Every once in a while we talk about using our crock pots and I know that people have asked for recipes to use in their crock pots. If you don't mind, I'd like to give a review of a new (to me, anyway) crock pot cookbook.
The Great American Slow Cooker Book by Bruce Weinstein and M. Scarbrough. I ordered this from Amazon and it came this past Thursday. It was being hawked on QVC one night, but I don't buy a lot from QVC because of the high shipping. So if there's something, I'm interested in, I check out Amazon.
I like that they have three different amounts for the ingredients, depending on what size your slow cooker is. That's pretty nice because it take a lot of the guess work out of figuring how much liquid for how much vegetables or meat, or whatever. And I have crock pots of various sizes, so they'll all work for me. FWIW, though, I think that when using the spices, herbs, salt, etc. in these recipes, use your own judgement, if you can. It looks like, with some of the recipes, the authors simply said "One teaspoon for the smaller crockpot, two for the medium size, and three for the large crock pot." If you look at the recipes, you'll see what I mean. And I'm not quite sure I agree with that. There's a big difference between one teaspoon of salt and three teaspoons of salt, for example, even for larger quantities and I'd be a little leery. Just my two cents there. YMMV You can make the largest recipe, if you have a large crock pot and then freeze the rest....makes it nice for grabbing something quick on busy nights.
The first recipe I tried was for a slow cooker mac and cheese. It's really good! Nice and creamy, lots of cheese, not runny at all, great flavor. I used a mixture of three block Cheddars that I ran through the shredder of my food processor, a little more dry mustard than the recipe stated (and did not add the thyme), and I threw in a scant 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, just for a bit of a kick. No salt because I thought the cheese would have salt on its own. I used large pasta shells instead of the elbows. Nonfat milk. And I used the largest recipe for my large crock pot. Cooked 45 minutes on High, gave it a good stir, and cooked another 45 minutes on High. Served the mac and cheese with a Caesar salad. I thought there'd be leftovers, but Dear Richard made sure there was barely enough leftover for his lunch on Monday (yesterday). He really liked it and I'll be making it again. 90 minutes in the crock pot versus about 60, making a casserole in the oven. That's not bad at all.
Today's dinner will be the recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup from the book. The only difference is that I seldom use chicken thighs, even skinless thighs, so I used bone-in (skinless) breasts in the crock pot. It won't take long to bone the breasts tonight when I get home. I can bone the breasts while the noodles are cooking; it takes about an hour for the noodles to cook and it won't take nearly that long to bone the breasts, so I can bone them, then throw the chicken back into the crock pot and finish it up. (I was dithering between Chicken Noodle Soup or Chicken and Corn Soup, but went with the noodles.)
The only problem I can see is that they don't include the nutritional information for the recipes and I think that's important. Sure, I can sit down and figure it out (and I will as I go), but these days, you would think that the nutritional information would be included. Maybe that's just me.
I'm going to be using this book often. I really like it. And I think that, if you're looking for a nice cookbook for your crock pot, no matter what size crock pot you have, this might be what you're looking for.
The Great American Slow Cooker Book by Bruce Weinstein and M. Scarbrough. I ordered this from Amazon and it came this past Thursday. It was being hawked on QVC one night, but I don't buy a lot from QVC because of the high shipping. So if there's something, I'm interested in, I check out Amazon.
I like that they have three different amounts for the ingredients, depending on what size your slow cooker is. That's pretty nice because it take a lot of the guess work out of figuring how much liquid for how much vegetables or meat, or whatever. And I have crock pots of various sizes, so they'll all work for me. FWIW, though, I think that when using the spices, herbs, salt, etc. in these recipes, use your own judgement, if you can. It looks like, with some of the recipes, the authors simply said "One teaspoon for the smaller crockpot, two for the medium size, and three for the large crock pot." If you look at the recipes, you'll see what I mean. And I'm not quite sure I agree with that. There's a big difference between one teaspoon of salt and three teaspoons of salt, for example, even for larger quantities and I'd be a little leery. Just my two cents there. YMMV You can make the largest recipe, if you have a large crock pot and then freeze the rest....makes it nice for grabbing something quick on busy nights.
The first recipe I tried was for a slow cooker mac and cheese. It's really good! Nice and creamy, lots of cheese, not runny at all, great flavor. I used a mixture of three block Cheddars that I ran through the shredder of my food processor, a little more dry mustard than the recipe stated (and did not add the thyme), and I threw in a scant 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper, just for a bit of a kick. No salt because I thought the cheese would have salt on its own. I used large pasta shells instead of the elbows. Nonfat milk. And I used the largest recipe for my large crock pot. Cooked 45 minutes on High, gave it a good stir, and cooked another 45 minutes on High. Served the mac and cheese with a Caesar salad. I thought there'd be leftovers, but Dear Richard made sure there was barely enough leftover for his lunch on Monday (yesterday). He really liked it and I'll be making it again. 90 minutes in the crock pot versus about 60, making a casserole in the oven. That's not bad at all.
Today's dinner will be the recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup from the book. The only difference is that I seldom use chicken thighs, even skinless thighs, so I used bone-in (skinless) breasts in the crock pot. It won't take long to bone the breasts tonight when I get home. I can bone the breasts while the noodles are cooking; it takes about an hour for the noodles to cook and it won't take nearly that long to bone the breasts, so I can bone them, then throw the chicken back into the crock pot and finish it up. (I was dithering between Chicken Noodle Soup or Chicken and Corn Soup, but went with the noodles.)
The only problem I can see is that they don't include the nutritional information for the recipes and I think that's important. Sure, I can sit down and figure it out (and I will as I go), but these days, you would think that the nutritional information would be included. Maybe that's just me.
I'm going to be using this book often. I really like it. And I think that, if you're looking for a nice cookbook for your crock pot, no matter what size crock pot you have, this might be what you're looking for.
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