Blackberry Poached Pears

Got a shin dig tonight and I really want to use this blackberry jam my awesome  ex-sister-in-law  friend sent me from Washington. It tastes great all on its own but for some reason I want to give it some special lovin' in a recipe.

New Years is not a BIG deal to me but its another reason to have some fun with friends and who doesn't love that? You know what sounds like a good fit here? Pears poached in wine with a blackberry jam twist. Doesn't that just fit like a glove?! Warm, inviting, sweet and slightly alcoholic. Suites the weather and the holiday! This came out really tasty, the picture above is when the pears just started, when they are done the wine has soaked in and changed their color to a gorgeous purple. I admit one person at the party didn't like it, but on the flip side a guy who normally HATES pears loved them soooo everyone is different :) I would make them again.

(PS I referenced my all time favorite crockpot website for the cook times etc. to get my bearings on the recipe. I love you, Steph, thank you for all you do! oh my gosh just realized she made these for new years eve too! dude, great minds thinking alike...)

Blackberry Poached Pears

5 (8-ounce) cans pear ("If you'd prefer to use "real" ones, try 6 peeled and cored pears")
1 (750-ml) bottle red wine (I used a sweet malbec)

1/2 cup blackberry jam
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cinnamon stick
2 star anise

Directions

Drain pears, and add them to the crockpot. Measure the sugar, vanilla extract and jam into a separate mixing bowl. Pour some of the wine into the mixing bowl as well and mix them together. Pour mixture into the crockpot. Add the rest of the bottle of wine. Float the cinnamon stick and star anise on top. Cover and cook on low for 5 hours, or on high for about 2.

Serve warm in bowls with a large dollop of whipped cream or ice cream (or alone even!).

Yam Casserole (in the crock pot)

Heeeeellloooooo Thanksgiving!!! Ok yeah, its not Thanksgiving anymore, but people make this dish for Christmas too right? Ok so this is still relevant. And guess who was making their first turkey EVER (that's me). Meanwhile, how does anyone manage to cook anything else?? Seriously, turkey takes forever. And it takes up the whole oven. Luckily, we were going over to my Aunt Roberta's house and people are bringing things etc. but I am still in charge of making my share and my grandma's share which comes out to me making five things anyway. One of these is Yams.

They were on sale.

I wasn't raised with yam dishes actually. I know right? Everyone is different. I think I was in my 20's the first time I ever had it. The marshmallows on a vegetable were really confusing....

Anyway. So I am making them in the crock pot!




Tink's Yam Casserole

4 large yams
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup milk
enough mini marshmallows to dot throughout
pat of butter (not a lot, it's just to grease the crock)

Topping:
1/2 cup Marshmallows
2 cup Cornflakes

Directions:

Grease the crock pot with pat of butter.

Mix brown sugar and spices in a bowl, set to the side.

Peel and slice the sweet yam and stagger-stack in your crock pot. I did this in two layers. Since I used 4 yams total, I would chop two yams and lay them in, then put some of the sugar mixture, dot half of the butter, and dot some of the marshmallows as well.

Repeat the process with the second half of the yams.

Mix the 1 tsp of vanilla with the cup of milk, and pour over the entire top.

Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours, or low for 5-6. This is done when the yams have reached desired consistency. This is what mine looked like when they were done, the pot was full to the top so they cook down quite a bit!

Take a hand blender to it

Pour into a casserole dish (9x12 is what i used, it was perfect)

Mix up the marshmallows and frosted flakes, spread evenly across the top

Bake for 10 min @350 degrees or until the mallows are that pretty touch of golden   

Winner Winner Vegetarian Dinner!!

Guess who just found out she WON something! Thats right, this gal. And for what? This recipe for Vegetarian Mango Chili in the crock pot. I didn't even have a picture for it! I enter linky parties on pretty rare occasion these days, I have just been so focused on getting balanced again. I am lucky if I get a blog post up. But when I saw The CSI Project was linking up crock pot recipes I took the time to link up and now I am all excited to be a winner.  Check out the entry, give it a shot and let me know what you think! Its good chili weather out :) Oh and if you are interested in the other winners go here. Have a fantastic Thanksgiving everyone!

Vegetarian Mango Chili

So you say you just got out of church (so its noon) and invited to a potluck (its at 6pm) and you have your cousins graduation party (from 2-5) so you can't really cook without giving yourself a nervous breakdown? Wow, me too!! Luckily, I have a crockpot.

I SWEAR I tried to go by the book this time. I knew I could pull off a chili because I knew I had a lot of the stuff needed in the pantry. No shopping, easy peasy. I pulled out a crockpot cookbook, found a recipe and everything....but... the can of diced tomatoes smelled like vinegar. Hmmm. I had one big tomato to work with. However, we did just get our produce basket the day before so I had 5 mangos staring at me just waiting to be used.

Can you even use mango in a chili? Turns out you can! Yay for the interwebs! I googled but I was running out of precious prep time. I was going to have to do what i could with what I had, cross my fingers and hope for the best! I am happy to report that it turned out really good :) there wouldn't be a blog if it hadn't though so that should have been the first clue LOL Here's what I did:

Vegetarian Mango Chili
2 cans kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 can olives
1 16 oz can crushed pineapple
2 mangos
1 medium onion
1 large tomato
2 tomatillos
1 c. water
 1 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1 can enchilada sauce (about 12 oz)
1 small can green chilis

Dump in all the canned stuff. Cut up the mangos, onion, tomatillos & tomato throw it in the blender with the cup of water (because you don't have time to dice! at least i didn't. You can dice if you want.) use the chop setting just long enough to get it somewhere between liquid and chunky. It was literally only a few seconds for me. Dump that in to the pot, put in your seasonings, stir it all around and cook on low for 5-6 hours.

It went over very well with the BBQ chicken, even the hubby liked it and he's the traditionalist :) Enjoy!

Broccoli-Mushroom Rice: Crockpot style

The nice thing about this recipe is that it has diverse application. So far I've used it for both Italian and Chinese dishes with success! As a side note, I HATE cooking rice on the stove, mainly because I seem to SUCK at it. My husband can do it without having a half inch layer of rice stuck to the pan, why can't I??? /sigh. I'll be ok. I just prefer a rice cooker, and right now we don't have one (our other one broke and I want a very specific new one so....I'm a picky little whiner lol!) Trolling one of my favorite websites ever, A Year f Slow Cooking, I found out you can do rice in the crockpot. SCORE! So this is an adaptation of the Sun-Dried Tomato Risotto. Because I didn't have the right rice or the right cheese...or the sun-dried tomatoes....and my crockpot is bigger...

Broccoli-Mushroom Rice
8 quart Crockpot
1 cup olive oil
3 cups brown rice
1 can condensed mushroom soup
1 cup water
7 cups chicken broth
2 heads of Broccoli, chopped

Pour in oil and rice, swirl together so the rice is well coated. Add the mushroom soup and water, mix together. Add the chicken broth and broccoli. Cover and cook on high for 3-4 hours (personally mine took 4 hours, brown rice is like that and there's more of it)

So there you have it! Since it was so much more, I decided to serve different entree's with it. For the Italian themed dinner, I had chicken marinated in an Italian blend of spices, oil and vinegar and then I added cheese to the rice. For the Asian flair, I stir-fried a variety of veggies in oil, garlic and ginger; then in another pan I did beef marinated in equal parts sweet-chili sauce and soy sauce. Super yummy both times and I bet you can do even more!