Hi Honey, I'm home!

26.2, thing 25

When I was gifted a crockpot in my late twenties by my mother, I rolled my eyes, put it in the back of the closet, and thought, "how suburban and 1970's, I'll never use that thing!" Well... as I've gotten older I've learned to never say never. The crockpot has become a saving grace for dinner for my family, mostly in the fall and winter, as it seems to work best for stews, soups, chili, saucy, mushy hot stuff. It's really nice to come home at the end of the day, open the door, and smell that dinner is ready. I'm always happy to be introduced to good new crockpot recipes that use fresh and original ingredients (to me this means NOT a cream-of-something soup, catsup, or other processed ingredient as I have found the recipes wanting in the cookbook "Fix It and Forget It"). I liked exploring A Year of Crockpotting - this Apricot Chicken recipe sounds tasty and easy.

For part of Thanksgiving dinner, we'll be making a traditional New England desert, Indian Pudding. It can take a while to bake in the oven and is best eaten warm. Since there can be a lot of competition for the oven in preparing a big holiday meal, I've found a crockpot version that works well.

I cook much more beyond the crockpot and particularly like baking. I find a lot of recipes and cooking inspiration in the NY Times food section - fun to peruse.