Ideal Verge - Your Daily Dose of Knowledge and Inspiration.

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,

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

photo updated 2015 via deposit photos @lidante

Day 295.
October 21, 2008

We love rotisserie chicken in this house. Costco clearly labels their chicken as gluten-free, so I usually pick up 2 when we go.

But I haven't been going.

I find myself grocery shopping a few times a week now with this crazy crockpotting year, and it just isn't feasible to go to Costco. I'm only meal planning a few

originally posted on July 29, 2008. Updated July 2015.


Day 211.

The kids and I went to the "good" library over the weekend and I checked out a bunch of cookbooks. One of the books was put out by Cook's Illustrated, and was called The Complete Book of Poultry.

There are probably a good five hundred recipes in this book, but narrowing down what I was going to attempt first was rather easy---I

originally posted in 2008. Photo and text updated via deposit photos @bhofack2 in 2015


Day 204.

I made this chow mein with chicken, but you easily could keep it vegetarian, or use your favorite kind of meat---even pork!

Debbi (who doesn't have a blog, but totally needs one) sent me this recipe in May, and I made it just yesterday.

This is a good one; I'm excited to share it with you.

originally posted July 6, 2008. Reposted July 6, 2015.
Long live cheesecake!!

Day 188.

I've never made a cheesecake before; I always thought it sounded complicated. I'm a pretty picky cheesecake eater, I hate it to be dried out, and I don't want the cheesey part to be too thick. I like a bit of crust in every bite. I had a reader ask quite a while ago if I thought cheesecake could be made in

Originally posted 5/23/08. 



Image and post updated 5/15 via deposit photos @imagesetc


Day 144.





Cream cheese chicken is usually one of the first dishes tried in a crockpot. It is delicious. There are many different variations, but the standard recipe revolves around a can of cream-of-something soup, a package of Italian salad dressing mix, and a block of cream cheese.




I have a

originally posted on May 5, 2008.

Day 126.



Happy Cinco de Mayo! If you are looking for some ideas for Mexican food tonight, you've come to the right place.



Some of my favorites are:


Enchilada Casserole

Tamale Pie

Taco Soup

Chimichangas

Tortilla Soup

Turkey With Mango Salsa

Tacos

Not-Too-Spicy Bean Dip

Chicken Nachos



We had a party on Friday, and served crockpot fare

February 19, 2008 *
Day 50.


Fifty! 50! ack!


This recipe is straight from the Gluten Free Goddess' site. I followed it word-for-word down to the organic, free-range, grass fed, massaged, and sung-to-sleep beef. 


I have been a fan of Karina's for quite a while---her website taught me to not be afraid of gluten free cooking. I owe our love to Pamela's to Karina, and my new-found

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