We got married in the peak of crockpot popularity. In fact, we got two crockpots for wedding gifts. Neither of our mothers had one at the time so we gave one to each of them. I don't think my mom used hers much, but I do remember one time when we were visiting Rob's mom's house she cooked hot dogs in her crockpot and toward the end of the cooking time she put the buns in the pot to steam them.
Before we were married Rob got a crockpot and it was the mainstay of his bachelor cooking. He had an arsenal of recipes and he would throw something in the crockpot each morning before heading off to school and his dinner would be ready when he returned home in the late afternoon. That original red/orange crockpot made by Rival came with a small cookbook that contained a number of really good recipes. If you ever run across one at a yard sale or thrift store try to snatch it up.
During that same era I purchased the 1973 edition of Crockery Cookery by Mabel Hoffman. You can tell it is rather dated by the price on the cover--$1.95!
This book too has a number of good recipes. I looked on Amazon and she has published several later editions which I am not familiar with.
The recipe I made for lunch on Sunday was from Mabel's book. It is quite tasty and is one that works well even in a non-programmable slow cooker. My theory is that the older crockpots didn't cook as hot as the ones we can purchase today. This probably has to do with an increased emphasis on food safety. Many of the older slow cooker recipes that I made when we were first married become overcooked in my newer non-programmable crockpot. That's one reason I have been thrilled with the new programmable model that I can set to cook for X number of hours and then it will switch to warm. No more burnt offerings from the crockpot!
Anyway, after that diatribe here is a good recipe for in your crockpot:
Budget Beef Stroganoff
1 1/2 -2 lbs. round steak
dash pepper
1/2 onion, finely chopped
generous sprinkling of garlic powder
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 cups water
1 Tbsp. beef soup base or granular beef bouillon powder
1 Tbsp. catsup
1 can sliced mushrooms, drained
1/3 cup flour
3/4 cup sour cream
Cut steak into 1/4 inch strips. Place in slow cooker. Sprinkle in pepper and garlic powder. Add Worcestershire sauce, catsup, water, and soup base. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 hours. If you have been cooking on low turn the control up to high and add the mushrooms. Dissolve the flour in a small amount of water and stir into the meat mixture. Cook on high for 15 mins. or until slightly thickened. Stir in sour cream and then turn off the heat. Serve over noodles, mashed potatoes, or rice.
Makes 5-6 servings.
Becka
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on Jun 3rd, 2009 at 10:24 am
I probably still have that Rival crockpot cookbook as I still have the avocado green crockpot pictured. My aunt gave it to my mother who never used it. I asked Mom if I could have it. It proved to be of use for more than just cooking food. There was a time when I went for several months without a working water heater. My crockpot was always full of hot water.
My sister has a crockpot broccoli casserole recipe which is out of this world. My nephews have always liked to eat it as dessert.
I’ll post the recipe when I figure out where I have it saved on my computer.
on Jun 3rd, 2009 at 10:56 am
Ann,
There are probably a lot of creative uses for many of our kitchen appliances if we would think outside the box. My daughter, Megan, introduced me to a blog last year written by a woman who vowed to use her crockpot everyday for a year. I think it’s called A Year of Crockpotting. You could find it if you went on Google. She did all kinds of things in the crockpot, including making shrinky dinks!
I’ll look forward to your sister’s broccoli recipe when you find it.