The Shadows on My Wall Don't Sleep

I tried a recipe for this before and it was rather disappointing, too wet and not enough flavor. This time I made it up on my own and it turned out pretty nice, though if you don't want to have to practically cut your oatmeal you might want a bit more liquid in the mix.

Only our big slow cooker (6qt) has a timer so I mixed everything in a 1.5qt Corningware casserole dish and set that in the slow cooker to effectively bake the oatmeal. The slow cooker cooks for the set time and then holds the food on warm for several hours so in this case it held it on warm for about 2 hours, which probably contributed to the solidness.

1 cup steel cut oats
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup milk
1 cup water
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg (I may reduce this to 1/4 tsp next time)
1/4 tsp salt

Mix it all up and cook on low for 8 hours.

If you are cooking direct in the crock you will probably want to coat the inside with cooking spray or butter, and possibly risk burning it unless you add more liquid. Normally you want four parts liquid to one part oats.

As I mentioned it turns out very solid, so you will have to work a bit to stir the spices that floated to the top back down into it when it's done. The oats end up nice and chewy and while I don't normally add milk to my oatmeal I did with this and it was very tasty with bit of milk and a drizzle of sugar free maple syrup over it. I honestly do not know if I will add more liquid next time I make it.

It's not very sweet, and there really isn't a detectable apple flavor. If you want more apple and you want it wetter try adding a second cup of apple sauce. If you don't want it much wetter try chopping up some dried apples to stir in, though you might need a bit more water with that just because it does turn out so dry as it is.

Future experiments may involve other dried fruits.

6/13 - Tried it with an additional cup of applesauce, without reducing the milk or water. There is more apple flavor of course but it makes the oatmeal too wet for my taste. If you prefer creamier oatmeal over chewier oatmeal by all means go for the extra applesauce but I will stick to less liquid for myself.

I felt like tossing things in the slow cooker today.

1 large onion. 1/2" diced
1 generous handful of baby carrots cut in thirds (about 1/2" dice)
1 cup lentils
2 Tbsp minced garlic
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can (15oz) diced tomatoes, undrained
1/2 can (15oz) fire roasted Tex Mex diced tomatoes, undrained
1 Tbsp tomato-chicken bouillon powder dissolved in 1 cup water

Layer the ingredients in the crock and cook on high for 6 hours. The chicken will fall into shreds with some poking and stirring. Since I don't add salt when cooking in the crock, be prepared to salt to your taste when it's finished.

I'd like to make this again with chicken thighs sometime.

I'm not one for spicy food so you could certainly use more of the Tex Mex tomatoes and less of the plain (or use a whole can of the Tex Mex and one good sized fresh tomato). The Tex Mex tomatoes are something we pick up at Wal-Mart, you could substitute about a cup of roasted tomato salsa (or more if you like things spicy).

I made this up today and it ended up tasty so I'm noting down what I did for future use. :)

1 can (10.5oz) condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 can (6.5oz) sliced mushrooms, undrained
1 large onion, quartered and sliced
2 ribs celery, sliced
2 handfuls baby carrots, cut in half crosswise
1¹/₂ Tbsp curry powder
2 tsp tomato bullion
1 c brown lentils
2 c water

Stir it all up in your crock and let it cook 6 hours on high. I gave it a stir about every two hours, mostly because it was my first time slow cooking lentils and I wanted to monitor the liquid level.

My latest recipe in development, it's close to "just right" though.

1 pork loin, size to fit in your slow cooker (my crock is 1.5qt)
1 onion chopped
1 Tbsp oil (approximately)
¹/₄ c vinegar or lemon juice
1 can tomato paste (6oz)
¹/₂ c dark brown sugar
2 Tbsp prepared mustard
3 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp cornstarch (see edit below)
1 tsp salt
¹/₄ tsp pepper

Trim the excess fat from the pork loin and cut it crosswise into slabs about 2" thick.

Saute onions in oil until brown and caramelized. Deglaze pan with vinegar and pour into the crock.

Add remaining ingredients, excluding pork, and stir well.

Coat each piece of pork in the sauce and wedge them into the crock.

Cook on high for at least 6 hours. You want the pork to fall apart and shred itself.

The sauce was a bit too thin for my taste still (even after reducing the liquid in the sauce recipe and adding cornstarch) so I added a bit of cornstarch and water paste at about hour 5 and let it thicken up while I prepared side dishes in the last hour or so of cooking.

Anyone have any experience with the "tapioca trick" for doing thicker stews in a slow cooker? I'm wondering if I would be better off with using a couple tablespoons of fine tapioca in the recipe rather than cornstarch.

Edit: 10-10-07

Dredging the pork (or beef or whatever) chunks in flour solved the watery sauce problem.

Edit: 02-06-08

Just an update since I've got this thing "perfected" now. Recipe stands as is (with cornstarch omitted). Dredge the pork in flour and don't shake off excess before you cram it into the crock and smush it around in the sauce. It's best cooked on LOW for 13-14 hours but high for 8-10 works too. About half way through the cooking time you should poke and prod and stir to break up the meat and get it to start shredding into the sauce. Give it a good poke and stir an hour or two before you serve it too.

Yeah, more recipes. I'm sick and generally miserable but I'm cooking... I don't get it either.

This one is basically my semi-sweet barbecue sauce (half batch with alterations) mixed in a crock pot with stew beef.

1 cup fine diced onion
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 cup water
1 6oz can tomato paste
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons prepared mustard (we only had spicy brown on hand today, I usually use plain yellow though)
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1-2 pounds stew beef (I had a 1.75 pound package, that worked out pretty well)

Saute onions in oil until browned and beginning to caramelize, add garlic and saute a bit more being careful not to let the garlic burn (because nothing can save a dish that has had garlic burned in it.)

Deglaze the pan with the water making sure to dissolve all the nice caramel-y onion flavor. Pour the onion mixture into your crock pot and add everything else except the beef, mix well.

Stir in beef and cook on high for 4-6 hours.

I'm currently trying to decide if I want potatoes or rice with my beef. :)