Sunday, January 6, 2008

Crockpot--the little miracle maker

I lamented to A. that I hadn't posted to my blog in quite some time, and she commiserated, noting that BOTH my loyal readers would be disappointed. I don't know if I haven't been cooking, or if I haven't liked what I've been cooking, or if I just haven't bothered to record much of it. One meal I do remember is Thanksgiving: A. and I went All Out. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, asparagus, cranberry sauce, stuffing, broccoli rabe, and more stuff that I can't remember. We had no one to help us with it, either, until A. convinced a few of her friends to come over, and then a couple of my runner friends decided to drop by, too. I daren't (is that a real contraction?) post a post on how to cook turkey; first of all, A. handled it, and secondly, it was too long ago for me to remember how it was done. Besides, I think turkey-cooking is best studies for years and years before publishing. Kind of like musicology. Instead, I will tell you about the wonders of leftover turkey and the crockpot.

It's a little silly to post a recipe for anything that you make in the crockpot because it doesn't really matter. If you put stuff in the crockpot and leave it on low for eight hours, there's a 99 percent chance whatever you ladle out of it will be delicious. For example, after my place of work had a fundraising party, I took all the leftover chicken skewers, cubes of meat, and crudite (almost anything that was left behind), and put it in the old CP, covered it with water, and added a little salt. The next day we had delicious Japenese-Thai-Indian-chicken-beef-lamb-carrot-onion-mushroom-celery Soup. Magic!

I also did this with the leftover turkey. When we arrived home from Christmas vacation in NC, there was NO FOOD in the house. None. Anywhere. So, I took the turkey out of the freezer, found a forgotten potato (cut out the weird bits), and chopped up some "baby" carrots that had been purchased for road snacks and accidentally left behind. With some salt, pepper and a bay leaf, we ate for three more days.

I just realized that this sounds a lot like the Hanukah story, except with extra meals instead of extra days light for the sacred altar.

1 comment:

T said...

Yay! You posted! I'm utterly delighted! And I love the crockpot, though we don't have one at the moment. It's just not quite as much fun with vegetarian stuff, though in college (before all the meat allergies) I would buy the cheap lean stew beef at the store, and feck it into the crockpot with water, potatoes, onion, and a healthy dose of red wine. Maybe carrots, if I had any. Delicious for winter, and I wish I could eat some right now!