Easy cooking is a crock!

Happy Monday! This weekend was a busy one, or busier than normal. My husband and I threw a surprise party for our son, Anthony. He turns 13 years old this Thursday. It was great fun. And I got to talk to a lot of Moms over the weekend from the party and at Anthony’s soccer game. I literally AM a soccer mom, like many others. My social schedule revolves around Anthony’s soccer and Alex’s swimming. While talking to the other Moms at the soccer game, I was surprised to get a number of requests for Crock pot recipes for the blog. It seems we, Michiganders, are already preparing for the cool weather and busy days to come.

I love the crock pot for many reasons, the least of which is ease. A crock pot is unintimidating. People, who don’t consider themselves “cooks”, will gladly make something in the crock pot. I remember a mother at my son’s high school telling me, “I don’t cook, can’t really. Oh, but I can make something in the crock pot.” I do not know why the crock pot is perceived as “not cooking”. It is, plain and simple. It counts. And it’s a very healthy way to cook. Sometimes I will cook pork and beef with spaghetti sauce in the crock pot. It’s amazing, but less expensive cuts of pork and beef, like shoulder or butt, can be very fatty. An oil slick forms a top layer in the crock pot. I plan ahead so I can remove as much of the fat as possible. I trim the meat as much as I can before adding it, then after cooking the meal in the crock pot, I refrigerate it for a day. After 24 hours, the fat has risen to the top and congealed or solidified. Then I just remove the fat before reheating the meal. All the flavor stays with food, but with limited fat. Please remember when adding vegetables, try to keep the size of the pieces uniform, so they will all cook evenly. It’s just not so pleasant biting into a mushy carrot and an uncooked potato;-)

Also, crock pots are a safe and easy way to teach your children to cook. Most recipes are simple enough for any reading-age child and many of the ingredients are also simple to prep and add. My boys love crock pot meals because they meet everyone’s requirements for nourishment. They’re easy, nutritious, filling and the taste great. Below are some of my favorite crock pot recipes. I hope you enjoy them as much as we do. Mangia!

Prime Rib Sandwiches (This is a HUGE fave at the Elenbaas household;-)

5 lbs beef Rump Roast
1 package onion soup mix
2 tsp of sugar
2 cups beef stock or broth
12 oz. beer (your favorite;-)
4 cloves of garlic, pressed

Place roast in crock pot. Mix remaining ingredients together and pour over roast. Set crock pot to 300 degrees and cook for 8 hours.

Remove meat from liquid and shred the beef. I discard the liquid, but you can reserve 1 or 2 cups and reduce it by 1/3. Then add 1-2 cups of water to make an au jus. It’s a little too “much” for me, but try it. You might like it. Regardless, the beef should be served on crusty buns with horseradish sauce (recipe follows)

Horseradish Sauce

1 Tblspn of horseradish
1Tblspn of milk
1 Tblspn of sour cream
Mix well.

Old-fashioned Sunday Supper

2 packages of beefy onion soup mix or onion soup mix
3 -4 lbs of beef rump roast
3 lbs of potatoes, white or red, scrubbed and halved
4 large carrots, peeled and sliced uniformly
2 celery ribs, sliced
8 garlic cloves, minced
½ tsp black pepper
2 tsp dried thyme
1 bay leaf
1 ½ cups of fruity red wine
15 oz. of beef broth
¼ cup of A.P. Flour

Place the contents of the dry soup mix envelopes in a small baking dish. Place the roast in the dish and rub or pat the dry soup mix all over it.

In a 5 quart crock pot, place half of the potatoes, carrots, celery and garlic season with half the black pepper and thyme. Tuck a bay leaf into the vegetables. Mix together 1 cup of the wine and the broth. Pour it into the crock pot. Add the roast and scrape any dry soup mix left in the baking dish on top. Cover the meat with the remaining vegetables, garlic, pepper and thyme.

Cover and cook on a low setting (250 degrees) for 9-10 hours or until the meat is tender.

Remove the meat to a warm serving platter. Remove and discard the bay leaf. Scoop out the vegetables with a slotted spoon and scatter them over and around the roast. Cover with foil to keep warm.

Pour juices from the crock pot into a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Whisk together the remaining wine and the flour until well blended. Stir the wine and flour into the saucepan and cook, stirring constantly, until the gravy thickens. This will be about 5 minutes. Either pour gravy over roast and vegetables and serve or serve the gravy on the side.

Sunday Gravy- this is what East Coast Italians call “Spaghetti Sauce”. It’s not a gravy, but who cares? It’s amazing!

2 Tblspns of olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 lb of pork neck bones or spareribs
1 lb beef shoulder
1 lb Italian, fennel pork sausage
6 cloves of garlic, pressed
¼ cup tomato paste
3 28oz. cans of crushed tomatoes
½ cup of water
½ cup of strong, red wine
2 tsp of dried oregano and basil

To make the “gravy”, heat the oil in a large heavy pot over medium heat. Pat the pork dry and put the pieces in the pot to brown. Transfer the pork to a plate. Brown the beef the same way and add it to the plate. Next brown the sausage and set it aside as well. Lastly, brown the onions in this same pot, but do not transfer them when you are done. Leave them in the pot. You should have a dark fond on the bottom of the pan. Mix the wine and water together and add it to the onions in the pot to deglaze it, being sure to scrape the bottom well to get all the flavor and color.

Next add the crushed tomatoes, pressed garlic, basil and oregano to the crock pot. Add to that, the wine mixture from the deglazed pot. Stir really well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add all the meat to the crock pot and covering it as much as you can. Cook on low (200- 250 degrees) for 4-6 hours.

To serve, remove the meats from the gravy and set aside. Toss the cooked pasta with the gravy and serve with Parmesan cheese on the side. Sometimes, I just serve the pasta with meatballs and save the meat for another meal. Sunday gravy freezes really well.

Meatballs

2 slices of white or wheat bread, torn into small pieces
6 Tblspns of plain yogurt
1 lb of lean, ground beef
½ cup of parmesan cheese
2 Tblspns of finely minced, fresh parsley
3 cloves of garlic, pressed
1 large egg
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine bread and yogurt together in a small bowl with a fork or your hands to form a paste. It takes about 10 minutes.

Place ground beef, cheese, parsley, egg, garlic, salt and pepper in a medium bowl. Add the bread paste and combine until evenly mixed. Shape 3 Tablespoons of mixture into 1 ½ inch round meatballs. Use a light touch, as compacting them too much can make the meatball dense and hard.)

Bake in a 400 degree oven for approximately 30 minutes or until a dark brown crust forms on the outside.

This makes about 14 meatballs. At my house, I double the recipe with the hopes that some will make it to dinner. The boys love them and are eager to “steal” them when I’m not looking. They go to elaborate extremes to trick me just so they can steal a meatball.

If you are adding the meatballs to the Sunday gravy, do so for the last hour of cooking in the crock pot.