Hooray for the Slow Cooker!

My mom used a slow cooker frequently when I was growing up. I remember many a pot of pinto beans and ham, as well as hamburger soup and other kinds of yummy slow-cooked goodness.

Slow cookers have come a long way since then, and so have the foods that are cooked in them. I love using one because it simplifies my dinner-time routine, which is nice because that time of day can sometimes get chaotic. It's also wonderful for tenderizing cuts of meat as they cook, and blending flavors together.

Probably my favorite slow-cooker recipe right now is kalua pig. So, so good, and really easy. It's just a pork butt (or shoulder) roast rubbed with sea salt and liquid smoke, then placed in a slow cooker with water and cooked for anywhere from 14 to 20 hours, depending on how hot your slow cooker cooks. I start it around 11:00 pm, then turn it in the morning when I get up and several times throughout the day to prevent any pieces from getting dry. The meat literally falls apart, it's so tender, and the flavor is incredible. You can find the recipe here.

Two other recipes I tried recently are Slow-Cooked Chili and Beef Stroganoff. Both were made for groups, and both got rave reviews! I made the chili pretty much as is, and I though it was fabulous. To the stroganoff, I added garlic, onion soup mix and sour cream, per the suggestions of others who had left reviews on the recipe. It was really good and creamy, and the meat was tender despite only being cooked on high for 5 hours. I usually prefer to cook chunks of meat or whole roasts on low for a longer period of time, but it totally worked.

I'll be using my slow cooker more as we're heading deeper into fall and drawing closer to winter. It's a great time to make stews and soups and chili and other warm comfort foods like that, but I'll be looking for new types of slow-cooker recipes to try out, too.