SLOWLY CROCK-ING IT

I very recently acquired two kitchen buddies, and today, I am going to introduce you to the first of two:

Tadaaaa!  It's a three-crock slow cooker by GE.  A long-time-online-turned-to-be-in-person-friend visited me about two weeks ago and gave us this wonderful and useful present.  Coincidentally, about a week previous to that, Vince and I were on the mall contemplating of buying a crock pot/slow cooker, but postponed our purchase as we wanted to get something else first, i.e., my other kitchen buddy (which I will talk about in a separate post).  So, you can just imagine how hyped up I was to have received this gift!  Soon after I ripped the wrapper and took the appliance out of the box, I started reading its manual and Vince searched the Internet for recipes.

We saw a lot of recipes, and we thought we'd try Beef Bourguignon first.  However, we couldn't find fresh thyme at Wal-Mart, so we opted to do Cornbread Casserole instead.  The recipe for the casserole called for a variety of ingredients including yellow cornmeal, cream of corn, milk, taco sauce, ground beef, eggs, green chili, and cheese.  I wasn't familiar with this dish (never tried it before), so I wasn't really sure what to expect as an outcome.

In fernez, the recipe is very simple and easy to follow, so I was able to whip it up in a jiffy.  It started cooking in the slow cooker at around 12:30 p.m., and according to the recipe, it should be done in six to seven hours.  Just in time for dinner after we get home from the gym!  The element of surprise and virtue of patience altogether made me more and more excited to find out how the dish would turn out.

I was anxious to go home after working out, but Vince and I stopped by the mall first to buy my other kitchen buddy (which I will introduce in a separate post).  As soon as we got home around past 8:00 p.m., I checked the casserole, and lo and behold, it was steaming and smelling good!  The dish is, in fact, a meat pie,  like shepherd's pie or cottage pie.  "Aaaaahhhh... ganito pala 'to," was my reaction when I took my first bite.  Hehe! (*Aaaaahhhh... so this is what it is*)

For me, the main benefit one can get from a slow cooker is it being a "walk-away kitchen appliance."  All you have to do is prepare the ingredients (some recipes require pre-heating/cooking) and when all is set, you just leave them to cook in the slow cooker.  You can go to work, take a bath, sleep, or do whatever you need to do, and after several hours, you have a wonderful meal that's waiting for you.   Other models and brands have timer functions which can set the cooker to automatically turn off or in warm mode, pretty much the same as what a rice cooker does.

Anyway, Vince finally found thyme at a different grocery store, so you all know what that meant ;)

Oh, and stay tuned to know about my other kitchen buddy ☻

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My share for:

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