Crockpot Cooking Archives

Donna Hay’s Beef, Guinness and Mushroom Pie

March 17, 2016 By Karen

Last St. Patrick’s Day, I shared a quick and healthy green smoothie, and wrote about my brother Brian, who would have been 46 today. This year, in honor of both Pi Day on Monday, and St. Patrick’s Day, I feel obligated to share Donna Hay’s Beef, Guinness and Mushroom Pie with you all. I have been sitting on this since November, and that’s just ridiculous, since there are so many reasons to make this savory pot pie as soon as you can. (Donna Hay, by the way, is Australia’s version of Martha Stewart, but younger, minus the crafts and the jail time, and I will be writing more about her, and our Donna Hay themed cooking club in my next post.) From one of my new favorite cookbooks, it uses a method for the pastry crust that I’ve never heard of before, but is so much simpler that the traditional cold butter version. It’s a hot water pastry that actually melts the butter with water before stirring it into the flour, which results in a kinder dough. It comes together quickly, is sturdy enough to hold up to a hearty filling, yet still flakes. If you’re intimidated by the idea of making a pie, then this is your crust!!! (Or skip it, buy a pre-made shell from the store, and everyone will still love you for making whatever you stick inside of it. I promise. But to be honest, this is totally worth the extra 10-15 minutes of your life.)

But here’s the thing, you’ll want to get started on cooking your brisket first, because this is not a 30 minute meal. Trimming your meat, cubing it, browning it, and finally braising it is time consuming. It’s the type of activity that you can do while listening to a good story though. (I’m currently enjoying this audio book if you’re looking for something entertaining, which is soon going to be a TV series.) And in its own way, it makes for a relaxing time in the kitchen….

Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions

March 7, 2016 By Karen

Caramelized Onions. Two beautiful words. If you combine that with Slow Cooker or Crockpot, you’ve got a phrase that’s even more brilliant: Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions. (Do you hear angels singing? You already know how I feel about the slow cooker, don’t you? Remember The Easiest Crockpot Ribs and Chipotle Barbecue Pulled Pork in the Crockpot?) Because a simple onion effortlessly gets transformed into rich and flavorful goodness that can be added to any variety of dishes. With less than ten minutes of prep work, you can get all of your onions sliced thinly, then you toss them with melted butter and olive oil. It all sits in the slow cooker on low for 10-14 hours, and it makes your home smell heavenly. It’s so easy, you’ll wonder why you’ve never done this before. Typically, caramelizing onions the traditional way requires standing at the stove for at least 45 minutes and stirring regularly, making it somewhat labor intensive. This recipe is the opposite of that. You can even set it up to cook overnight while you sleep, which all by itself is pretty cool.

It’s comfort in a pot. And there are some days more than others that we can all use comfort. I recently interpreted something about coping skills,…

Chipotle Barbecue Pulled Pork in the Crockpot

October 12, 2015 By Karen

As the weather cools, the crockpot starts living on the counter again, instead of down in a cupboard. I love my crockpot. It’s brilliant. I love it so much that I often have two of them going at the same time. Because if you’re going to bother cutting and chopping ingredients, you might as well spend a few more minutes and get twice the payoff. Of course, that’s only worth it if you’re thrilled with the results. And let’s face it, there are some definite crockpot fails out there, and I’ll own several. Dried out chicken, burned sauces stuck to the bottom that are impossible to remove, flavorless mushy carrots floating in a stew. But those fails haven’t deterred me. I have my favorite recipes that never go wrong, and I am always on the lookout for more. I’ve already told you about the easiest ribs in the crockpot (with a dry rub they’re sweet, spicy and smoky all at the same time!), but I have held out on my family’s other favorite recipe: Chipotle Barbecue Pulled Pork in the Crockpot, which I’ve been making for years. My first notes in my binder for it go all the way back to 2007. (The binder that my sister-in-law says is the one thing she would grab from my house in case of a fire. Just sayin’. I promise to write more about that one day.) I’ve got a stained, ripped page that was printed off of AOL a million years ago, covered in 6 different pens with all my changes and comments like AMAZING!!!!, and FIFTH BIRTHDAY 2012, but no source on where the original recipe came from. With a little internet searching, it turns out the base recipe I began with is from Real Simple, but I have adapted it over the years. Since then it’s graced our table for parties, holidays, and filled ziploc bags in my freezer for countless last minute meals and deliveries to friends who need a bit of a boost. It is so easy to put together, makes your house smell amazing, and is always a crowd-pleaser. Freezer-friendly, it is a great make ahead weekend project so that you can have dinner ready on a crazy Thursday night when you get home late from work, kids are starving, and nobody feels like cooking….

The Easiest Crockpot Ribs (and a Thank You)

August 20, 2014 By Karen

Since I officially announced Tasty Oasis on Monday with an email blast and a Facebook update, I have been overwhelmed by the response. Your messages and comments have been so kind and encouraging, and I am thrilled that so many of you have shared Tasty Oasis with your friends already. I can’t thank you enough! Creating a food blog has been something I’ve thought about for years. I think and read about food constantly. I have been collecting cookbooks for ages, and I go through them like novels, reading them from beginning to end and writing notes about what I’ll make one day. I’ve had magazine subscriptions on and off since I left college, and I have only recently tossed the towering stacks of ancient Gourmets, Bon Appetites, Cooking Lights, and Everyday Foods, saving precious recipes in binders instead. And the blogs. For the last many years I have read a ridiculous number of blogs daily. I started off with Smitten Kitchen back in her very early days, and the list just grew. With the ease of subscription services and feed readers, it’s like having my own set of food magazines every day, tailored to exactly my taste. Personally, I read everything on Feedly, and am always happy when one of my favorites has a new post up. It’s because of this hobby, or distraction, or whatever you may call it that that I decided I wanted to write my own blog. I know exactly what I like to read and see on a food blog, and now the challenge is to produce that on my own for all of you. I’m so excited to finally be doing it!

Moroccan Carrots, Garlic for a Miso Chicken, Turkey Chili and Everyday Granola Coming Soon!

Many of you wrote and asked who’s taking the photographs on Tasty Oasis. I am! It’s me! When I decided to start this project, I knew that I had to up my game and move on from my 8 year old point and shoot camera. In January I bought a Canon Rebel T3i, and have been playing with it constantly. Even though I’ve interpreted undergraduate photography classes over the years, I never really applied what I heard and always used to stick with the automatic settings. But I bought myself a food photography book, and pay close attention to other bloggers’ photography choices, and am experimenting every time I go to shoot something. The up-close macro shots seem to be working out, but if you saw the number of blurry kid photos I’ve taken you would have to laugh and wonder if it’s the same photographer! At the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens last week I experimented with flowers, and again, things that stay in one place seem to be where I have the most luck. I’m hoping with time I can actually get some good people shots though!

From the last couple of posts you have probably noticed that I use dried spices to flavor a lot of my cooking. There are a bunch of reasons, but the big ones are that they are easy, convenient and healthy. As a working mom, I often feel like I am running around with my time and brain split in 84 different directions. I am constantly looking for shortcuts, and tend to favor recipes that don’t have too many moving parts or specialty ingredients. Fresh herbs are fabulous, and you absolutely will see them frequently on Tasty Oasis, but they sadly die in my refrigerator over and over again. If I didn’t kill every plant I ever tried to grow (I know, watering would help, but that’s just another thing to remember to do), I would grow my own herbs and just snip what I needed, but I never seem to make it happen. So dried herbs and spices often come to the rescue. Plus, a spice rub means you can avoid making a heavy sauce, skipping the creams and coconut milk and the oils. Those all make things tasty, but don’t necessarily help for making a meal on the lighter side. That said, they have their place in my kitchen and when I use them I make sure to enjoy every bite.

One strategy I use to feed my family home cooked food is the crockpot. I can throw something together before leaving for work, and walk into a house that smells amazing. A lot of people think crockpot cooking is only for the winter for stews and soups, but summer is the perfect time to use the crockpot because you can avoid turning on the stove and heating up your kitchen. Living in a house that’s almost 100 years old without central air, that is brilliant. I’m such a fan of this contraption that I typically have two going on the counter at once so that I can double my recipes and freeze several extra meals at a time. This way I can have dinner ready with even less work later in the week or month. (I’ll be writing more posts about how to cook and freeze meals, so stay tuned!)…