Well. Despite all of my great and heartfelt resolve to spend more time blogging, I have been failing miserably. However, there has been no lack of brainstorming on my part and I feel that that should count for something! I believe I might have finally come up with a weekly feature to keep me coming back here, at least once a week.
Saturday, when I was supposed to be reading chapters 1 and 8 in my Global Perspectives textbook, after I actually fell asleep on page 9 out of sheer boredom, I picked up my newest cookbook. Well, new to me, anyway. It's the 1975 edition of Rival Crock-Pot Cooking. Yup, I said 1975. I got it from my brother, who got it from my mom. (There, the trail runs cold, although I could always just ask my mom where she got it, if I was curious enough...) Since I recently decided to start doing much more slow-cooker cooking, I've been eagerly searching out good slow-cooker recipes. (***Tangential trail-- can I just call it a crock pot? It's technically not one, my small one is a "Proctor Silex slow cooker," and the bigger one is a "Hamilton Beach slow cooker." But really, everyone just calls them all crock pots.***) I have class in the evenings on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and I don't want to come home every evening and eat junk just because I wasn't home to cook supper. Also, I hate for Hubby and the kids to have to resort to junk because I wasn't home to cook supper. But I also don't like the idea of eating soups and stews several nights a week. So I was very excited to come to possess this book, with its 300+ recipes-- only a handful of which are some sort of soup or stew.
First, it's a little entertaining to read. Some of the recipes call for things like MSG, and one recipe even listed an ingredient I've never heard of. (I'm currently flipping furiously through the book to see if I can remember what it was, but no luck so far.) Some of the recipes made me actually laugh out loud, like the Emergency Shelf Casserole which calls for, I kid you not, baked beans, vienna sausages, and spam. (1/4 lb of diced dry salami is optional.) It's safe to say that that particular casserole will not see the light of day in my house. I'm not a fan at all of vienna sausages and spam.
Anyway, as I was reading, I decided that it would be fun to blog about my crock pot adventures. Why not? It would be like Julie & Julia, only so much more my style! So, welcome to (da-da-DA!) Crock Pot Mondays! (Even though it's not an actual Crock Pot. Yours might be, right?) Today's meal isn't actually coming from the cookbook. I know, weird, since I just spent so much time telling you about it. The cookbook inspired the idea. But I'm between grocery trips this week, so it's going to have to be something I can make with what's on hand. And what's on hand is chicken. And while there are more than 20 chicken recipes in my cookbook, each one calls for something I don't have. Important somethings. Not oh-I'll-just-omit-that somethings. So....
Today's recipe will be chicken and rice. Ted LOVES the rice you get with you get with your combo meal at any Mexican restaurant, and I'm aiming for it to be something like that. I've never made rice in a crock pot before, but according to the cookbook, it's doable. I guess I'll just have to keep an eye on it to see if I've got enough liquid, but once I leave the house, it's on its own. So, this will be a "fingers crossed" recipe. If it comes out yummy, the recipe will follow.
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