooker. The internal temperature needed to safely cook that much chicken properly can’t be reached in time for eating at such low temperature settings.

If you plan to cook vegetables in your slow cooker, here are some tips. Tough fibrous veggies like carrots and potatoes can be tossed in at the beginning with the meat. It takes longer for the fibers to be broken down and the vegetables to be cooked all the way through. More delicate vegetables like tomatoes, peppers, and mushrooms should be added half an hour before the meal is done.

Slow cooking makes dinner a cinch when you are on the run. Just be sure to experiment with various dishes the first time to get an idea of how long your slow cooker takes to create the particular meal. Layering foods correctly and testing heat settings will ensure your meal will be delicious every time.

Oriental Noodle Chicken Soup

What You Need:

1 lb chicken thighs, boneless and skinless

1 (16 oz) pkg. baby carrots cut in half

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 (8 oz) can bamboo shoots, sliced and drained

1 (8 oz) can water chestnuts, sliced and drained

1 (3 oz) pkg. oriental flavored noodle soup mix

1 (32 oz) can chicken broth

1 C frozen sugar snap peas, thawed

2 green onions, chopped

How to Make It:

Place the chicken thighs into the bottom of a crock pot.

Layer the carrots, celery, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts in that order.

Sprinkle the oriental seasoning packet from the noodle soup. 

Pour in the broth but do not stir.

Cover and cook on low temperature for 7 to 8 hours.

Remove the chicken from the crock pot and carefully shred it with two forks.

Return the chicken to the crock pot and stir to combine.

Break the noodles from the soup mix into the mixture.

Add the snap peas, cover and continue cooking an additional 15 minutes or until the noodles are tender.

Sprinkle in the green onion just before serving.

Serving Size:  6

3/4 C of regular sweet peas can be used in place the sugar snap peas.  Using chicken thighs is important when it comes to crock pot cooking.  They keep their shape better and remain moist during the long cooking time.  They also enhance the flavor of the soup better than chicken breasts.

Catering A Successful Christmas Dinner

Preparing Christmas dinner for a group of people can be time consuming. With everything that goes into the Christmas season, adding dinner to the list can be daunting. This year, consider having your Christmas dinner catered.

To many, catering Christmas dinner can seem like a frou-frou thing to do. You’d expect that at a high society Christmas dinner but not for a down home family gathering. Actually, more and more people are opting for this type of holiday meal.

Catering a Christmas dinner meal saves time. That is probably the number one reason to have the Christmas meal catered. Hours are spent in the kitchen fixing food and washing dishes. By the time the guests arrive to eat, you are too pooped out to participate.

The Christmas dinner is about fellowship. It is hard to carry on a conversation if you are asleep. With a catered dinner, the caterers do the majority of the work while, you are allowed to play host or hostess and interact with the family.

Catering a Christmas dinner includes food and service. Caterers come in and set up the food station and bring already prepared food. If you’d like, they will also serve the food to the guests and replenish food that is running low. Afterwards, they are responsible for clean up.

When dealing with a caterer for Christmas dinner, contact them well in advance of the occasion. Caterers book up fast with private parties and corporate affairs. Discuss a budget with them. While you want the convenience of not cooking you don’t want to go broke trying to do it. Choose a caterer with the most services included in the price of the meal.

Stick with a simple menu. Adding several side dishes and meats will jack up the price. Choose one or two meats and maybe three side dishes. Chicken is one of the cheapest meats to serve. Desserts can be brought by the Christmas dinner guests.

Remember that caterers will be watching the clock. They get paid for the amount of hours they are there. So, serve dinner first and then everyone can lounge and talk over dessert since you provided that yourself. The caterers can clean up, wrap up any extra food, and clear out in a matter of a couple of hours. The rest of the Christmas evening can be enjoyed by you and your family alone.

Some catered Christmas dinners just involve the food. In that case, the price will be cheaper and you can set up the eating area any way that you want. The food arrives a few hours before dinner and you didn’t have to lift a finger.

Catering a Christmas dinner is a great way to save time on cooking. The family gets a great meal for Christmas without the hassle and stress of preparing it.