Make It Fast, Cook It Slow (38 page)

RICE PUDDING

serves
12
to
14

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Spray the stoneware with cooking spray, then combine the milk, rice, and sugar. Stir well and cook on low for 4 to 6 hours, or on high for about 4 hours. (It took longer than I expected for my rice to become bite-tender—I did low for 3 hours, then high for another 2 hours.) When the rice has softened, mix together the eggs, cream, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Scoop ½ cup of the hot rice mixture into the mixing bowl and whisk. Keep adding, ½ cup at a time, the rice-and-milk mixture into the egg bowl until about half of the rice-and-milk mixture is gone from the stoneware. Then pour everything back into the stoneware. Stir well. This is called “tempering your eggs”—you have to do this step, or your eggs will scramble on you when you add them to the mix.

Cover and cook on high for 1 hour. Stir well, then take the lid off the slow cooker and unplug it. When the rice pudding is room temperature, you can refrigerate it. Some people like their pudding hot or warm, and some prefer it chilled; it’s completely up to you.

ROCKY ROAD CANDY

yields approximately
24
pieces

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Pour the chocolate chips into your stoneware. Cover and cook on high for 1 hour, stirring every 20 minutes. While chocolate is melting, line two baking sheets with parchment paper. When fully melted, stir in the marshmallows and walnuts.

Remove the stoneware from the heating element. Using spoons, drop mounds of the chocolate-marshmallow-nut gooeyness onto the prepared baking sheets. Refrigerate to cool and harden. Once cool, you can place the candy in cellophane bags and tie with a ribbon to give as gifts.

STUFFED AND BAKED APPLES

4
to
6
servings
(1
apple per person
)

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 6-quart slow cooker. In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, raisins, cranberries, and nut pieces. Set aside. Wash and core the apples. Stuff each apple with the filling, and nestle into the stoneware. Pour the water and vanilla around the base of the apples. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours, or on high for 4 hours. The apples are done when they have reached the desired tenderness you and your family prefer. I cooked ours on high for exactly 4 hours. The apples still had their shape, and were tender enough to cut with two spoons, but the halves were still pick-up-able to munch on (it’s really sticky this way).

TAPIOCA PUDDING

serves
8

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 4-quart slow cooker. Combine the milk, sugar, and tapioca pearls in the stoneware. Stir well to mix. Cover and cook on high for 2 to 5 hours. You want the tapioca to be soft and somewhat slimy, but it won’t get thick.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the eggs with the vanilla. Measure out ½ cup of the hot milk and tapioca mixture and whisk it into the eggs. Add another ½ cup of the hot milk and tapioca, and whisk that into the eggs, too. Then add yet another. Now you’ll have a bowl of yellow tapioca gooeyness. Pour the contents of the bowl into the stoneware, and whisk until it is all thoroughly combined. Cover and cook on high for 30 to 45 minutes, or until the tapioca is pudding-like in consistency. Unplug the cooker and let the pudding sit for about 1 hour to cool. Ladle into serving-size bowls and chill in the refrigerator. Or eat it with a serving spoon, hot, right out of the crock! Your choice.

The Verdict

Adam has fond childhood memories of eating homemade tapioca pudding. I have fond memories of peeling back the foil of a Handi-Snacks and then licking it. Repeatedly. We now have new memories—slow-cooked tapioca. It couldn’t taste any better, and was so easy to do.

W
ho would have thought you could recycle crayons in the slow cooker or make Shrinky Dinks? Not me, a year ago, but now I know not only that I can, the results are better than when I used the traditional oven, and without the fear of being badly burned.

AIR FRESHENER

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 1-quart or smaller slow cooker. Pour water into the slow cooker. Add the baking soda. Mix. Plug the cooker in and turn the heat to low (most of the small ones don’t have settings, they just plug in). Keep the lid off, and allow the baking soda to do its job of soaking up unpleasant odors.

If you would prefer to use the slow cooker as an air freshener, fill with water, add the other desired ingredients listed above, and “cook” with the lid off.

The Verdict

I tried the odor-neutralizer on Thanksgiving evening. I was tired, and wanted to watch
The Wire
, and was not interested in cleaning the six dirty slow cookers on the counter, but the kitchen smelled funky. I was quite pleased with how the baking soda really did absorb the kitchen odors. After a few hours, I took my mini crock into another room and smelled the water—it smelled strongly of mulled wine. Whoa!

BABY FOOD

servings depend on amount of food cooked

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a separate slow cooker for each variety of baby food. It’s okay to use frozen fruit or vegetables; the food is picked at the right time, and all nutrients are preserved perfectly during the freezing process. I used yellow squash, sweet potatoes, and frozen green beans. Wash the vegetables and peel the skin. Cut into chunks. Put the chunks into your slow cooker and cover with the least amount of water needed to fully cook. For the yellow squash, I used ¼ cup of water; frozen green beans (toss in frozen), ¼ cup of water; sweet potatoes, I ended up using ¾ cup of water.

Make baby food on a day that you are home to monitor the food. Each variety will cook differently, depending on the moisture content and the density of the fruit or vegetable.

I used a 4-quart, and two 6-quart slow cookers, and everything was cooked fully within 3 hours.

When the veggies or fruit are quite tender, unplug your cooker. Use a handheld immersion blender, a real blender, or a food processor to purée the food. If you need to add a bit of water to make it thinner for your baby, do so in little drips. Freeze the baby food in ice cube trays, then pop out and store in a freezer bag.

The Verdict

Since I’m a total cheapskate I didn’t buy little jars of baby food for my kids. I wasn’t concerned about chemicals as much as I was blown away by cost and packaging. The vegetables I bought cost a total of $4.23, and I had enough baby food to feed all the kids on
Jon and Kate Plus
8 for a few days.

BROWNIE-IN-A-MUG

serves
4

The Ingredients

The Directions

I fit 4 mugs into a 6-quart oval stoneware. Don’t pick fancy-schmancy mugs—use the ones that you don’t think twice about throwing in the dishwasher or heating up in the microwave (ceramic or stoneware,
not
plastic or good china).

Mix up the brownie mix according to the directions listed on the package. Spray each mug with cooking spray. Spoon the brownie mix into each mug, filling it about one-half to two-thirds of the way. The brownie mix I used makes an 8×8-inch pan, so each of my mugs was half filled.

Put mugs in the stoneware—they need to fit completely and touch the bottom. Cover and cook on high for 1½ to 3 hours. You will know the brownies are cooked when they have risen, pulled away at the sides, and an inserted knife comes out clean. Unplug the cooker, and let the mugs sit with the lid off. They will be
terribly hot
. Don’t get burned. When the mug is coolish to the touch (after about 30 minutes), top with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

The Verdict

It’s like it’s hot chocolate…but it’s a brownie! in a mug! baked in your slow cooker! This is a wonderful, fun dessert that will evoke fond memories. We had a ball sitting on a blanket in front of the TV laughing and eating our “hot chocolate.”

CRAYONS

makes
6

The Ingredients

The Directions

Use a 6-quart oval slow cooker—unless the mold you’re using can fit into a smaller size. Sort crayons into color families and take the wrappers off; it helps to soak the crayons in some warm water before peeling. Break the crayons into small pieces, and load them into the candy mold or muffin tin. It’s best to mound the crayons up a bit; they will melt and shrink down. Put the tin or mold into the stoneware, cover, and turn the cooker on. We cooked our crayons on high for 1½ hours. Once the crayons have melted completely, they’re done. Let the hot wax sit in the crock and begin to harden before trying to remove the pan—you don’t want hot wax spilled, or to get burned. Refrigerate the pan for 30 minutes, or until the crayons have hardened completely and pull away from the edges. Pop out and enjoy!

The Verdict

What’s the best thing to do with old, broken crayons? Recycle them! This is a great rainy (or overly hot) day project that is both fun and useful. The kids and I were surprised at how easily some crayons peeled, and how others needed to soak for quite a while to loosen the wrapper. We also noticed that some crayons sank, while others floated. These were easy to do, and the kids had a ball.