These are a few of my favorite things...

I love music. I'll probably make a number of references to music over time. I can't help myself.

This post is about some of my favorite things to use when cooking for my family. I have been collecting utensils, appliances, and gadgets for a long time. You would be amazed what you can pick up at garage sales, Goodwill, and estate sales. Not to mention the gift factor. I have wonderful family and friends who know how much I love kitchen things. I understand not everyone has these thing or can afford to run out and buy these thing. Keep an eye out at sales and drop hints for gift giving. You won't be sorry. I was just delighted when a young mother I work with told me she had won a drawing and got to pick a gift. She was thinking about a slow cooker and wanted my opinion. Slow Cookers are one of my very favorite things!

I'm lucky in that I now have two Crock Pots. I've had a large one for years, but my sister gave me a small one that had belonged to her Mother-in-Law. The small one also came with a bread-baking insert. The insert had never been used when I got it, but I've used it and it works great. I honestly don't know if they still make them. I know some are available on E-bay, but I wouldn't go that route. There are other ways to make bread and cakes in a Crock Pot. If you find one at a garage sale, go for it. Otherwise, I'll show you how to make do.

These are my Crock Pots and some of the pans I use with them. One is the bread-baking insert. One is a small spring-form pan and the other is just a small cake pan. I picked up the small spring-form pan years ago to use in my pressure cooker. I still use it in that, but it's great in the Crock Pots too. The small cake pan came from a set of pans meant for making wedding cake. I got the set at a garage sale when I was in my 20's. I don't have any intention of making wedding cakes, but it is nice to have an assortment of cake pans to use.

 

I think most people think about using slow cookers to make soups and stews. They are great for that, but they can do much more as well. You can bake, steam, braise and all sorts of stuff. One of my favorite meals is baked beans and steamed brown bread. I can make the beans in the large Crock Pot and the brown bread in the small one. I'm going to share my brown bread recipe with you. It goes great with soups, stews, roasts, and just about anything else you can think of.

Brown Bread has a long New England history. Wheat production didn't take off well in New England at first. Corn meal and rye flour were more available than wheat flour. Brown bread developed as a way to stretch the supplies of wheat flour. The bread is also made with molasses, which was the less expensive sweetener used commonly in the colonial world. Since much of the cooking was done in a fireplace, methods developed to cook baked goods without an oven. This is where steamed breads and puddings come in.

When making recipes like this, I try to keep in mind that colonial housewives didn't always have the same items on hand and they learned to substitute and adjust. If I don't have wheat flour, I use white. If I have less corn meal, I use more rye flour. As long as the totals equal the correct amounts, I find the bread comes out well. You do need some cornmeal though. It just isn't right without it.

Boston-style Brown Bread

1 cup all purpose flour

1 ½ cups of combined wheat and rye flour
½ cup cornmeal
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup buttermilk (you can mix plain or vanilla yogurt with milk to 1 cup)
3 tablespoons melted butter
2/3 cups molasses (blackstrap, not sorghum)
1 ¼ cups raisins

1 to 2 cups of water for steaming.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl. Mix the buttermilk, molasses and melted butter in another bowl. Add liquid ingredients to dry ingredients until just mixed. Fold in raisins. Put the mixture into a buttered pan or coffee can. Butter a piece of foil and put it on the top of the pan. Make the piece large enough that you can tent it while still sealing the pan well. The bread will rise and needs room to grow. I use a large rubber band to secure the foil to the top of the pan. String will work too. Place a trivet or crumpled foil in the bottom of the slow cooker. Add the water and place the pan on the trivet/foil. Put the cover on the slow cooker and cook on high for 3 hours. Insert a knife to check to see if it is done. If it isn't done, cover again with foil and let it cook for another 40 minutes. Check again.

I have a small trivet that came with the bread-baking pan. Before I had that I just used foil crumpled in the bottom of the slow cooker. There really isn't any need to buy a trivet if you have foil.

This is the bread-baking pan and the trivet.  You can see how nicely it fits in either slow cooker and how the pan sits on top of it.

This is what I mean by using foil instead of a trivet.

If you happen to have a pressure cooker this same recipe can be cooked in the pressure cooker on medium pressure for 65 minutes.

Slow cookers and pans can be used to make things like meatloaf, cakes, custards and all sorts of goodies. Crockpot365.blogspot.com is an awesome blog. Stephanie O'Dea has incredible ideas and recipes for using slow cookers. She taught me how to make granola and yogurt in my slow cooker. Take the time to look through her site. You won't be sorry.

The really nice thing about a slow cooker is that it works beautifully cooking tougher, cheaper cuts of meat. I also depend on it to provide hot meals for my family on nights when I have to work through dinner time. It is also nice on days when I'm at work all day and too tired to cook when I get home. I can prepare everything the night before and just dump it in the cooker in the morning and head to work. When I get home I set the table and we eat. I don't tend to cook rice or pasta in my slow cooker. I find they get too mushy. However, both can be cooked in advance and reheated easily to stir in when I get home. They also cook pretty quickly and I can do that just before dinner. A slow cooker give me so much flexibility. If we get home late it is no big deal. If we all have to eat at different times, everyone can serve themselves.

I'm not cooking today. We have an bunch of left-overs to heat up. Dig out your slow cooker if you have one. Check out Stephanie and try something new. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.