more crock pot goodness

While at my favorite place (Mosley's), my lovely husband spied some Italian three-cheese sausages.  Of course, he had some wrapped up for me.

As my Sundays are typically wasted by watching NFL football until my brain freezes, I wanted something easy to prepare with them.  Of course, my usual opening of the cupboards produced a can of tomatoes, a can of mushrooms, and some farfalle.  I looked in the fridge, and we had a half-jar of leftover pasta sauce. Score!

So I threw the sauce in the crock pot, drained half the juice off the tomatoes and threw them in, and then drained the liquid off of the mushrooms and threw them in too.  Stirred that up, tossed in the sausages and coated them, and set it on high for four hours.

This is the amazing deliciousness that ensued:

You know, sometimes the best meals are the ones you create by accident.  This was amazing, easy, and not terribly expensive.  The family gave it five "mmm more of that please" votes out of five.  Give it a try!

potayto, pohtahto

Being of the Irish persuasion, I love me some potatoes.  I don't know that I've ever met a potato I didn't like.

However, I also am empirically lazy.  This doesn't really jive with the whole concept of peeling and cooking potatoes.

So, what's a lazy girl to do?

Make my now-infamous Lazy Girl Potatoes.

Here's what you do:

Get yourself some small potatoes. I've recently discovered the super-awesome Klondike Gourmet brand (look at the pretty colors!) ... I got them at Giant Eagle.  If you can't find any cool tiny taters, slice up some new potatoes into quarters.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

Throw the raw potatoes into a bowl.  Add the following ingredients:

2 tablespoons EVOO
4-5 cloves of garlic, put through the press
a bit of sea salt and ground black peppercorns
2 tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary leaves (discard the stalks).  If you need to use dried, cut back to about 1 1/2 tablespoons.

Toss the potatoes in the oil and spices.  Make sure that you get a good coating on everything. This is important, because there's nothing suckier than dry potatoes.  Plus, the EVOO will make the skins deliciously crispy.

Once everything is all mixed up, dump the mess into a 13x9 pan.  Throw it in the oven for about 10 minutes.  Stir to ensure a nice even coating of the sludge.  Bake until the potatoes are done ... they should be soft, but still firm.  Mooshy potatoes are disgusting, don't you agree?

Once you get them out of the oven, spoon them into a serving bowl.  Dot with some butter y'all (I use about 3/4 of a tablespoon), and drizzle with a bit of balsamic vinegar.  Toss the potatoes once again to ensure a nice even coating.  Serve hot, and watch your children try to strangle each other for the last of the little joyful spuds.

My family gave this five "I will cut you" threats out of five.

reason #1,593,824 why i love my husband.

Because he can grill like a mofo.

All kidding aside, the chicken I made tonight was exceptional.  Yes, he actually grilled it.  But I made the sauce and bought the chicken and ... well, OK.  We did it together.

First of all, I bought leg quarters.  Why, you ask?  Well, because they stay deliciously juicy on the grill.  They don't dry out like boneless/skinless breasts, which is key when you're slow-cooking the poultry.  Plus, I like dark meat and I was the one that took their ass to the meat market.  So I bought what I like best. 

Then, I busted out one of my cookbooks. I modified a sauce recipe.  Here's what I made:

COCA-COLA SWEET BBQ SAUCE

Ingredients:
1 T. Butter
1 T. EVOO (extra virgin olive oil, you heathen)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1-2 cloves garlic, minced or put through a press
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1 t. dry mustard powder
1 T. honey mustard
1 T. dijon mustard
1 cup Coca Cola (but I bet this would be good with Dr. Pepper too)
2 T. balsamic vinegar (don't cheap out on this - I prefer Fini brand.  I swear it's worth the money. That shit will change your life.)
2 T. apple cider vinegar
2 T. Worcestershire sauce (A1 will do in a pinch if you don't have any)
1/2 cup ketchup

Procedure:
Bust up a saute pan.  I have this one, and it's perfect for this recipe.  Put the butter and EVOO into the pan, and melt it on medium heat.  Throw in the onions and garlic, and cook until "wilted" (softened), about two minutes or so. 

Add in the brown sugar, dry mustard powder, honey mustard, and dijon mustard.  Heat it back up until it simmers, and cook it down till it thickens (about 20 minutes or so).  Stir it every few minutes so that it doesn't stick.  I like a silicone scraper spatula for this task.

When the sauce has thickened up, dump in the remainder of the ingredients.  Use a whisk to break up any ketchup clumps if necessary.  Simmer this down until it's the desired consistency ... again about 20 minutes or a half-hour or so.  The onions, if cut small enough, should disintegrate as they cook down.  If not, and they bother you, just pulse the cooked sauce in a food processor to blend in the onions after cooking the sauce down completely.

Use this sauce on chicken or ribs ... it's a bit too sweet for beef, and too heavy for pork chops or fish.  Get the meat nearly cooked through, and then brush this on during the last 10-15 minutes of slow grilling.  The sugars will carmelize nicely, and you'll have orgasm-worthy dinner.

I served this with some steamed red potatoes drizzled with butter, EVOO, and rosemary.  My husband made gutteral caveman noises as he gnawed on the chicken bones.  I assume this gets five "OMG MAKE THAT AGAIN"s out of five.

i scream, you scream, and then i'll smack you with a stock pot for making that unholy racket.

Do you have a Big Lots near you?  We have one just a few blocks away, and let me tell ya ... there is some crazy shit in that place.  I found clothing that was clearly not meant for human consumption, odd sorts of snack foods, and aisles of uber-tacky home furnishings.

However, nestled amongst the insanity was this little gem, for the bargain price of $24.99:

Yep, that's a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker!  Squee!  Of course, I snapped it right up.

Since then, I've been freezing everything that isn't nailed down.  However, the Vanilla Bean Supreme has been everyone's favorite.

I used this recipe from About.com, mainly because the Food Network site pissed me off.  Every time I tried to open it on my iPad, it crashed the browser.  Screw that.  I was perfectly pleased with what I used. 

As a side note, the author of the About.com recipe? Diana Rattray.  Which made me all "oooh, like the bad people that were dealing V and were going to drain Bill on True Blood before Sookie intervened.  That's a sign.  Self, you should make this one."

At any rate, here's the recipe.  My family gave it a total of five vanilla beans out of five.

Vanilla Bean Supreme Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 7 large egg yolks
• 3/4 cup sugar
• dash salt
• 1 vanilla bean
• 2 cups half and half
• 1 1/2 cups heavy cream

Preparation:

Whisk egg yolks with sugar and salt in large bowl; set aside. Split vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out seeds (note: it works really well if you act like you're curling Christmakwanzzakah ribbon). Combine beans, seeds, half and half and heavy cream in a large saucepan. Bring just to a simmer.

 

Gradually whisk hot cream into the egg yolk mixture. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and coats the back of a spoon (do not let it boil - (this is 170 degrees Fahrenheit if you're all about the science like me). Strain through sieve into large bowl. Refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. Freeze in ice cream maker according to manufacturer's directions.