Slow Cooker

Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions

~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

Caramelized onions can take a sandwich to the next level, but you don’t always want to spend the time making caramelized onions just for a grilled cheese! I stumbled upon this fantastic idea to make caramelized onions in the slow cooker! It’s definitely one of those, “Why didn’t I think of that?” moments. Sure, it definitely takes longer but it’s so much easier and all the prep-work is done whenever you do want caramelized onions because you can freeze them too!

sliced onionsI actually cut my onions the night before, put them in a container which I then wrapped in plastic wrap and double bagged to keep the onion smell from permeating my entire refrigerator overnight. (No one wants to go to the office smelling like raw onion.) So in the morning all I had to do was dump my 3 lbs of onions into the crock pot with 3 tbsp of butter!

If you aren’t already hungry when you get home (I always am!), the smell of caramelized onions wafting over you as soon as you open the door will make you anxious to use them immediately! I used the onions for French Onion Soup – taking 30 minute off of my active cooking time. We also served them with burgers.

Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions

Ingredients:

  • 3 lb yellow onions
  • 3 tbsp butter, cubed

Steps:

  1. Using a sharp knife, slice onions thinly.
  2. Lightly spray inside of slow cooker with non stick cooking spray. Dump in onions and butter. Spritz top of onions with another hit of cooking spray.
  3. Cover and cook on high for 10 1/2 hours.

*This recipe is modified from Dorothy at http://www.shockinglydelicious.com/crock-pot-caramelized-onions-slow-and-steady-does-the-trick/*

Caramelized Onions

Fall Off the Bone Baby Back Ribs

~ lk529 ~ 1 Comment

I love baby back ribs. There, I said it. But I also hate baby back ribs. What?? There is one place back home (Rib City) that has the best, hands down, ribs ever. I’ve tried ribs in the South, and they’re awful. Okay, they’re clearly not awful because everyone else seems to love them. So here’s what I’ve learned about my bi-polar opinion. If the ribs aren’t cooked in sauce, then I’m not going to like them. I used to think it was smoking – I don’t like the Liquid Smoke that is really popular in the South and find my taste buds to be very sensitive to it.  I think if the ribs are coated in sauce while being baked/grilled, then it softens the harsh smoke flavor. Disclaimer: I’m no BBQ Pit Master, the above statements are my personal opinion.

The first time I made ribs at home I did them in a slow cooker. The meat was cooked perfectly, but the recipe I followed seriously messed with my head. I tried Asian ribs. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t right! Every time I took I bite I was expecting the sweet, tang of barbecue sauce.

I promised myself that the next time I made baby back ribs, I’d do it right. I made a very simple dry rub and used the Neely’s recipe for barbecue sauce.Fall Off the Bone Baby Back Ribs 1

These babies looked like restaurant quality when I pulled them out of the slow cooker – I actually didn’t want to cover them up in sauce! (But I did eat them that way!)

Stuart said this meal was his second favorite, almost edging out Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas.

Fall Off the Bone Baby Back Ribs

Ingredients:

  • 3 lb baby back ribs
  • 2 tbsp paprika
  • 2 tbsp kosher salt
  • 1 tbsp pepper
  • 2 1/2 C BBQ sauce, plus extra for serving

Steps

  1. Make dry rub with paprika, salt, and pepper.
  2. Cut rack of ribs into mini-slabs of 3 ribs each. Pat them dry with a paper towel. Rub all sides of ribs with the dry rub from Step 1.
  3. Place ribs in slow cooker so the the meaty side is facing the sides of the slow cooker, but not touching them. Pour barbecue sauce around the ribs. Cook on LOW for 6 hours. Flip the ribs halfway through the cooking time.

Fall Off the Bone Baby Back Ribs 2

This blog post also comes with a bonus recipe for my Smokey Sweet Potato Fries.

Ingredients:

  • 2 small sweet potatoes, cut into fries
  • 3 egg whites
  • 1 C panko bread crumbs
  • 1 1/2 tsp paprika
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne

Steps:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  2. Beat egg whites with a pinch of salt until it looks like soapy dish water.
  3. Combine panko, paprika, salt, pepper, and cayenne.
  4. Dredge potatoes in egg white and then the panko mixture.
  5. Bake potatoes for 25-30 minutes.

Update July 2016: These ribs are definitely one of my favorite meals and whenever they’re on sale at the grocery store I stock up! Every time I made them I said I needed to take a new picture, but I’d get so excited and completely forget about the camera, the blog, and the internet, and before I knew it I’d have a plate of empty bones and a little bit of barbecue sauce. But not this time! This time I snapped some pictures. I’m not sure how happy I am with the results, but they are better than those originals up there. I guess I’ll have to continue making these ribs and trying to photograph them again. Darn.

Fall Off the Bone Baby Back Ribs | Sew You Think You Can Cook | http://sewyouthinkyoucancook.com

Slow Cooker Engineering

~ lk529 ~ Leave a comment

Just like any busy cook, one of my best friends in the kitchen is my slow cooker. But what do you do when you find a recipe that makes your mouth water and your stomach growl that on LOW only takes 5 hours? Depending on how far from the office you live, there is the opportunity to go home during your lunch hour and prep dinner. Or, if your slow cooker has a fancy “delay” button, then no worries. But what if it doesn’t and you can’t get away in the middle of the day? Well, this engineer has figured out a solution!

Here’s what you’ll need: An outlet timer like those used for holiday lights ($10) and a simple slow cooker with a dial, not the electric kind ($30).

Timer Slow Cooker 

Note: The electric slow cookers will not work because to turn them on you have to be home to physically push the buttons.

Here’s what you’ll do: Plug your slow cooker into the timer and the timer into the outlet. Set your timer to turn on for as long as the recipe calls for, making sure the hours you set it for coincide with when you want to eat! Turn the dial on your slow cooker to LOW (or HIGH based on the recipe). Fill ‘er up, put on the lid, and walk away! Image

The only disadvantage to this method is that the slow cooker will not be able to switch to “keep warm” once the timer turns off because at this point your slow cooker will also be off. I don’t consider this to be a show stopper though because I know I’ll be home close enough to the time it turns off.