Bourbon-spiked Pumpkin Bread Pudding

Bread pudding is perfect for chilly spring nights. This was great right out of the crockpot, but the leftovers were too mushy & had a strange flavor. So maybe make it for a gathering? It could have been because I made it with pumpkin purée from a fresh pumpkin that I had baked & then frozen. I haven't quite figured out the exact spices to make the substitution for canned pumpkin.

4 cups cubed white or wheat bread
3 cups milk or vanilla soy milk
1 16oz can pumpkin
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup bourbon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt

1. Press half the bread cubes into bottom of lightly oiled slow cooker.
2. In medium saucepan, heat milk until hot. Do not let boil. Remove from heat & set aside.
3. In large mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, brown sugar, bourbon, vanilla, spices & salt. Blend well, then slowly add hot milk, stirring constantly. Carefully pour half of the mixture over the bread, pushing them down to moisten them. Repeat with remaining bread & mixture. Cover & cook on low for 3 hours, until firm.
4. Turn off slow cooker & let pudding sit, covered, for 20 min before serving.

Vegetable Tian with Herbes de Provence

This is basically roasted potatoes & shallots, but it's so delicious! I think as a vegetarian for the past 13 years, I had forgotten that pot roast was the most common crockpot dish that my mom would make during the cold Midwest winters. These potatoes, carrots & shallots were very flavorful with the herbes de Provence which I happened to have as a gift from a friend who had recently gone to France. No photos, but here's the recipe.

6 shallots, halved
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1.5 cups baby carrots
1 lb small red potatoes, quartered
1 small red bell pepper, seeded & diced
1.5 cups cherry tomatoes, halved
1/4 c veggie stock
3 tbsp olive oil
1.5 tsp dried herbes de Provence
salt & pepper
1 c fresh bread crumbs

1. Combine all the vegetables in slow cooker. Add the stock & 2 tbsp olive oil. Season with herbes, salt & pepper. Combine well to coat the veggies. Cover & cook on low for 6-8 hours.

2. In small skillet, toast bread crumbs in remaining 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat until golden. When veggies are down, sprinkle bread crumbs over the top & serve.

Ginger-spiced Walnuts

I made these as part of my Dad's Christmas gift, cause what do you get for a man that has everything? First coat the walnuts with oil, then add brown sugar, cover & cook on high for 15 min. Then uncover & cook on low for 2 hours until the walnuts are crispy, stirring occasionally. Then stir in the spice mixture & let cool on cookie sheet. He loved them!

1 lb unsalted raw walnut halves
1/4 c corn oil or other mild oil
1/3 c packed light brown sugar
1 tbsp ground crystallized ginger - use spice grinder or chop very finely
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp allspice

Flageolet Beans with Rosemary and Thyme

Damn good. This recipe came from the December issue of Sunset magazine. It was super simple & took very little time to cook. The fresh herbs came straight from the backyard and really made the beans flavorful. I used small white beans from the regular grocery store instead of trying to find the called for flageolet.

Ingredients:
12 oz dried flageolet beans
6 garlic cloves, peeled
2 tsp salt
2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
2 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
2 carrots, cut into 1/2 in slices on diagonal
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1/4 c flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

1. Put all but parsley into slow cooker. Add 5 cups boiling water & stir. Cover & cook until beans are very tender & most of water is absorbed, 2-3 hrs on high or 4-4.5 hrs on low.

2. Stir in 3 tbsp of parsley. Transfer to serving dishes. Add more oil to taste if desired. Garnish with sprigs of rosemary & thyme & remaining parsley.

Winter Squash Stuffed with Couscous, Apricots and Pistachios

I made this the week before Christmas when David & I were both busy with holiday parties & after-work shopping. It was super easy, but did require a bit of work to prepare before throwing everything in the crock pot. Next time I would make the couscous stuffing the night before so I wouldn't have to cook in the morning when still half asleep. I used the bottom part of a giant butternut squash from the garden (!) which took up the whole crock pot, but only used about half of the couscous stuffing. It was nice to have extra for leftovers, but I think you could also just cut the recipe in half. I might have put too much water in to steam the squash as it got really, really soft. But it was also cooking for way more than the recommended 6 hours or rather it was on stay warm for 3-4 hours after it was done. I also just noticed that the book recommends putting the squash in the microwave for a few minutes to make it easier to cut in half. I would do that if you have a microwave because it was really hard to cut into equal halves good for stuffing.

Leftovers!

Ingredients:
2 cups apple juice
1 cup couscous
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp allspice
1 c chopped dried apricots
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lg yellow onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 c pistachio nuts, chopped
1 lg winter squash, kabocha or buttercup, halved & seeded
1 c hot water

1. Bring juice to boil in medium pot. Add couscous & spices. Reduce heat to low, cover & simmer 10 min. Remove from heat, stir in apricots, cover & set aside.

2. Heat oil in large skillet. Add onion & garlic, cover & cook until soft, ~5 min.

3. Fluff couscous with fork, add onion mixture & pistachios. Season w/ salt & pepper. Mix well.

4. Put squash in slow cooker. Pack stuffing in squash. Pour water into cooker around squash. Cover & cook on low until tender, ~6 hours. Serve hot.

Mushroom and Green Bean Stroganoff

6.30.12
Patrick and I had a very busy Saturday planned to so we used the Crock-Pot to have dinner ready after our errands, including planted a fig tree which you can read about here: http://twinduplex.blogspot.com/
We have lots of green beans growing in our garden right now so we used the Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker recipe book to make stroganoff. It was very good and had very interesting flavor! Here is the recipe:

Maple-Almond Granola with Cranberries and Dates

2.7.10
I found my notes from a few months ago when I tried out the granola recipe. I had a cold that week, so they don't totally make sense, but here goes. Some almonds were definitely kinda burnt. It didn't really taste burnt, but some of the sliced almonds were really hard & made a "scary cracking noise against my teeth." The book doesn't really tell you how often to stir, but I think it would have been better to stir every 15 minutes. I tried to do that, but didn't want to get out from under the blanket on the couch, so sometimes it was more like 25-30. I was going for crunchy though because lots of other efforts in the oven have been more chewy.

My housemates & I tried to figure out if it was cheaper to make our own granola then buy it from the bulk bins at the grocery store. So far it seems to be cheaper to buy it even with getting a 25 lb bag of oats from the natural food distributor. Mostly because maple syrup is so expensive. But I want to make it and have it be a good deal, so I will have to experiment on sweetener - honey, agave nectar, molasses.

Indian Cauliflower and Kidney Bean Stew with Coconut Milk

4.26.10
My sister prepped & made this dish for our dinner. It was perfect comfort food after a tiring Monday at work and a trip to the gym. My husband came home and immediately said "It smells good in here" before he had even shut the garage door. We ate it over brown rice and used a whole can of coconut milk instead of just one 1 cup 'cause -- why wouldn't you? Didn't drain the tomatoes either. It was pretty sweet from the cardamom & allspice, but the savory spices & beans & variety of veggies evened it out. You can totally add a larger amount of potatoes & cauliflower if you have a 6-quart cooker and add in the extra liquid. Then you'll have more leftovers!

Something that came up over dinner - the crockpot smell. First you smell the dish you are making and then there is always the underlying same smell, not sure what it smells like. It kinda made me think of my mom cooking potroast in her slow cooker back in the day. But it doesn't quite smell like meat, just hours & hours of cooking. We'll see if it keeps coming up.

Veggie Stock

4.1.10
It was going to be a cold & rainy week and I had been saving some some random veggie stalks to make into veggie stock, so I started to throw some items into the pot.

1 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, quartered
1 large carrot, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 bunch swiss chard stems, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 bunch beet green stems, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 bunch carrot tops, leafy parts only, torn into 1-inch pieces
2 fennel stalks, feathery parts only
1/3 c parsley leaves, coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves, unpeeled and crushed
1/2 tsp celery seed
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp black peppercorns
8 c water
2 tsp soy sauce or braggs
1 tsp salt

Drizzle olive oil into slowcooker. Add veggies & spices. Pour in water. Add soy sauce & salt. Cover & cook on low for 8-10 hours.

Let cool for a little while. I then used a sieve to squeeze the juices out of the cooked veggies. This didn't really get me a ton of extra liquid, but I bet it was some of the strongest and didn't really take me very long, so might as well try it. I left the carrot & onion chunks in the pot and used a stick blender to blend it all up. I ended up with over nine cups of broth. I had enough to make lentil soup for dinner the next night, cook up a giant pot of potato broccoli soup to share with my friends who just had a baby and freeze some for the next rainy week. And it was super yummy!

Perfect Hominy White Bean Chili

1.15.10
Hominy is always a strange bean/corn/veggie to me. Although it got really soft after cooking all day long, this dish wasn't all that great. It was super easy to get together, was spicy, but just okay. Maybe it needed more cilantro. Or cheese on top. It called for white beans, but it might be better with kidneys.

Lentil Soup with Ribbons of Kale

1.12.10
This was the first recipe I tried out from my new vegetarian slow cooker cookbook. It was turning into a pretty rainy January and it was time for soup. This recipe needed the basic soup veggies -onion, celery, carrot - to be cooked before starting the pot, so I chopped the veggies the night before. I thought that you would just be able to throw everything right in to the crockpot and press start, but sometime you have to pre-cook. It's not really a big deal, just have to be ready to use the stove in the morning. This soup was definitely worth it - very filling and went well with garlic bread.