OT: Very OT but need some help,

I don't like bread nuked either, I always heat mine in the toaster oven. But those southern cinnamon roll like things sound good, of course I have to use chicken he won't eat turkey and I can't tell the difference in the two.

Thanks to everyone who has helped me out of this jam.

Jacquel>One of the things I do when I know that cooking is going to be

Boca Jan, The doctor told me to expect a two week recovery but it could be longer. I am having several small procedures done to the knee because it is quite damaged but not enough for knee replacement, thank goodness. I guess what gets me is I was so stubborn I wouldn't even go to an orthopedic until it had been about 8 months after the fall. My family doctor had begged me to go several months before but I said, nope, it will get better, he now says, guess again.

Jacquel>I don't know what kind of knee surgery you are having, but I had an ACL

Thanks for the Henny Penny Casserole, will give that a try, only I will make my stuffing don't like that store bought stuff.

Jacquel>Make corn bread in cupcake papers- great to add whole corn & chopped onion

Debra, I do own a crock pot. I even have one for just two people, but have no idea where it is, probably packed away at my sisters, because I use to do this and also pork chops with mushroom soup when I lived alone. That way when I came in from work, worn out, I could have something to eat without a lot of effort.

Jacqueline in KY

I don't understand using frozen crockpot meals when it's so easy to use the real thing. Carrots and potatoes on the bottom, your roast (rub seasoning into roast) then some store bought beef broth over everything. It will taste great.

Here's one of my favorite (and easy) chicken recipes:

Place chicken pieces (breasts, thighs, legs, whatever) in 9 x 13 pan.

Mix equal parts of soy sauce, water and brown sugar together (how much depends on how much chicken!) Somtimes I sprinkle in a little ginger. Pour over chicken.

Stick in the oven at 350 for an hour or so. Turn chicken once during the time it's cooking.

Now I don't understand using store bought beef broth because the roast will make its own broth while cooking, at least it does in the oven, I haven't used a crock pot much for anything other than chicken and pork chops and that was just with BBQ sauce or mushroom soup. I kept my own BBQ sauce made up and in single serving packages so I could unthaw over night poor on top of chicken or pork chop and go to work. I also agree with you on crock pot meals frozen, but I do keep a frozen skillet dinner on hand in case that I don't feel like cooking, use one about once a year. Get fussed at for that too. But frankly I don't see the need for a crock pot when you can do the same in an oven just turn the heat down low, unless it is for just one, then I can understand. Well I can understand a roast in a crock pot if you are a working person because it is done when you get home.

Jacquel>I don't understand using frozen crockpot meals when it's so easy to use the

Yum! I've had it and loved it! It can also be done over an open fire. Debra in VA See my quilts at

Apart from the very slow cooking so that the moisture in the stew doesn't evaporate and the meat is so tender, the other reason for using a crockpot is that it uses so little energy (less than a lightbulb), and as we are supposed to be 'saving the planet' it seems a good idea.

Sally this is true, but it is also a good reason not to have a huge oven if you don't have the need for it or to have a double oven. I frankly do not like food cooked in a crock pot, plus we eat at noon and I would have to get up very very early to put my food on the table by dinner time at the rate they cook. I tried one years ago, when I was married and worked, I just couldn't produce the same flavor with it as I could with my oven. I am sure there are those out there than can and maybe even better, I am not one of them. LOL But I am sure it is much better on electricity that my oven is. I do my part to save the earth and maybe I could cut down here but I am not going to at this time. I do cook whatever I can in my toaster oven, but not roasts.

Jacquel>Jacquel>> But frankly I don't

They are also convienient for an everlasting soup or bean pot. Sort of declutters the stove a bit, and works well for it.

When my mom was working, she took to useing the crock pot a fair bit. She couldn't cook in the first place, and the crock pot didn't improve matters. But she did try porcupine balls in the crockpot, and they came out better than her stovetop efforts at them. Those are the meatballs made with raw rice in them, and then simmered for long and long with mushroom soup.

I was talking to a cousin today, and she reminded me of a dinner pie my grampa liked that freezes well. You line a good sized pan with thick pastry, put ground meat (sausage in my family) on the bottom, and game scraps on top, pour over a goodly savory gravy, and top it with pastry. Gramma (from Kentucky) called it La Lu pie, grampa (from Canada) called it something else, though darned if I recall what it was that he called it.

NightMist

Here I have only heard of porcupine balls cooked in a tin of tomato soup and oven baked, not on the stove top and never in the crockpot. Crockpots don't seem to be very common here either. Cooking styles are alot different in the US and Australia.

Dee in Oz

NightMist wrote: snipped

I have a lovely shiny steel one - still in the box! rofl

Tourtier?

liz young in moonlit california

That's it! toor-tee-ay And grampa would grump because it is supposed to have mace and cloves in it, and gramma would say that was too outlandish, and grampa would say what would she expect having gone and married an outlander.

NightMist

When I am doing a pot roast in the crock pot, I flour it and brown it in some oil in a fry pan before putting it in the crock pot with the veggies. I use a little water to deglaze the pan and add that to the crock pot, too. I think it has better flavor than doing it the way the crock pot instructions say -- just putting the roast in the crock pot without browning. I also add a package of onion soup mix instead of using raw onion, salt, pepper, etc.

Julia > Sally this is true, but it is also a good reason not to have a huge

Sounds very much like my family's favorite Chicken marinade for summertime grilling: (Given me by a Japanese galfriend) Mix:

1 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup lemon juice (cuts down on the saltiness) 1/3 c. brown sugar 1 small can crushed pineapple (juice and all) Garlic to taste (I use 2-3 cloves) diced Onion (diced) (1 med.) OR I substitute 3-4 shallots (diced)

Mix together. Using skinless & boneless chicken thighs. Cover chicken with enough marinade to cover. Let marinate at least 12 hours (overnight). Grill on the barbie.

When cooking for family get-togethers we do double batches of marinade! Usually it's the first meat that gets scarffed up!

Since there's just two of us, I mix and use what I need and keep the rest in a jar in the refrigerator to use another time. We freeze the chicken thighs

3 or 4 to a pack and put them in "Ziplok" freezer bags. The neat thing is when we thaw them, we just add enough of the marinade to the bag and zip it back up and put the bag back in the fridge to marinate. Easy clean-up, too

ME-Judy