More of a Good Thing

A while back, Crazy Aunt Purl asked her blog readers for good crock pot rescipees. Believe it or not, I'd actually embarked on my second attempt at crock-pot ownership just that week. The first attempt was one of those "oh, that would be great!" costco purchases, that doesn't look ridiculously large until you get it home, and realize you'll have to store the crock pot that feeds 20 people in one go... somewhere... and that there are a total of ONE PERSON at your dinner table...

The second attempt, well, Fred Meyer had a sale on crock pots, and the one I got is only supposed to make three servings at a time, if you fill it up all the way, which I don't. I even bought and cooked chicken in this thing, which is actually a minor miracle. I haven't cooked chicken in about three years, unless I was trying to impress somebody. And I think that only happened once. (For the record, it worked.)

Anyway, I heard about the blog post of rescipees for the crock pot, and went to check it out, and all these descriptions of food were SO YUMMY... I went to the store on my way home from work today, and bought an onion and some real vegetables. And I even cut them all up and dumped them all into my crock pot, and ... well... I guess I'll find out how it tastes tomorrow. But I feel so darn HEALTHY to be making something that takes more than 3 minutes to cook! (Now in case you were worrying, I actually do eat healthy food most of the time-- and cook it myself, basically from "scratch"... well, I don't make my own chicken broth... but anyway-- don't worry.)

AND THEN somebody actually mentioned that the dutch oven can be used the same way as a crock pot, but you put it in the oven at 350 (?) for five hours, and that same tremendous juicy stew of yummy foods happens. Wow.

I love food. I love it even more when it both tastes good and is good for me. Especially when I'm stressed out, and not getting enough sleep. Which would be most of the time, really... Going to bed at 11pm and getting up at 5am will do that to you. And not working and job-hunting, and moving to a new place to live, and being in a major car accident that was actually your fault, and sorting through every dagmn piece of crap you own and deciding that at least 1/3 of it MUST GO AWAY, and attending a major conference in your professional field-- on the other side of the country-- mid-move, and...

Well... I'm hoping to establish a more productive and less stressful routine in February. I really count my new year as starting then anyway, so I'm still really hopeful about everything. Hope is my friend. And, really, so is my new crock pot. Friends are a wonderful thing to have, let me tell you. I'm lucky that way. (And I'm not talking about the food.)