Food Lovers Central: Articles, Tips, and Recipes

Potluck Creations in the Slow Cooker

A slow cooker is a great addition to your arsenal of cooking equipment. It is definitely a help when you have no idea what to cook for dinner. Throw in a bit of this and toss in a little of that and you’ve got a meal of your own creation for a hungry family.

If you have an adventurous cooking spirit and a cabinet or pantry full of goodies, it’s easy to create a slow cooker meal from scratch. I know you are shaking your head, but it is doable and your family will love it. In fact, why not let everyone get in on the meal to make it more interesting?

When putting together a potluck slow cooker meal, you need a base or main ingredient. Meat or beans make the perfect base. Although grains also make a good base for meals, they cook too quickly to be of any use to you in a slow cooker. Rice quickly becomes mushy when it is overcooked and pastas work best when boiled. Therefore, slow cooking these types of foods would potentially ruin them.

Your base is something that can stand up to the length of time required for crock pot cooking and the temperature. Chicken, turkey, beef, pork, and lamb are all good choices for a meat base. Most beans can stand up to the heating process of a slow cooker. Once you have made a choice for your meal base, wash it thoroughly and put it in the cooker. Don’t forget to add a bit of liquid to the bottom before of the crock pot first.

The next step is to decide what will go well with the base chosen. Most meat types share the fact that they are compatible with many of the same vegetables. First, check the fridge. A bag of baby carrots, an onion, and some celery are staring you in the face. These we can use. Go ahead and toss the carrots right in on top of your meat or bean base.

Go ahead and start the cooker while you search for more ingredients. See that bag of red-skinned potatoes in the corner? The best thing about them is that they don’t have to be peeled. Simply, wash the outer skin thoroughly and pop them into the cooker as well. No need to slice or dice them beforehand.

Remember that celery and onion from your refrigerator? Throw them in a skillet with salt, pepper, and cooking wine if you have it. Let the wine reduce and cook the veggies.

Now it’s time to think about spices and seasonings. What will go well with your base? For kick, add some turmeric, cumin, and cilantro. Curry goes well with chicken or pork for a more Indian flavor. On the Italian side, choose rosemary, basil, oregano, bay leaf, and coriander. Remember, fresh herbs have a more distinctive taste than powdered spices, so if you have some on hand, use those instead.

About an hour before time zero, add your sautéed veggies and spices. Stir and smell the wonderful flavor. If there is still too much liquid left for your liking, turn the cooker up on high and remove the lid. The liquid will evaporate and you can return to low after the desired level of broth is achieved.

When someone in the house is getting hungry, who says you can’t make a great meal from whatever you happen to have lying around? Put that slow cooker to work tonight instead of having fast food or slaving in the kitchen all day long over a hot oven.

Potluck Christmas Dinners

Christmas dinner is a tradition in many countries. Families and friends get together to share a meal and have some fun. This year, if you are hosting the Christmas dinner, try a new approach to the meal. Turn it into a potluck Christmas dinner.

Potluck is an old term dating back a few centuries. It is a meal brought to a gathering to be shared with others. This is exactly what you will be doing with a Christmas potluck dinner. In centuries past, potluck meals used whatever was available but here, we want a bit fancier fare for our dinner menu.

First, the guests can come together to decide what type of menu you are looking to serve. Don’t worry if schedules are too tight for a family meeting. Use email, text messaging, and good old Ma Bell to straighten out the Christmas dinner menu.

Setting a menu in advance avoids everyone bringing a dessert and no side dishes for the Christmas dinner meal. A true potluck would involve everyone bringing something of their choice, but for variety’s sake, make a list first. As each household chimes in on what they will bring, add it to a list and send it out. We want to avoid duplicates if we can.

The main course of turkey or ham or what have you can be cooked at the host home. It proves easier to have the turkey already on site as opposed to transporting him all around town. Another family member can purchase the turkey and come over to cook it at the host home for the Christmas dinner.

You’ll need a place to set up the Christmas dinner choices. Most potluck meals are served buffet style so everyone gets exactly what they want to eat. Depending on the number of Christmas dinner guests, you may need a table or two set up for the menu items.

Place cards next to each dish explaining what it is. Most will be self explanatory but the place cards do help for kids and non-traditional meals. Label the desserts as well.

The dining room table can be set as usual for a potluck Christmas dinner. After the blessing, everyone can form a line to get their food.  Ask the dish maker to bring their own utensils for serving so you don’t have to use all of yours. Afterwards, everyone takes their own dish home to wash.

A potluck Christmas dinner saves time and money. Each dinner guest is responsible for a portion of the meal so no one has to do all of the preparation.