Very dumb question...how do I use a slow cooker?

[Ibicella]

I'm too embarrassed to ask anyone I know personally because I'll never hear the end of it! LOL!

I was very thoughtfully given a really nice slow cooker this evening as a gift by a good friend of mine.

One of these: http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-33967-Cooker-Stainless/dp/B000QA2BH4

I appreciate her generosity. I've been thinking of getting one forever, because the last thing I want to do after a long day at work is cook. So this is a great gift.

Except...uhhh...except I've never used a slow cooker before in my life.

So now I have this alien machine and I'm at a loss at what I can do with it. I can figure out how the machine works and the controls and stuff, that's pretty straight forward.

But I'm gone 12 hours a day for work. I'm gone just after 6am, and home and ready for dinner at 6pm.

How do I pick recipes for this? Do I need to stick with really long cooking ones? Can I just pick anything? How do I do this?

 

[PurpleChicken]

Search for crock pot recipes.


There are so many. I use mine for soups, chili, pot roasts and more.

Simple chicken soup:
Put in a chicken, a couple onions, couple cloves of garlic.
Fill to almost the top with water
Cook on high overnight.

In the morning strain the broth and put back in crock pot.
Pick off good meat and throw in pot.
Cut up some carrots and celery and drop in.
Add salt and pepper and cook on low until you get home at 6.

 

[ChickensRCool]

Not a dumb question. Sometimes kitchen appliances like yours come with a few recipes and that would be good start. Also, many cookbooks have slow cooker recipes. And the internet has tons. Good Luck.

 

[LilBizzy]

Hello and

!!

There are tons of recipes online for slow cooking. Try
http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Main-Dish/Slow-Cooker/Main.asp

I don't cook much ( hubby and I work weird hours), but it is nice to come home to the house smelling yummy, and dinner all ready for you.

 

[wombat]

If you're gone for 12 hours, use recipes that have a fair amount of liquid in them, like roasts in a water/onion soup mix and such. Things that are merely moist, like a really thick chili might get dry on the edges with that much cooking time.

 

[wombat]

Edit: Deleted a double post.

 

[BarkerChickens]

Crock pots are great! Especially for large, easy meals! A basic,quick method we use at home is add some chicken broth, canned cream of mushroom and/or chicken soup, stew meat, and chopped veggies (onions, carrots, celery, etc), and turn on low. In 8-12 hours, you have stew. We usually add enough liquid to cover the meat, but not all the veggies as it will cook down (or otherwise be too juicy). We generally find that a full crock pot (initially with raw veggies) will need about 1/2 full of liquid. Good luck and happy cooking!!! OH!!! Check out allrecipes.com. That site has a TON of recipes for crock pot (aka slow cooker) recipes.

 

[Chew593]

I am so jealous! You can cook a whole chicken in that baby and it'll turn itself off when it's done and keep it warm for you till you get home from work. My SIL has one of those and she's always bragging about how cool it is. First thing I'd do is read the directions that came with the pot, then I also recommend allrecipes.com. I made a slow cooker spicy beef stew the other day that I got off that site and it was soooo yummy! Have fun! You really can't screw up slow cooking too much.

 

[Tala]

Quote:
Yup.
I put my cooker on the Christmas light timer because I kept burning stuff leaving it on low for 9+ hours while I was at work. SOME cookers have a timer feature built in, but not mine.

 

[wombat]

Beef Rendang is one of my favorites.

Here's a slow cooker recipe:
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art53560.asp

It says 4-6 hours on low and then 2-3 hours on high, but you could probably tweak it a bit and just leave it on low all day long and then transfer to a pot on the stove as soon as you get home to reduce the liquid while you do other things before dinner.