Chicken Cacciatore

Italian food is one of my favorites! Here's a quick and easy recipe for the crock pot that can be thrown together in minutes.  It's from Mable Hoffman's Crockery Cookery. Hope you enjoy it!

Chicken Cacciatore

1 3lb broiler chicken cut up
1 onion, chopped
1 t dried basil
1/2 t lemon pepper
1/4 t salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup rose wine
1 T sugar
1/2 green pepper, sliced
1 (8oz) can tomato sauce
1 cup sliced fresh mushrooms
Cooked pasta

Combine all ingredients, except mushrooms and pasta in slow cooker.  Cover and cook on Low 5 to 6 hours Tune control to High and add mushrooms. Cover and cook about 10 minutes. Serve over pats. Makes 5-6 servings.

Do you have a favorite Italian meal for the crock pot? Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!
Republished from March 4, 2011.

Chili con Carne

Cooler weather is finally here, and one of my favorite cool weather meals is chili!  I especially love the ease afforded when it's made in the crock pot. This recipe, from Mabel Hoffman's Crockery Cookery, uses chunks of stew meat instead of ground beef, so if you're looking for something tasty, as well as hearty and satisfying, look no further! Enjoy!

Chili con Carne

1 1/2 lbs stew meat
2 cloves garlic
1/2 t pepper
1/2 t salt
1 t chili powder
1 onion, chopped
1t beef bullion granules
1 16 oz. can sliced tomatoes with juice
1 14 oz. can green chiles, chopped
3 T chopped fresh cilantro
1 16 oz. can pinto beans, drained
cooked rice

Sprinkle meat with garlic, pepper, salt and chili powder.  Pat spices into meat.  Cut meat into 1/2 inch cubes. Place meat in slow cooker. Cover with onion, bullion granules, tomatoes and chiles.  Cover and cook on LOW 6 to 8 hours or until meat is tender.  Turn control to HIGH. Add cilantro and beans.  Cover and cook on HIGH 20 minutes.  Serve on a bed of rice.  Makes five or six servings.

I'd never had chili with stew meat until I tried this recipe.  I grew up eating chili made with ground beef. What about you, and which do you prefer? I like both!

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Indonesian Pork

I'll be out of town next week, so this will be my last post until August 12.  In the meantime, if you're looking for something tasty and easy to prepare, look no further!

This recipe is from Mabel Hoffman's Crockery Cookery and it's absolutely delicious! Hope you enjoy it.

Indonesian Pork

1 4-5 pound pork roast
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 t dried red pepper flakes
1/4 lemon juice
1 T crystallized ginger
3/4 cup crunchy peanut butter]

Place a metal rack or trivet in the bottom of a slow cooker. Place meat on rack.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  In a small bowl, combine honey, soy sauce, pepper flakes and lemon juice. Pour mixture over meat.  Cover and cook on low 9-10 hours  Remove meat and keep warm.  Skim off excess fat from juices. Turn control to high.  Stir in peanut butter and cook about five minutes.  Slice meat and serve.  Makes 5-6 servings.

Have you ever tasted any Indonesian dishes?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Corned Beef: An Irish Favorite

I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful St. Patrick's Day! In honor of the Irish, I'm sharing this easy corned beef recipe, created especially for your crock pot.  It's from one of my favorite cookbooks, Mabel Hoffman's Crockery Cookery.

Ms. Hoffman says to choose your favorite mustard to accompany this dish, and that steamed cabbage is a traditional side dish.  Enjoy!

Corned Beef

1 (2 1/2 to 3 lb) corned beef brisket with pickling spices
1 medium onion, chopped
1 carrot peeled and coarsely shredded
1 clove garlic, minced or pureed

Place corned beef in a slow cooker.  Top with pickling spices, onion, carrot and garlic.  Add enough water to cover meat.  Cover and cook on LOW 8 to 9 hours or until meat is tender.  Remove from cooker; slice and serve.

Do you have a favorite corned beef recipe?  Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Pushkin and Stroganoff

Today I thought it was about time to post another recipe. What follows is a very easy and delicious beef stroganoff for the slow cooker. However, since I'm posting a Russian recipe, I thought it fitting to share a little something about Alexander Pushkin, the great Russian poet and founder of modern Russian literature.

The first installment (Escape) of my trilogy, Unchained, is now available. It's a family saga that involves an average white guy learning of his African-American ancestry.  Near death, his one hundred year old grandmother reveals the secret that her grandmother was a black woman, born a slave.

Now what does Alexander Pushkin have to do with any of this?  Seems he was in a similar situation, though his ancestry wasn't a secret. Here's some interesting information from the blog Race and History posted by Selwyn Cudjoe.

...Abram Petrovich Gannibal, Pushkin's great-grandfather, born in Northern Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in the 1690s, was of royal stock. Pushkin claimed that his great grandfather was a prince who lived a luxurious life. He was abducted from Ethiopia when he was eight years old by a "Frenchman collecting animals and other curiosities for Louis XIV" of France. Shipped to Istanbul, he was placed in the Sultan's seraglio where the Russian ambassador found him and sent him back to Russia as a present to Peter the Great.

In the Russian court, Abram became a great favourite of Peter the Great. The Tsar became so attached to this precocious and intelligent child that he had him baptised into the Orthodox Church at Vilno where the Tsar himself became his godfather and the queen of Poland his godmother.

As he grew up, Pushkin took great pride in his great-grandfather and his Africanness which he  openly embraced and celebrated in Eugene Onegin.

Pushkin led a fascinating life, so I'll post more on him next week, but now on to stroganoff! This recipe is from Mabel Hoffman's Crockery Cookery, one of my favorite cookbooks! Hope you enjoy it.

Beef Stroganoff

2 lbs round steak

1/2 t salt
1/8 t pepper
1 onion sliced

1/4 t garlic salt

1 T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t paprika
1 (10 1/2-oz.) can condensed beef broth
1 T ketchup
2 T dry red wine
1/4 lb fresh mushrooms, sliced
3 T cornstarch
1/4 cup water
1 cup sour cream
Cooked rice or noodles

Cut steak into 1/4 inch strips.  Season with salt and pepper.  Place steak and onion in slow cooker.  Mix garlic salt, Worcestershire sauce, paprika, broth and ketchup in a bowl.  Pour mixture over steak. cover and cook on LOW 6 to 7 hours or until steak is tender.  Turn control to HIGH.  Add wine and mushrooms.  Dissolve cornstarch in water in a small bowl.  Add to meat mixture, stirring until blended.  Cover and cook on HIGH 15 minutes or until slightly thickened.  Stir in sour cream; turn off heat. Serve with rice or noodles.

Happy eating! Do you have a favorite version of beef stroganoff? Thanks for visiting and have a great week!