First, thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to all of you who commented and/or emailed me with advice and sympathy about the migraine situation around here. It's quite reassuring to hear from folks who dealt with the kid angle before, especially to know that it will change. I realize how many people deal with migraines all the time -- it's terribly common, I guess. At any rate, Caroline seems to be improving, and we have a plan, and we're not agonizing quite so much.
With all of this stuff going on around here, when I'm tired and worried and incapable of complex thought (you can imagine that this isn't helping me get work done), I decided that A) I was craving comfort food; and B) I didn't want to do anything much beyond pushing a button or two. And hey! The crockpot was the answer.
Luckily, some months ago, someone turned me onto a blog called "A Year of Crockpotting." Starting January 1, 2008, Stephanie vowed to use her crockpot every single day and blog about the outcome. As a result, the blog has a bunch of easy recipes AND the honest reviews from her family.
I read with interest about Stephanie's cooking a whole chicken in the crockpot. I'd heard of that before, but couldn't figure out why one would do that when it's pretty easy to just throw one in the oven, and it sounded like the chicken would just be sitting in a large pool of grease, with a cooked but slimy skin to boot. Ick. BUT Stephanie removed the skin! I hadn't even considered that concept! And on a day when I knew I was going to get more frazzled as the day went on, I decided to go for it. I peeled (eek) a raw, whole chicken, rubbed the whole thing down with Montreal Chicken Spice (thank you, Rachel Ray), and threw it in the crockpot. No liquid, nothing. Just skinless chicken and spice rub.
It was delicious! Easy, and really great. It got rave reviews all around. I was so inspired that today I'm trying a turkey breast following Stephanie's directions. (I know, Thanksgiving is just around the corner, but I just want a REAL turkey sandwich NOW.)
It's 9:20 and the hardest part of dinner is DONE. I love that crockpot.
I find cooking in a Crock Pot pure torture!
ReplyDeleteThe aroma permeates the whole house. It smells so DELICIOUS.
ANd you can't touch it or remove the cover until it is done.
I want it now!
K
Oh my gosh, I have to try the chicken in the crock pot. I've been sooooooo into eating roasted chicken as of late...I can't get enough of it. Where do you get that spice?
ReplyDeleteIt's a plain old McCormick's brand spice, available at our grocery store. It's not in with the regular herbs and spices... it's off to the side mixed in with the spice blends (like where you'd find Cajun spice blends and that sort of thing.) It's quite yummy!
ReplyDeleteI just came back here for the link to the crock pot blog. I do a slow cook meal every Monday. I bought a chicken at TJ's and am ready to go in the morning. I have roasted veggies left from dinner last night. Yum!!
ReplyDelete