Ideal Verge - Your Daily Dose of Knowledge and Inspiration.

Hi Slow Cookerers!



I've got a treat for you today ---  I've compiled all of the questions I get pretty often into one email cheat sheet. Feel free to forward this along to a friend, or bookmark for reference.



While cooking in the slow cooker is pretty easy, sometimes things don't go exactly quite as planned. Since I've used the crockpot eight million and fifty-six times I have a few

The economy is all whacked out right now and it's scary. I'm not watching the news.

I get an email almost every day asking if I am saving money by using my CrockPot daily.

No. What I am doing is not normal. Most people do not try to do what I'm doing in the crockpot. We are pretty much breaking even on the grocery bills, thanks to BlogHerads. I am grocery shopping more than I ever have before,

This has been one of "those weeks" -- and I feel like I just can't seem to do anything correctly, and everything seems to be just slightly off balance.

it stinks.

I try to maintain a positive outlook on life, the universe, and everything, but today was one of those days that I wanted to crawl back in bed as soon as my feet hit the floor. The good news was that dinner pretty much made itself

Here's a line-up of tried-and-true slow cooker dishes that are suitable for your Holiday--any Holiday-- dinner table.








Unless otherwise stated, ALL recipes are completely gluten free, due to a family allergy. If you are not gluten free, simply ignore my notes. --steph

Main Course:





Bacon-Wrapped Cornish Game Hens

Barbequed Hot and Spicy Shrimp

Cajun Turkey Breast
Christmas

I made a whole chicken yesterday in the slow cooker, and it turned out really well. We had some tomatoes that needed to get used up before they turned into pasta sauce, and I threw them on top of the bird while it slow-cooked. I loved the end result: a moist, flavorful chicken with gooey packed-with-flavor tomatoes. For an added bonus, you can save the crock drippings to make steamed rice.

The

Fish! It's what's for dinner.

I love making fish in the crockpot. I love making pretty much anything in the crockpot, but the ease of making fish is just so wonderful, I'm surprised everyone doesn't cook fish this way.
It's easy.
It's moist and flavorful.
It doesn't heat up the house on a hot day.
it doesn't stink up the kitchen.
and clean up is practically non-existent.

SCORE!

I had a bunch

originally published April 30, 2015. Updated with new photo via deposit photos @bhofack 4/15


Day 121.



We had a busy Saturday this past week and I didn't have a meal planned. Usually that means take-out or macaroni and cheese, but instead I dug into the depths of the freezer and found a forgotten bag of frozen stew meat.


I wasn't sure exactly what to do with it, so just kept pulling

It's almost St. Patrick's Day!

Bring on the Shamrocks!

Adam and I have been married for 100 million years 16 years this upcoming July. Before marrying into an Irish family, I ate corned beef a handful of times, and honestly wasn't all that impressed.

That's because I was wrong. Corned beef is DELICIOUS. And (unless you like it that way), it doesn't need to be soggy and greasy.

You can