Crock Pots

Do you use your Crock Pot?

I will be honest, we don't use it too much.  There are a few reasons.  First of all, I have an irrational fear of leaving it on while we aren't home.  Rather silly, as the whole point of a Crock Pot is that you can leave them unattended.  However, I was reading reviews of Crock Pots online and someone said there's shorted and sparked and caught fire.  Maybe that review as from Communist Russia circa 1080, who knows.  I also don't like to leave it on when the dog is home alone, as I feel it's cruel and unusual punishment for him to smell delicious meats cooking all day.  One of the other reasons I don't use it too much is because all of the food sort of starts to taste alike after while.  And if you aren't careful, all of a sudden you have a weird witch's brew on your hands with chicken tibias floating to the surface.  I did have someone suggest to me that I could cook in the Crock Pot at night while we are sleeping and then just reheat the food for dinner.  I am open to that.

But I do like Rachael Ray's crock pot recipes.  They are usually tasty and involve putting"toppers" on when you serve, giving your food a fresher taste.  Tonight I made her Asian Pepper Steak.  The directions make it seem like she cooks the rice in the Crock Pot (the picture doesn't seem that way) but I do cook it separately.  I also added cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper, and a cup of water to keep everything submerged while cooking.

Otherwise we had a lovely little Sunday.  We took the doggie to a near by forest preserve and went on a long walk in the woods.  I took a bath and was in my jammies by 2pm!  I spent a lot of time reading (currently reading The Lowlands by Jhumpa Lahiri) and Jim spent a lot of time yelling at the Bears.  We both have Tuesday and Wednesday off and I am only working an hour on Thursday.  Should be a nice New Years week.