More Adventures in Slow Cooking

Let me introduce you to my hero:

This is my lovely Crock Pot. It's actually the "Smart Pot" model, which is very handy because you can set it at high for 4 or 6 hours or low for 8 or 10 hours. Then, when the time is up, it just goes to warming your food until you get home. So nice! 

I've been getting quite a lot of use out of it lately. I've made these Pulled-Pork Tacos from Real Simple several times now. These are great because the pork is cheap, and you barely have to do anything to prepare them. You simply put the pork, salsa, and seasonings in the pot and let it go. It's possible to put it all together the night before and leave in the refrigerator until you're ready to heat it up in the morning. The pork comes out so tender, and it just falls apart as soon as you touch a fork to it. 

I also tried out the Chicken with Rosemary, Apples, & Onions that I mentioned in my last post. It was ok. It forced me to butcher a whole chicken, which I had never done before. It was definitely good, but I'd probably try out another chicken recipe before doing this one again.

Yesterday I tried another recipe that was in my most recent Cooking Light magazine. Btw, this is one of my favorite magazines. In every issue I probably have about half of the pages marked to try out. Check it out if you haven't :-) 

Anyway, I made this Provençal Beef Stew recipe. I'll probably be making this again soon (or maybe a pot roast) because chuck roasts were buy one get one free last week at Kroger! I froze the second one to save it for a little while. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of this one. I guess we ate it too fast... 

This recipe requires a bit more preparation with browning the beef, so it was good for the weekend when I had more time in the morning. I used a red Bordeaux in my sauce, and it ended up giving the stew a slightly sweet flavor. The beef turned out super tender, and the stew is perfect winter comfort food. Adrian was very happy with this one :-)