The Crock Pot Caveman

Well, the first time out, the Caveman tried calling on his unpracticed  culinary skills by following his Wife’s directions in preparing a simple yet tasty beginner crock pot beef recipe and experienced a decent amount of success – enough at least to find the courage to try his hand at yet another easy crock pot recipe: this time a beginner crock pot chicken recipe!

I was assured by my wife that there would not be too much difficulty in preparing this one, so that was good to hear.  Like the last recipe we tried out, this time around there would not be too many ingredients to deal with. (another plus, I would say)  So let’s cover the ingredients that we did decide were needed for this simple crock pot chicken recipe.  To repeat the recipe the way me and my wife did it, you will need the following ingredients:

Chicken (obviously). You can go with any part of the bird that you prefer really,  legs / drumsticks, wings, thighs, or breasts are all good for the purposes of this recipe

Vegetables. These should be cut up into one inch-sized cubes; you should consider cutting up between two to three cups worth for a good balance with the entre.  My wife reminded me that you are limited to only those veggies that won’t get too soft after being in the crock pot for a few hours, so consider using the vegetables that I did: carrots, potatoes and mushrooms.(I wanted to also add broccoli but was discouraged from doing so)

Cream base.  We also added a can of cream of mushroom soup, but you can go with other cream-based soups if you like, such as cream of chicken or cream of corn, for example.

In addition to the above ingredients, you should feel free to also add any herbs or spices that might suit your tastes.  For this recipe, my wife recommends a teaspoon of either crushed garlic or ginger, as well as a teaspoon of any herbs that she thought would be a good fit, such as thyme or rosemary.

This turned out to be a pretty easy, straight forward recipe to follow, too;  we started by adding the prepared vegetables into the empty waiting crock pot.  Our next step was to take the collection of chicken pieces and distribute them evenly into the crock pot.  After, we went and added the crushed garlic as well as the before-mentioned herbs.(in this case the rosemary and thyme)  Once this was done, I poured the whole can of cream soup evenly over the contents of the crock-pot.  After you add the soup it is time to place the lid on your crockpot and start it cooking!  From what my wife said, the choice to make was whether or not I needed the meal to cook quickly or over part of the day; for those wanting to cook this recipe on a high setting, you would want to make sure not to let it cook for much more than 3 or 4 hours, and for those wanting to have the meal cook over a longer stretch of time, the desired length is apparently 6 to 8 hours on the low setting.

Something that you really need to keep in mind is that if you are going to be adding any herbs,  my wife suggests that the time to do it is during the last hour and a half of the cooking time. I forgot this tidbit, and because I added the herbs with maybe less than an hour to go in the cooking time, I decided to add to the cooking time to give the herbs time to fully ‘blend’ with everything else.  Well the extra 45 or so miutes that I added to the cooking time of the chicken in the crock pot was maybe a mistake, since the chicken seemed a bit on the over cooked side. (if that is possible to tell with a slow cooked meal) So that is something to really keep in mind if you should decide to follow this recipe yourself.

Good luck!

Filed under: Crock Pot Chicken Recipes, Easy Crock Pot Recipes | Add Comment →

Slow cooked roast beef. Yummm. Well, that is if my Wife is the one who prepares it; when it was my turn to try and prepare a slow cooked roast in our trusty household crock pot, the results could not be so readily assumed.  Lucky for me, my Wife led me pretty much by the hand in preparing the main course and ingredients, as well as making sure that we got it off and cooking without issue.

We tried out this rival crock pot pot roast recipe standby to help me get my feet wet, so to speak.  We started this beef roast recipe in the mid morning  on a weekend when we both had the time free to try it out, expecting the end result (if edible) to be ready by dinnertime.  My wife promised me that we would end up having a delicious pot roast in its own gravy ready and waiting for us at the end of it all. ‘ Okay, honey’, I said.

I guess at this point I should cover all of the different ingredients that my wife and I used in the making of this pot roast recipe.  After the fact it seemed like we pretty much ended up with a standard or typical slow cooked pot roast,so I assume that the ingredients used are pretty typical.  We used the following:

* one boneless-beef sirloin tip roast,  about three to five pounds in size (we went with sirloin tip but I guess that there are other cuts of beef roast available to choose based on one’s personal preference)

* one-half cup of regular all-purpose flour, divided into two, one-quarter cup amounts

* one envelope of  prepared onion soup mix (one of those essential ingredients that I had no clue about before doing this recipe!)

* one envelope of brown gravy mix (ah – so that’s why she could promise me a roast ready in its own gravy)

* two cups of cold water

* some optional ingredients based on your personal taste or preference (read below to see what we chose to go with)

So my wife had me go and cut our beef roast in half and then roll the halves around in the first  one quarter of flour.  Then, she had me place the divided roast pieces evenly in our slow cooker.  The next step on my learning ladder was to properly combine some of the other remaining ingredients; I was instructed to combine our onion soup mix, our gravy packet and the remaining one quarter of flour into a bowl and to also stir it all up with a fork to help make sure that it was already somewhat combined before the next step.  That next step was to stir in the cold water into the dry blended mixture and then stir the ingredients all up together to make sure that the resultant mixture was all well-blended. (very important for the final result of the gravy, I was told) My wife then had me pour this mixture evenly over the roast waiting inside the crock pot.   Remember those ‘optional ingredients’ that I mentioned earlier? Well, this is the point at which you can go ahead and add them in.  I did so.  We decided to go with one cup of chopped carrots, one half-cup of cut green beans, one half-cup of chopped onions and a couple cloves of freshly chopped up garlic, all thrown into the crock pot at the same time.  Finally my wife had me place the lid securely on the rival crock pot and set it to start cooking on low.  We decided to let it cook like that for up to eight hours, figuring that we could always check on things half way through the cooking time to make sure that the liquid had not evaporated too quickly and to add some more if really necessary.  Well, we touched base with our slow cooking beef roast at roughly the halfway point of its cooking time and found that the amount of liquid left was sufficient/ still good, so we just re-secured the lid  and let it keep cooking along for another four hours.  My wife actually ended up suggesting to me to let it cook for another forty minutes after the first eight hours just to make sure it was tender enough for my tastes and I decided to take her up on her suggestion.  I am glad I did, because the end result was something so tender and succulent, that I could scarcely believe that I had a hand in its creation! lol.  The long and short of it is that we ended up enjoying a dinner of slow cooked beef with a side of mashed potatoes.  It’s funny how you can feel so spoiled by the results of your own efforts when those efforts turn out so well.

Well this was one easy crock pot recipe learned, possibly the first of many…

Filed under: Crock Pot Beef Recipes, Easy Crock Pot Recipes | 7 Comments →

So why the Crock Pot Caveman?

Well to explain why this blog came into existence, I have to first explain my own situation.  I have been with the same partner for over four and a half years now (and married to her for the last two) and over this time I have found myself slowly evolving into  a domestic situation in which I have become more and more use to not preparing my own meals, but instead reaping the rewards of being with someone who is a very very good cook.  Sure, I occasionally take up the task of preparing our meals, but for the most part I have over time become quite accustomed to enjoying having my dinners prepared for me.  On those occasions when I might be left to fend for myself, I am able to whip together something to satisfy my hunger that is borderline nutritious.  Of course sometimes I am guilty of just throwing a frozen pizza in the oven or  something equally insidious. But whatever – it wasn’t like it was a regular occurrence,  right?

Well recently that all started to change.

My lovely wife, who has been attending a full-time Nursing program in college for the past year, has just recently completed said program and earned her Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) Degree. (Yay!)  The good news for her  is that soon after completing her training, she was able to find work in the field and so has recently started her gainful employment as an LPN.  The only unforeseen consequence of all this is that many of her recent shifts have  seen her working either in the mornings right upto the dinner hour, or in the afternoon, going right through until the witching hour.  In either case, she has obviously found herself with precious little time to deal with a nightly dinner menu.  Because of my early start job hours I find myself at home by the middle of the afternoon most days and obviously much more available to deal with the dinner.  There is really just one problem and I bet you can already see it coming: my wife is not always too thrilled with what my cooking talents have to offer, and to be fair to her, she has also decided that she cannot complain about this fact without offering some form of recourse.

For years, my wife has been what I would describe as very well versed in the ways of the slow cooker; In fact, until we were given a new Rival Crock Pot as one of the gifts at our wedding shower, my wife had been faithfully using the same old Crock Pot for years and years, telling me and anyone else that would listen that it was “still good enough to get the job done.” Well with my wife being a most able teacher of slow cooker basics and with me needing to acquire some new cooking knowledge sooner rather than later,  it was decided that it was way past time that I learn from her some of her more easily duplicated slow cooking skills.

So there you have it:  a guy who before now would have been very hard pressed to tell you the practical differences between a rival crock pot 2 quart, a rival crock pot 4  quart and a rival crock pot 6 quart slow cooker; what a rival crock pot bbq is and how it actually works; what a rival crock pot smart pot or rival crock pot versaware pro or rival crock pot elume are and what it is that they might do, has now had to come to accept that he will shortly be put to the test and will soon find out whether or not he has the skills necessary to successfully master the ways of the rival crock pot stoneware slow cooker.  Okay, master might be way too strong of a word to use when talking about me and cooking in the same sentence, I will easily admit that.

I will also admit that I have no real clue as to what a rival crock pot double dipper is, but it sounds naughty and I think I want to find out.

I have not committed to using any one specific rival crock pot cookbook or recipe book (my wife has a number of reliable crock pot recipes filed away and of course there is always that handy modern wonder known to many, called the internet.  I have committed to posting up my slow cooker experiences but I have not yet decided on whether or not I will be including any beginner rival crock pot reviews on here.  Before I take that step it is probably better to make sure that I have mastered the fine art of not burning down the apartment or harming any innocent plants or small pets during my cooking experiences.

So no big promises, no grand designs hare at the start.  I don’t claim any plans to become a slow cooking guru by the time I am done, just hopefully, a better cook.  This is one caveman who hopes that by the time he is done, he is able to handle a rival crock pot as ably as his club…

PS. If you think that I am fretting over nothing, feel free to let me know!

Filed under: The Rival Crock Pot Experience | 79 Comments →