Nonie's Crockpot

Did you miss me? I missed writing for you.  Sorry but it's been a busy couple of days.

To start you off, hubby got an 8 point buck on Saturday morning. So proud of him. I was laying in bed, lazily thinking about how he would be out of the woods soon and we could go for breakfast when I heard the shot. I reached over & checked my phone. 8:08AM. He called about 15 minutes later to verify that indeed it was his shot and the boy went right down. What a beautiful boy it is too. Caught on the last day of rifle season here in NEPA. Meat in our freezer and a great new mount to add to the wall.
So our day was spent around the deer & deer related activities.






Nonie's Crockpot...I love this thing.

When Nonie passed away everyone was invited into the home to take something to remember Nonie by. John and I went together. I choose Nonie's crockpot & bakeware. Some thought I was crazy to want a 1970's orange crockpot. But they know not the silliness of their ways. This crockpot is a thing of beauty. This crockpot has made many helpings of venison chili, black eyed peas, beef stew and tonight a awesome chili to warm a cold night.

Today I had 2 crock pots going. I wanted to make sure we have some meals ready to go for the week & figured the crockpot was the fastest, easiest way to get multiple meals done. In total I have 3 crock pots. Each have unique abilities. Nonie's is old fashioned, cooks well, traditional round style.  Good for chili, soups & black eyed peas on New Years Day. My newest crock pot is a 7 quarter that holds alot more food than 2 people can consume in one meal. Good for stews and things that hold up for a few days. My oldest crock pot is a two piecer. The base can also be used as a hot skillet. The container itself is metal, storable & the perfect size for 2 people. Good for pork & sauerkraut! Yum.

So today I had chili going in Nonie's crock pot & a hearty beef stew in the 7 quarter. The house smelled delicious. I set the chili to finish in 4 hours so we would have some for dinner & set the beef stew on an 8 hour cook. Chili turned out awesome! I've always done my chili on the stove in a dutch oven so I wasn't sure how it would turn out in the crock pot. But no worries. Just as good as the dutch oven.

I've been following a blog about cooking in the crock pot. It's amazing to me the things you can do with your crock pot. Bake in it, make drinks in it, make a whole entire meal in 3 or 4 crocks. Wow.
http://www.crockpotgirls.net/http://www.crockpotgirls.net/

And last but not least a shout out to our friend Jaime who turned me onto a great new recipe that I never considered trying. Chicken & White Chili. She used a recipe from Giada and it tasted awesome. When I asked for the recipe I was shocked to see it had swiss chard in it. I thought the green stuff was spinach or something. Swiss Chard was a nice surprise. And Giada/Jaime's recipe used ground chicken. So while I was in the store today debating what to make, I chose to pass on the back of the can recipe as it did not use ground chicken. It wanted you to pull chicken breasts apart. So maybe next weekend that recipe will get a try.

Hope you had a good weekend as well. Tomorrow is 12-12-11 (no significance just like the way it looks).

Cheers!