365 Slow Cooker Suppers by Stephanie O'Dea

Let me say right off ...

I am totally STOKED about presenting this cook book to my readers. 

365 Slow Cooker Suppers by Stephanie O'Dea

I am such a fan of her previous two cookbooks and this time, I was lucky enough (and totally honored) to receive a review copy of her newest cookbook prior the release date of September 24.

Long time readers of my blog know that I reviewed a previous book of hers on my blog back in 2010 -  and she most graciously commented on that blog post.  You can imagine just how shocked I was to hear directly from an author - especially an author who I admired.  What a kind thing to do!!  I never forgot that.

Anyway, when she offered bloggers an opportunity to receive a review copy of her newest book, 365 Slow Cooker Suppers, I jumped at the opportunity! Thank you so much Stephanie.

First let's get the less interesting stats out of the way on 365 Slow Cooker Suppers:

• Stephanie O'Dea is a blogger. Crockpot365.blogspot.com.  I have a weakness for bloggers.
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt  -  www.hmhbooks.com
• 3rd Crock Pot Cook Book by Stephanie O'Dea (Make It Fast, Cook It Slow and More Make It Fast, Cook It Slow).  I have both books and they are great.
• 336 pages
• $24.99 retail
• Book organization:  Soups and Stews, Beans, Poultry, Beef and Lamb, Pork, Sandwiches, Meatless and Fish and Seafood.

What I love:

• Beautiful photography! Her first two books had no photos.  I didn't think that it was a minus, because when I cook, my results seldom looks like the picture.  Food photography is an art.  It takes a special kind of person to make beef stew smile.  There were many smiling foods in this book.  
• This book focuses on suppers only.  Perfect!!  Most cook books spread themselves a bit thin by having samples of all the possible food options (breakfast, side dishes, desserts, and main dishes).  When it comes to the Crock Pot, I am a main dish kind of girl.  Throw it all in the crock pot, turn it on and 8 hours later dinner is done.  I have never made breakfast or dessert in a crock pot.  Those sections of other crock pot cookbooks are wasted on me.
• Don't you hate recipes that have 25+ ingredients and just as many steps of preparation. Or how about the 3 ingredient recipes ... I get so turned off by the swings of extremes in recipe creation.    Stephanie has an average of 10-15 ingredients in a recipe (a few that have more.)  In my mind this means this is not an over simplified slow cooker cook book - that uses 3 or 4 ingredients (one being canned soup) and then calls the results "great."  Nor is it a recipe that take 30 minutes to collect all the ingredients before you can do anything.  I have a few books in both categories and they are heading into my recycling because I never make anything in them.   Steph's balance of ingredients and preparation steps are perfect and realistic for the every day cook. 
• In her first 2 books she used "The Verdict" to report family reactions and other observations on each recipe.  She has continued this practice in book 3.  I totally love these snippets.  I feel like the author is talking directly to me ... giving me the inside scoop on this particular dish.  Obviously she wouldn't have included recipes that were duds, so you don't have that kind of feedback in "The Verdict."  But if you are interested in how well a specific recipe was received by kids and other members of the family, or how light or filling a meal was, or will it freeze well, or kudos to others (with websites referenced), "The Verdict" provides this feedback.  To be totally honest, sometimes I read The Verdict before I check out the ingredients.

Things that could be better?  Well, I prefer to characterize my slim list of improvements as "wishes for the next book."  Really, there is little that could make the recipes better.  But the publisher might consider these options:

• Spiral binding - cook books that lie flat while you are using them are user friendly. I am considering have all three of her books punched for spiral binding at a local office supply store.  
• Nutritional information for each recipe - health and weight conscious folks would really appreciate this added information.  

Next week I will be preparing two recipes from this book and I will report back on the outcome with pictures and comments.

And just for the record, it took me all of about 2 minutes to find those two recipes.  In quickly checking out the options for meals, I think I could have closed my eyes and just picked two at random ... they all sounded great!

First Quiche of My Life

Yep!  

This is a picture of a quiche!

  First quiche I made in 65 years!

  And it was quite an experience. 

First of all I didn't make the crust.  You need to understand that I don't cook.  I don't enjoy it.  I usually have a glass of wine in my hand when I cook to reward myself for doing this.  If someone commercially can make product that is pretty good, why should I spend my precious moments, minutes, hours making it.  So the dough was made by Harris Teeter.  I unwrapped the dough that was already the shape of a pie pan (I didn't even have to roll it out) and I baked it.

Then I followed a simple cheese quiche recipe: eggs, cheese, onions, green peppers, Canadian Bacon, etc. etc. etc.  Easy.  Nothing special. I put in the oven to cook for 30 minutes (per the instructions)!

That's when things started to fall apart!

• I checked it at 30 minutes.  It didn't look done. No big deal.
• I cooked 10 more minutes.  I checked it.  Still look raw in the middle.  hmm....
• I cooked it an additional 10 more minutes cause who wants to eat raw egg.  It still didn't look done. Crap! (What is the disease you get from eating raw egg???)
• I gave it 5 more minutes (a total of 55 minutes), then took it out to cool.  It looked like this.  It looked done.
• BUT, I let is sit for another 5 minutes to let the heat completely set the center - cause I wasn't sure it was really done.

That was a total of 60 minutes!  The instructions said 30.

But it looked pretty - and since I am not doing this ever again (because the stress of possibly eating raw egg is too much for me!!!), I took these pictures.  Proof that I did it once, or whatever.

Oh ... and it tasted pretty good, but to tell the truth, I have had commercially made quiches that taste just as good or better .... so my first quiche is my last one.

I'll leave this up to the professionals!

:-)

The wine I was drinking was pretty good ... but professionals did that as well.

Images of a Christmas with Friends

Sunday ... day of rest!

Well, not entirely because I need to pull down all my Christmas decorations for this year!

But before I do, I want to share some images of last night's party. This party was especially sweet because last year was so dismal. Our holiday in December 2010 was severely abbreviated because of mom's recent hospital and rehab discharge. And this annual party in January 2011 wound up getting cancelled because almost everyone was ill that year and wanted to keep their distance from mom. It was the strangest holiday ever.

So here is the Christmas Party of January 2011 with some very dear friends and much loved family.

I love candid shots, and with the exception of a very few, these are candid.

The table was ready - except for the mushrooms - they were still in the oven.

Oh, there they are!

I don't think they ever made it to the table!

They went from the oven into the stomachs with record speed.

What is a party without cake! Here is the baker.

Here is the cake! Pretty beautiful - tasty too.

Time to dig in!

It is the point of the whole event!

My husband who makes a point of staying out of pictures!

This beautiful woman is my daughter!

Everyone should be lucky enough to have a daughter like her.

Lucky me!

Of course, my granddogs would be there!

Of course!!

Time spent with friends.

Both faces in this picture are worth the shot!

I love my camera.

Grimace in a quiet moment - wearing his pooch pants!

Milo focused on the fork!

Meathead focused on love.

My fantastic son with his wonderful future wife!

Gosh, that has a wonderful sound to it!

Two great kids!

Two future sisters!

The last Hurrah for our Christmas Tree.

It was a wonderful Christmas!

Getting Ready for Company

Yes, I said I would be back Sunday. It is Saturday. The blogging habit has returned and the need to share some pictures of my company preparation just seemed to make the prep time more productive!

Does that make sense?

This party is a yearly event for this group. It was started by another member of the group more than 25 years ago. She has since retired to Florida, and I volunteered to continue the tradition by hosting the yearly party.

She set the standard - keep it simple, buy the food, use disposable dishes and cups, enjoy your company. And since no one expects more, I usually follow in her practice.

But each year I do make a few things that are more than she would do.

For example - Banana Bread totally filled with walnuts. No recipe - this is a package mix by Dole (the Banana people) that I get from my local warehouse store. It is yummy! I could make this from scratch, but being a devout non-cooker, I don't believe in making things from scratch if a wonderful option is available (and yes, there is a piece missing - you ALWAYS need to check to be sure it is OK for your guests - and my daughter checked behind me to be sure that I wasn't wrong - and I considered checking behind her to make sure she wasn't wrong.)

If not careful you can "check" things right out of existence. :-)

I made Deviled Eggs this year. I love Deviled Eggs and they are so easy to make.

The Stuffed Baked Mushrooms are the creation of my predecessor. The mushrooms are the one thing that people seem to expect. No picture yet, because they are made at the last minute.

I always like having raw vegs and a tossed salad available so that those who are dieting have some options. That was also my addition to this party.

And the spiral cut honey ham is a standard - and it is the only time I have it all year. I love ham but my husband is not a fan. So once a year is good enough. We include roast beef and cheese for those who aren't ham fans.

And, of course, I discovered that I didn't have enough wine glasses for the guests, so I ran out to buy new ones at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. Nothing fancy because I break them all the time. Gave them a quick wash.

While there I found a ceramic platter on clearance for $6.99 and with my 20% off coupon, the platter cost me $5.59. I was thrilled.

It had a decent design - but kept reasonable by being all white.

Setting up the buffet table is always fun. By the time I get all the things to the table that I planned, I always discover that I over-planned. Here is an early shot - a few of the dishes that will be used.

But it always happens. Too many dishes. But to begin with I just get dishes out on the table, slowly over the afternoon. Food that cannot hit the table now, sits in the fridge and the dish on the table is labeled with its name.

So it is now about 2:30 pm. No one is expected until 7:00 pm. All I need to make now are the stuffed mushrooms - that are made at the last minute.

My to-do list probably has something else on it, but I am not looking. I am sitting - resting my feet and ...

Visiting with you!

:-)

Winter's Day Chopping

Typically on a winter's day, if you are inspired to cook anything, I would bet it would be a stick-to-your-ribs stew, hearty chunky soup, bread that fills the house with a homey aroma or maybe a hot mulled apple cider. Those choices fill the magazine covers now.

Not me. I am usually not inspired by the covers of cooking magazines. Today I felt the need to cook - rather chop up - something different. Some might say "summery" even. I love to mix up a cold "black bean and whatever" salad with an olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt and pepper dressing. Here is my latest creation.

There is no recipe. It is always alittle different ... just whatever I feel like throwing into the bowl. My cold salads typically have the dressing described above, and always black beans and fresh cilantro (I totally love cilantro) but sometimes fresh basil, sometimes I add garbanzo beans, canned corn, usually onions and celery and just whatever I have in the house. This time I added cauliflower and radishes - that was a first for those items.

There was another first. Today I added pasta. Here is a closer picture of the pasta. Does it remind you of something?

This was "Dog Lover's Pasta" and the pasta should look like paw prints. I think it does when you look at it ... looking for a paw print!! What is too funny is that I also have "Cat Lover's Pasta" and they look exactly the same. :-) I got these specialty pastas from a children's fundraising event last fall.

I have said it before ... I am a big lover of winter.

But I am a big lover of summer dishes!!

What the non-cook cooked!

Last Friday I cooked!

Not "big deal" cooking, but just a few new dishes so that my sister and daughter had something good in the house to eat. And surprisingly, they turned out pretty good. I want to share them.

The picture is of my kitchen sink after cooking. Through the window you can see my bird feeder that kept me content while I was cooking.

All the recipes can be found at http://www.realsimple.com. Check out this website. It is great.

The first dish is called Linguine With Squash, Bacon and Goat Cheese. I discovered this dish one night when I was taking Meathead and Grimace home, and my son's girlfriend was cleaning up from dinner when I walked in. (She has a wonderfully informative blog at http://mowrite.blogspot.com) The house smelled wonderful and my son said the dish was yummy! Graciously she offered me some to take home and graciously I said yes ... like right away before she could change her mind!! It was to die for! Yes, you squash-haters out there, this dish is to die for! You can put bacon and cheese on anything and it is wonderful.

Now you should know that I did tweak the recipe as it was written. It called for 6 slices of bacon. Good heavens, I am not opening up a pound of bacon and then using only 6 slices. Get real! So I used it all. I couldn't see myself cooking up only 6 slices, I couldn't see myself just eating the left over bacon while I cooked (bad for my blood cholesterol), but I could see myself eating all the bacon crumbled into the dish smothered in cheese. Somehow that dairy option made the bacon seem healthier. :-) And then there was the issue with the goat cheese. The recipe called for 4 ounces of soft goat cheese, crumbled. Well ... goat cheese comes in 3.5 ounce packages. One half ounce short of what was called for! So I bought 2 packages (I did wince alittle - it was $6.99 a package.) When I opened up the packages, I tasted the goat cheese. Yum - mega yum. But what was I going to do with the extra goat cheese once I used 4 ounces. I couldn't just eat it - although it was way good - but the cholesterol you know. So I added to the recipe - all 7 ounces. See, I figured that it was additional dairy (goat is dairy, right?) - think of all that calcium. And I beefed up the amount of garlic - who uses only 2 cloves of garlic!! And garlic is good for the heart balancing out the bacon and the cheese (sort of) and it keeps away vampires. All good! I did reduce the pound of linguine to 3/4 of a pound - got to cut calories somewhere! And the butternut squash - what can I say. If you don't like butternut squash, you probably have genetic damage. This recipe was good the first day and every day after. Some recipes are good at first but don't carry over well. Not this one. Yummy every day until it was gone. Note to my dear cousins - when we see you in December, this is on the menu!

The second recipe is called Shrimp With Sausage and Tomatoes. I didn't tinker with this recipe quite so much. I did add garlic - because there was an obvious typo in the recipe - they forgot the garlic. And I omitted the peas. My husband doesn't like peas. But the title pretty much describes what was in this. I think the main flavor came from the fire-roasted tomatoes. It is served over rice.

A third recipe I made this weekend was called Spaghetti With Beef Mushroom Sauce. Sorry, no picture but there is one in the Real Simple web site. The recipe was pretty simple. The ingredients were pretty typical for us: ground beef, mushrooms, garlic, diced tomatoes, Parmesan cheese - stuff we eat alot of here, but the secret ingredient was 1 cup of heavy cream. I was tasting this recipe as I was making it and thinking all the time ... boring! And then I added the cream ... what a difference. Now my husband likes all the things in this recipe, but he didn't like this one so much. I think the cream was too much for him. The recipe did say you could lighten this dish by omitting the cream and doubling the tomatoes. I don't know about you, but tomatoes can never step in and replace cream. If I do this recipe again, I might reduce the cream some, but I don't think it would be as good without it.

And for the record: I am thankful for that kitchen window!!

Cooking Day and my kitchen window

I spent most of the day cooking for company coming tonight and to cover my absence all day tomorrow.

My sister and daughter are coming tonight to spend the weekend with my mom. My husband and I are going to Philadelphia tomorrow with friends to see a museum exhibit on Cleopatra. It will be a fun day with friends, eating out, and a once-in-a-lifetime (at least my life time) museum exhibit. But it can't happen without some preparation on my part. Yes, I did do alittle house cleaning but mostly I needed to cook.

I have house-dog sat at my sister's house in the past. The fun thing about house sitting (or mother sitting like this weekend) is that the sitters can just sit and do whatever they want. There are no chores and no cooking either. When you are hungry you just go to the fridge and open to door to wonderful dishes already prepared that just need heating. So I made some meals today - one for tonight and one for tomorrow. And for those who know me well, cooking is not fun for me. But today it was different. I did pick new recipes for me - I'll share them next week as they were easy and very tasty. But what was very special was the company I kept while I cooked.

You see my kitchen window is right over my sink. I looked out frequently while I was cooking (looking for distractions I guess - and finding it). I couldn't believe just how busy my bird feeder was. And the variety of feathered visitors was great! I had no idea that many different kinds of birds graced my deck. I was constantly picking up my camera and taking pictures. Here are a few a the best ones. And as you can see not all the visitors had feathers.

I am thrilled to see the Blue Jay is back - at least I think he is a Blue Jay. I included 2 pictures of him: one where he takes center stage all by himself and one where he is sharing the feeder with another bird. I thought the comparison of size was pretty amazing. Mr. Blue hasn't let such a small perch get in the way of getting at the seed. I have never seen more than one Blue Jay. I can't believe he is the only one around.

And then there is this little cutie. I think I can take credit for that round belly.

And at one point the feeder was full and other birds were flying around like there was something given out for free. Oh wait, it was free!!... I couldn't capture all the action.

And then there was this little guy who seemed to be waiting his turn at the feeder. Some visitors had better manners than others.

Let us not forget the other guest I usually see. He is quite a looker! Don't you think? He seems to be just looking over his shoulder at me.

Yes, this afternoon was pretty great having company while I cooked.

And thankfully I have an abundance of great things in my life:

• Wednesday, November 3 - I am fortunate to live next to a watershed area - a wooded location that is the perfect home for birds.
• Thursday, November 4 - I am very fortunate to have the company of these beautiful animals - so near my home.
• Friday, November 5 - I have one pretty great point-and-shoot camera.

There. I think I am caught up there. :-)

PS - Sorry I have been gone for a few days. My car has been in and out of the shop several times this week. Currently my Maxima is in the shop and has been there for several days. She is getting older - 2003 - and hasn't really been a problem until now. And I don't think we are ready to buy another car. We want our pup-taxi back.

It has been a frustrating week trying to balance our planned schedule with inconsistent transportation. Some stuff just dropped off the calendar, like all the Tai Chi. I wasn't in the mood. But I am fortunate that the auto repair shop we deal with has given us a loaner every time, but it is frustration to not have your own vehicle.

Rain Out! What a Crock!

No walk for me today. Between all the down pours that are passing through our area and the errands I needed to run, and the trips to get the dogs - all 3 dogs - the day just didn't have enough hours in it for a walk. It is a shame, because I would enjoy a rainy walk today.

Before I left on my errands this morning, I set up dinner in the crock pot. There would be no time for making dinner later in the day. I love my crock pots (all 3 of them), and I love having dinner pretty much made by dinner time. Crock pot cooking is something that I do all year long, but fall and winter are the best times for using the crock pot, because the meals are usually stick-to-your-ribs in character. Perfect for cold and rainy days. And you don't have to be a great cook to use a crock pot - even a mediocre cook like myself can place a great meal on the table with the help of a slow cooker. The book pictured is called Make It Fast, Cook It Slow by Stephanie O'Dea. I love this book for several reasons. First and foremost, she is a blogger. In 2008 she made a New Year's resolution to use her slow cooker every single day for a year and document her results daily on her personal web site called Crockpot365.blogspot.com. By the time I discovered her, she was just about ready to release this book. Like most cookbooks, she has recipes. No surprise (but wouldn't it be fun to issue a cookbook with no recipes!! Maybe just talk about recipes but no actual recipies??? Ok, that is a dud of an idea, even for me). But what is charming is that on many of the recipes, she has a section called "The Verdict". Here she documents her experience in making the recipe and how her family felt about it. This section sounds just like excerpts from her blog.

This recipe is not from the book. This morning I didn't have time to plan anything. I just marched to my pantry, openned the door and hoped that something in there would go with beef. After I ruled out Marshmellow Fluff and Cheerios, I settled on garlic, mushroom soup and Beef Broth. Later when it is closer to dinner I will taste it and decide what else I should add. I think I will add some thickening agent and then serve it over rice. That is what is so great about crock pot cooking. You almost can't go wrong (well, maybe if you added the Marshmellow Fluff ... that would be bad).

It doesn't look like much but the smell is really wonderful.

Towards the end of the morning I was traveling north on Route 95 with Milo sleeping peacefully beside me. The rain was so heavy at times that it collected on the roadway. There had to be 3-4 inches of standing water. It is unusual to see that much standing water on a major modern highway in our area. Roadways are graded to avoid just that scenario. At one point I glanced to my right - looking east - and was startled to see that there were no geographic features to be seen. A light steel gray color extended from the ground right up to the sky as far as you could see. Looking left to the west, geographical features could still be seen. I couldn't help glancing frequently to the east to make sure my eyes weren't playing games with me. And looking north, the sky was a dark steel gray in color. I was definitely driving into the worst of it. I was very glad to get home where the fragrance of tonight's dinner had filled the house. I usually like big weather events, but I like them best viewed from my front living room window with a cup of hot coffee in my hand. :-)

The rest of the day should be a very quiet and uneventful time. It is the sort of a day you can curl up on the couch with a good book or knitting, or maybe watch a movie ... and be grateful for the tranquility of your home. Of course, with 3 dogs in the house today through tomorrow evening, there is little chance that things will be quiet or tranquil.

Oh well, I dream on.