corn chow-dah

One of my favorite “fall” pictures ~ Oldest at his aunt’s pumpkin patch ~ and not just because it’s punny.

Mmm, fall.  Don’t you just love fall?  The cooler weather, the beautiful colors, the rain, kids back in school... Did I mention the cooler weather?  And what is better when the weather cools down than a lovely soup that cooks itself in the crock pot?  Ok, maybe a lovely crock soup with a fresh batch of rolls, but I didn’t get around to those.  Still, I didn’t hear anyone complaining.  Oldest’s yummy sounds were too loud to hear over.  (Ok, I must share this, even though it was almost a complaint, because it was so cute.  The rule in our house is that you don't have to eat what mom makes for dinner, but you DO have to taste it before you decide.  And you don’t get anything else.  Yep, I’m mean that way.  So we finally got Littlest to taste the chowder and he says that it’s good enough... just not good enough to eat.  Sigh.  Can’t please ‘em all I guess.)

I saw this recipe for corn chowder (I can’t help it, I always want to say it the Bostonian way: CHOW- dah) on Pinterest and knew that I had to make it right away.  Luckily for me I had some Southern hash browns waiting patiently in the freezer as there was no way I was going to be able to peel and cube potatoes in time, let alone make those delicious rolls from scratch that I had envisioned.  It was Sunday morning and in the rush to get everyone dressed, combed and shod in something other than flip flops I was lucky all I had to to make my chowder (chow-dah) do was dump a few things in the crock pot and remember to plug it in.  And after a lovely meeting we all came home to a delicious hot meal.  Mmm, chow-dah.

By the time I got around to taking a picture, this is all that was left.

M’s Version of Nicole’s Corn Chowder

adapted from crockingirls.com

serves about 12

2 pounds frozen Southern hash browns or potatoes of choice, peeled and diced

2 cans creamed corn and 2 cans whole kernel corn or 4 cans whole kernel corn and ½ cup heavy whipping cream

4 cups chicken broth

1 pound diced ham (I used one of these)

1 tablespoon onion powder or 2 cups diced onions

½ (1 cube) cup butter

4 cups half and half or 2 cups milk, 2 cups heavy whipping cream

Place potatoes, both cans of corn, chicken broth, ham, and onions into the slow cooker.  Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or high 4-5 hours.

Mash the mixture to your desired consistency (I didn’t have to do this, as my potatoes had pretty much disintegrated by the time the soup had cooked) and then add the butter and half and half.  Cook for an additional 30 minutes on high.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel pot.

easter dinner

Yes, I’m late with this post, but only by a week.  I thought it was still appropriate, since most of these foods are still great for this time of year.

I love Easter dinner.  It is seriously one of my favorite meals all year.  I adore ham, love the cheesy potatoes, and there are so many lovely Easter “fixin’s”.  Plus my chocolate needs are completely satisfied.  That being said, I hate that seemingly everyone cooks ham with pineapple and brown sugar.  Yes, it’s true that I have 28 teeth and all of them are sweet, but strangely enough my sweet tooth (teeth) doesn’t extend to meat.  I’m one of those freaks of nature who believes that the foods on my plate should never touch, that it’s always best to save your favorite food for last (hey, that’s the taste that lingers on your tongue after the meal, right?), and that sweet and meat should never, never, ever be combined.  (I even go so far as to dislike sweet and sour, and even ~ gasp! ~ barbecue sauce, except in extreme circumstances.)

So now that we have that out of the way you might understand why I spent about an hour searching the web for an alternative to this crock pot ham recipe’s sauce of fruit chutney, dried apricots and onions.  Once that was done, I realized that I had to find an alternative to my crock pot too, since I was using that for the potatoes.  All in all I think I did quite well.  And judging by the way the food disappeared, so did my domestic animals.  Not to mention the extended barnyard family...  Here’s what our Easter meal(s) consisted of:

Garlicky Slow Cooker (or Oven Cooked) Ham

serves 8

(see the original recipe here)

one 3-4 pound fully-cooked black forest ham

2 teaspoons butter

1 tablespoon flour

1 cup chicken broth

2 tablespoons white vinegar

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped

2 teaspoons parsley

Turn crock pot on low and place ham inside.  Or heat oven to 180°-200° and place ham in a roasting pan.

Melt butter in a small saucepan.  Whisk in flour until mixture is dark brown, about 4 minutes.  Add chicken broth and vinegar, bring to a boil.  Add garlic and parsley.

Keep boiling until mixture is thickened, about 3 minutes.  Pour over meat.  Cover and cook 6 to 8 hours.

~

Lightened-Up Slow Cooker Scalloped Potatoes

serves 12

(see the original recipe here)

1 cup plain yogurt or kefir (I used my home-grown kefir)

¼ cup flour

1 tablespoon chicken bouillon granules

2 teaspoons onion powder

1 bay leaf

1 teaspoon Chef Tess All purpose seasoning (or a Mrs. Dash of your choice)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

milk if needed

2 pounds potatoes (I used yukon gold, the original recipe called for red)

1½-2 cups shredded lower-fat cheese of choice (I used ½ cup cheddar and 1¼ cups mozzarella ~ I think I’ll try a little parmesan mixed in if I make this again)

½ teaspoon paprika and 3 tablespoons chopped fresh chives for topping (optional)

Wash and thinly slice potatoes and set aside.  To keep them from browning, I sliced them into a large bowl of cold water and white vinegar (about ½ cup vinegar to 1 cup water).

Mix flour, bouillon, onion powder and seasoning.  Slowly stir or whisk in yogurt or kefir.  Add Worcestershire sauce.  Stir in just enough milk to reach a thick, condensed soup-ish consistency.

Drain potatoes and rinse well.  Pat dry.  Add the yogurt mixture and mix until all potatoes are well coated.

Spoon half of the potato mixture into a crock pot sprayed with cooking spray.  Top with ½ the cheese.  Repeat layer with remaining potatoes and cheese.  Slide the bay leaf down the side until it’s nestled into the sauce.

Cook on HIGH for 3½-4½ hours or on LOW 7 to 8 hours.  Serve topped with a sprinkle of paprika and chives.

~

Spring Vegetable Orzo Pasta Salad

serves 12-15

source: http://foodformyfamily.com/recipes/spring-orzo-pasta-salad-with-asparagus-and-artichokes

1 bunch asparagus, about 3 cups diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 shallots, minced (I used a generous sprinkle of onion powder)

2 cloves garlic, minced

12 ounces orzo pasta, cooked to al dente and cooled (I used 16 ounces)

15-ounce can artichoke hearts

1½ cups sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil (I used a drained can of diced tomatoes)

1 lemon, zested and juiced

¼ cup white wine vinegar (I used white rice vinegar)

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

Bring a medium saucepan full of water to a boil.  Turn off the burner, add in asparagus pieces and blanch for 2-3 minutes.  While the asparagus is in the water, heat one tablespoon olive oil in a small sauté pan.  Add shallots and garlic and sauté for 1-2 minutes, just until tender.  (I used this garlic, and onion powder, so I skipped this step.)

Drain the asparagus and rinse with cool water.

In a large bowl add cooked orzo pasta, asparagus pieces, shallots and garlic.  Drain artichoke hearts and quarter them, adding them to the bowl.  Add in tomatoes (with oil) and lemon zest.  Stir to combine.

In a small bowl or container, whisk together lemon juice, vinegar, salt and pepper.  While continuously whisking, slowly pour olive oil into the vinegar.  Once emulsified, stir the dressing into the salad.  Move to the refrigerator for at least 5 hours for flavors to combine.  Serve cold.

~

Lemonade Cupcakes with Raspberry Frosting

makes 2 dozen

source: babble.com

1 cup butter, at room temperature

2 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

grated zest and juice of a lemon

1 cup milk, divided

Preheat oven to 375° and line 24 muffin tins with paper liners.

In a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar and lemon zest with an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.  Beat in the vanilla.

In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Add to the butter mixture a third at a time, alternating with half the milk and half the lemon juice after each of the first 2 additions of flour.  Beat until just combined.

Fill the prepared tins and bake for 20 minutes, until springy to the touch.  Tip the cupcakes in their tins to help them cool.  Let cool completely before frosting.

Fresh Raspberry Frosting

1 cup fresh raspberries (or thawed from frozen) (I used about ½ cup of this)

1 cup butter, at room temperature

3 cups confectioners’ sugar

In the bowl of a food processor, puree the raspberries until smooth.  If you like, press the mixture through a sieve to get rid of the seeds.

In a medium bowl, beat the butter and half the sugar until smooth. Add the raspberry puree, then more sugar until you have a fluffy, spreadable consistency. Add a splash of water, too (a tablespoon or two) if it needs it.    If you like, sprinkle with colored sugar.

The ham was a big hit.  Middlest doesn’t much care for ham (how does anyone not like ham?  I just don’t get it) and so wouldn’t even try it, but everyone else gobbled it down.  Littlest especially loves “that pink stuff”.  (Pink just happens to be his favorite color, and he loves eating anything pink.  And yes, he knows he’s a boy.  He just loves pink.)  We used some of the leftovers last night for my mother-in-law’s famous ham and cheese croissants (one of my husband’s favorites, which his mother served at our wedding breakfast.  I’m definitely going to have to post that recipe.)  The potatoes tasted a little sweet to me, and although my husband and Middlest liked them (somewhat strangely, since Middlest isn’t usually a potato fan), Oldest didn’t.  I wonder if I got too much Worcestershire sauce in there... Anyway, I’ll still be looking for a great potato recipe. 

And that brings us to the pièce de résistance: the salad.  If you look at the picture at the top of my post, you’ll see neither the salad nor the cupcakes included in our Easter feast.  We had an extended family egg hunt to which we were asked to bring a salad and dessert.  Lucky me, a couple of days before Easter my husband’s sister just happened to bring us a bunch of fresh-picked asparagus from her farm.  Oooo baby!  Can I just say, if you’ve never had farm-fresh asparagus, you don’t know what you’re missing!  I cut up what I needed for the salad, blanched it, and couldn’t stop picking at it.  So I blanched the rest for our personal Easter dinner.  Added a little salt (which it probably didn’t need) and a little butter (to which I’m admittedly addicted) and everyone ~ Littlest, my vegetable hater, included ~ enjoyed every last bite and went sniffing around for more.  Once we got to the party, everyone who tried it commented on how good the salad was.  I’m a big pasta salad fan.  I make it quite regularly in the spring and summer, and eat it for breakfast lunch and dinner.  I was hoping for leftovers, but there was only about a spoonful to take home.  My husband even said this was his favorite of all the pasta salads I have yet created.  Wonder if it tastes as good without the farm-fresh asparagus?  Hope I never have to find out!

easy peasy creamy crock pot chicken lite

If you read yesterday’s post, you’ll know that I’ve been crazy busy lately.  And on top of that I’ve been trying to lighten up our diet.  On that note, I decided to try lightening up one of our family’s favorite recipes that I call creamy crock pot chicken.  I just found out that (one of) its real name(s) is Cream Cheese Crockpot Chicken.  At least on the website I nabbed the picture from.  (Crazy busy, remember?  Didn’t even take the time to take a photo.)  I originally got the recipe from a church function, and my family really likes it, but with cream cheese and cream of chicken soup it was swimming in fat.  So I decided to try to lighten it up a bit by using Chef Tess’s  wonderful homemade cream of... soup recipe again, and here’s what I came up with.  Mmm.  Family didn’t even notice that the fat was missing.

easy peasy creamy crock pot chicken lite

8 ounces cream cheese (I used the real, original, Philadelphia, but if you want to go lighter you could try a low-fat version, or Neufantel)

1 package dry Italian dressing mix (I used this)

½ cup flour

2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules (I used this - they have low-sodium, non-MSG varieties too)

2 tablespoons dry onion flakes (I used a little less onion powder)

2 teaspoons Chef Tess All purpose seasoning (or a Mrs. Dash of your choice)

4 cups low or non-fat milk

2 bay leaves

4-6 frozen chicken breasts

Turn crock pot on high and dump in the cream cheese so it can start to soften.  Mix the dry Italian, flour, bouillon, onion flakes (or powder) and seasoning.  Pour onto cream cheese and stir to mix.  Slowly whisk in milk.  Add the frozen chicken, and carefully place 2 bay leaves into the sauce.

Cook on high 4-5 hours or low 6 to 8 hours.  Serve over rice or noodles.

We ate it with brown rice (this is my brown rice of choice, but I can’t find it anywhere anymore, so I used this, and it wasn’t a bad alternative) and broccoli.  (If you use brown rice, keep in mind that it takes a lot longer to cook ~ ours took an hour on the stove top ~ so plan your time accordingly.)  Everyone snarffed it up.  I doubled the recipe, planning on freezing the leftovers, but my husband ~ who hates leftovers ~ asked if we could eat the rest the next day.  Some days it’s not so bad being the cook.

slow cooked mac & cheese

Thank goodness it’s March!  Hopefully March will be better for blogging that February, which was very sad.  It’s not that I haven’t been cooking (although I think we hit an all-time high in February for going out to eat or pulling last minute meals out of the freezer, sigh) but I had a very difficult time getting these recipes written up.  Therefore, I am commencing an all-out blogging bombardment ~ on my computer, anyway.  Gotta get these recipes out there before you all drop my blog from boredom!  I will try to restrain myself from pummeling you too much, and not post them all at once.  That way maybe I can trick those of you who aren’t  paying attention into thinking I’m doing a great job at cooking every day.  In March.  Yep, that’s my plan, and it’s quite evil... bwahahahaha!  Ok, maybe not that evil.  It’s appealing to think that I could come up with an evil plan, and it’s very satisfying to cackle hysterically, but I think this plan falls far short from being evil... Darn it!

If you want something truly evil, and, yes, decadent, and easy peasy, and crowd pleasing, here it is.  Slow cooked mac & cheese.  Did you know there was such a thing?  I didn’t.  Not that I’m complaining.  I’m definitely not complaining.  My kids beg me just about every day to make either, a) pizza, or b) macaroni and cheese.  (Middlest refuses to call it mac & cheese, insisting that “It’s name is MACARONI and cheese, mom.”  Rather ironic, when you think about it, since we only make it with actual macaroni noodles when it comes out of a blue box.  Otherwise it’s shells or rotini...)  So, crowd pleasing?  Absolutely.  Littlest gobbled it down and begged for more.  And despite telling me that he prefers MACARONI and cheese in it’s true form best (I.E. from the blue box), I caught Middlest picking at the leftovers several times.  Oldest “mmm-ed” his way through dinner, which is always gratifying.  I thought it was amazingly yum (I’ll get to why in a mo...)  My husband hemmed and hawed a bit when asked if he liked it.  He said that it was good for what it was, but he prefers the white boxed mac & cheese.  I asked him if he thought he’d like it better if I used white cheddar or provolone... whatever I could make that white stuff out of.  He said he would like it better if I put some lit’l smokies in it.  Something to think about for next time.

And that brings us to the point of just why slow cooked mac & cheese tasted so yum and, I said it, decadent and evil.  Butter.  This recipe uses a lot of butter.  Which brings to mind, again, my favorite line from the movie Julie and Julia: Is there anything better than butter?  Think it over, any time you taste something that’s delicious beyond imagining and you say “what’s in this?” the answer is always going to be butter.  The day there is a meteorite rushing toward Earth and we have thirty days to live, I am going to spend it eating butter.  Here is my final word on the subject, you can never have too much butter.  And in the words of Homer Simpson, “Mmm, butter... (gurgling drooling sounds)”

And on that note, here’s the recipe:

Slow Cooked Macaroni & Cheese

serves 6

source: moms with crockpots

8 ounces medium shell macaroni

2 teaspoons olive oil

1 cup evaporated milk

½ cup milk

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

2 cups (8 ounces) shredded sharp cheddar cheese or a cheddar blend

4 tablespoons butter, melted

Cook the macaroni following package directions.  Drain in a colander and rinse with hot water.  Drain well.

Generously butter the sides and bottom of a 3½ to 4-quart slow cooker (I use about 2 tablespoons of butter).

Combine the macaroni with the remaining ingredients in the slow cooker and blend well.  Cover the slow cooker and cook on LOW for 2½-3½ hours, stirring a few times.

When the macaroni and cheese is done, feel free to spoon into a baking dish, top with a little more cheese, and put under the broiler for a minute or two for that “fresh from the oven” look.

I admit I didn’t bother spooning into a baking dish, topping with a little more cheese, and putting it under the broiler for a fresh from the oven look.  I made this on a Wednesday ~ piano and scout day ~ precisely because I wanted something that would be already cooked when we all came home and we could just dig in to.  I didn’t even bother making garlic bread or ~gasp!~ vegetables to go with it.  I know, I know, bad mom!  I really am trying to get more veggies into my family ... hey, there was pepper in there; doesn’t that count as a vegetable?

Changes?  No, not really.  ~ Gasp again! ~ I did double the recipe.  And I used cheddar/jack cheese, but the recipe said that was ok.  It even called for shells, so I didn’t deviate there.  Ok, I didn’t melt the butter first.  I was in an enormous hurry, so I stirred everything but the butter into the cooked noodles (al dente, which maybe was a good idea, as I think they could have been VERY soggy otherwise), dumped it into the crock pot and stuck a stick of butter on top (I doubled the recipe, remember) where I figured it would melt in.  It did.  I also didn’t stir occasionally.  I wasn’t home to stir occasionally.  That’s why you can see some of those little crusty brown overcooked bits mixed into the cheesy, buttery goodness in the picture.  But you don’t hear me complaining about those little crusty brown overcooked bits.  Mmm, love those little crusty brown overcooked bits.

Really, this recipe is so easy (yes, just as easy as stirring that orange powder into the pan of milky/buttery noodles) and so yummy.  Go.  Try it now.

Cheesy Potato Soup

This is the soup in my crock pot on my beautifully set fall table.  Isn’t it gorgeous?

A gorgeous, gorgeous fall day, and what could be better for dinner than an amazing soup that cooks itself all day in the crock pot?  (An amazing soup that someone else cooks all day in the crock pot for you?)  This soup was really easy, and very delish.  The only real gripe I have about it is that I had to peel and cut up the potatoes.  I know, I know, I’m trying really hard to become more of a Holly Homemaker, and that’s part of the job.  *sigh*  And thanks to my mother ~ who was a total soup saver by picking up Littlest from kindergarten ~ I did just that?  Are you proud of me?  You totally should be.

Soup topped with bacon with salad and roll.  I was totally going to make rolls, but the craziness of the day called for Rhodes warm and serve instead.  Yum!

 Cheesy Potato Soup

serves 6

source: pillsbury.com

4 slices bacon

1½ cups chopped onion

5 cups diced peeled russet potatoes (about 5 medium)

1 medium stalk celery, chopped (½ cup)

4 cups chicken broth

½ teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon pepper

½ cup all-purpose flour

1½ cups half-and-half

2 cups shredded American and cheddar cheese blend

In a 12-inch skillet, cook bacon over medium heat, turning occasionally, until browned and crispy.  Remove from skillet, reserving fat in skillet.  Drain bacon on paper towel, then refrigerate.  In same skillet, cook onion in bacon fat over medium heat 4 to 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until tender.

Spray slow cooker with cooking spray.  In cooker, mix onion, potatoes, celery, broth, salt and pepper.

Cover; cook on Low heat setting 6 to 7 hours.

In small bowl, beat flour and half-and-half with wire whisk until well blended; stir into soup.  Increase heat setting to High.  Cover; cook about 30 minutes longer or until thickened.  Stir in cheese until well melted.  Crumble bacon; sprinkle over soup.

Of course I made some changes.  (Did you expect anything different?  So silly of you.)  I thought I had celery, but it had evolved into some primordial ooze in my crisper.  (Thought those things were supposed to keep things crisp.  Go figure.)  So instead of celery, I used a couple of sprinkles of celery seed and some season salt instead of the regular salt.  (I think there’s some celery flavor in that season salt, isn’t there?)  And for a little more on that celery-ish flavor I used half vegetable broth and half chicken.  And you KNOW I didn't use the onion.  Sprinkled liberally (very liberally, since it called for so much onion) with onion powder.  And I didn’t bother with the American cheese either.  Just used a nice couple of handfulls of cheddar jack.

Everyone loved this soup.  Middlest ~ who has claimed for the last two years that he hates potatoes and tomatoes and everything associated with them ~ even ate it and loved it.  We had grandpa over for dinner and he raved, eating two helpings and taking some home for lunch tomorrow.  Since my husband told me he didn’t want leftovers, I gave them to our other grandpa and grandma and they loved it too.  Gotta love it when everyone’s digging on a recipe!

Doesn’t my table set for fall look fabulous?  Mmm, soup!

 

Flavorful Pot Roast

I’ve been doing A LOT of reading lately.  Three books just this week.  They’ve all been library books, and I feel an obligation to read them fast and get them back so someone else can have them.  That, and  they’ve been all been great books so I haven’t wanted to put them down.

It all started with this one.  I read about it on someone’s blog and decided it sounded interesting.  It was hard for me to get started on it, hard for me to stay with it, (I really hate when stories jump around in the timeline) but by the end I was so glad I picked it up!

Anyway, because I’ve had my nose in a book for so long, I wanted something that pretty much cooks itself.  My husband requested pot roast, so I pulled out my tried and true recipe.  Really, finding this recipe was like falling in love.  It was the right one for me and I just haven’t wanted to look at another roast recipe since.  I’m just not interested.  I even use this recipe to cook chicken, and yes, Thanksgiving turkey.  The juice makes amazing gravy, although you don’t really have to bother, the juice works almost as well ~ just a little runnier.  Oh yeah, I’ve also made this in the oven, slow cooked on low heat.  Mmm!  And since it’s my own (stolen borrowed) recipe there are no changes to be made.  Strait forward and simple.  And no pictures either.  It was gone before I even thought to take one.  (I really have to work on that...)

Flavorful Pot Roast

2½ pounds beef chuck roast

1 envelope dry ranch salad dressing mix

1 envelope dry Italian salad dressing mix

1 envelope brown gravy mix

½ cup water

Place the roast(s) in slow cooker.

In a small bowl combine the salad dressing and gravy mixes; stir in water.  Pour over meat.

Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours or until tender.  If desired, thicken cooking juices for gravy. 

You can dump potatoes and carrots (even

~ gasp! ~ an onion or two) into the crock to cook in the juice with the meat if you’d like.  You can double, triple, quadruple (you get the picture) the recipe with great results.  Perfect for Sunday dinner.  Yum!

Creamy Chicken & Potatoes

Have I already mentioned how crazy my life is now that my baby is in kindergarten?  I left the house at 7:50 this morning, spent the morning volunteering at school, grabbed my littlest, had lunch at McDonald’s in Wal-Mart and shopped for a birthday present and milk while they changed the oil.  Now I’m trying to rush this blog post off before running to pick up the rest of my kids, dropping off our carpool, taking my oldest almost back to school for a birthday party (what are they thinking, having a birthday party from 4:30-8:30 on a Wednesday?!?!?), and then rushing home to try to scrape up something for dinner before homework and baths, and then back to almost school again to pick my oldest up from the party.  Whew!  So if you don’t hear from me for a while, I’m off in a crazed-induced coma getting some much needed down time.

Anyway, is it any big surprise that I just shoved a bunch of stuff in the crock pot yesterday and cranked my bread machine to dough for rolls?  (They almost didn’t get done – I was still rolling the dough into rolls to rise when I was supposed to be leaving to pick up kids.)  Not that anyone complained.  They seemed to think it was one of the best dinners ever invented.  So it’s definitely worth trying on those days you know you’ll be running yourself ragged.

Creamy Chicken & Potatoes

serves 6

2 cups peeled baby carrots (half 16-oz. bag)

1 pound red potatoes, each cut into quarters

1 small onion, coarsely chopped

1 clove garlic, crushed with press

1 cut-up chicken (3½ to 4 lbs.), skin removed from all pieces except wings OR 3½ to 4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts

1 cup chicken broth

3 tablespoons cornstarch

½ teaspoon dried thyme

salt and pepper

10 ounces frozen peas, thawed

½ cup heavy or whipping cream

In a 5- to 6-quart slow cooker, combine carrots, potatoes, onion, and garlic.  Place chicken pieces on top of vegetables.

In a 2-cup liquid measuring cup, with fork, mix chicken broth, cornstarch, thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper; pour mixture over chicken and vegetables.  Cover slow cooker with lid and cook as manufacturer directs, on low 8 hours or on high 6 hours.

With tongs or slotted spoon, transfer chicken pieces to a warm deep platter.  With slotted spoon, transfer vegetables to platter with chicken pieces.  Cover platter to keep warm.  Stir peas and cream into cooking liquid; heat through.  Spoon sauce over chicken and vegetables on platter.

Ok, by now you know I didn’t exactly follow the recipe, right?  I’ll have to tell you the story of my baby carrots one day when we’re not talking about food.  Needless to say, I did manage to salvage just about 2 cups of them (pitched the rest in the trash, but, again, that’s a story for another day) which I dumped in the bottom of the crock pot.  They were a little fat, so they were still almost crunchy when the rest of the dinner was done, but I like them that way, and the rest of the fam seemed to as well.  Then I took about a pound and a half of potatoes and washed them.  One pound only turned out to be 4 potatoes.  Seemed pretty skimpy.  I quartered most of them, but sixthed (how are you supposed to say that, hexa-ed them?) the ones that were big and dumped them in with their skins on.  My husband doesn’t believe in potato skins, but I was in a hurry and there was no way I was going to peel them.

I have to admit I skipped the onion altogether.  When cooking a stew or something similar I usually just halve an onion and stick it in there (very easy for me to avoid eating) but I didn’t have an onion.  Forgot to add it to my shopping list.  I didn’t even use onion powder, just doubled up on the garlic.  Onion lovers didn’t even know the difference.  Placed about 6 pounds of thawed frozen chicken on top, which only came out to 6 very large chicken breasts.  And now I know why my sauce was so runny.  I decided to add a little extra chicken broth, but I thought the recipe called for 2 cups.  Oh well, the fam seemed to like it runny.  Mixed my broth and corn starch, but was in too much of a hurry to hunt down my time so I resorted to my old standby – you guessed it – season salt.  I even added a little more with the peas because it wasn’t quite salty enough.  Anyway, poured that over the top and turned it on.

When everything was done in the crock, I checked on my rolls and saw that they had actually risen!  Popped them in the oven, and it was time to mix up the peas.  Thought it was kind of stupid to pull everything out of the crock, so I just took out the chicken (the heavy part) and then held the lid on the crock fairly tightly with a couple of hot pads and poured the juice into a cooking pot, putting the chicken back with the veggies in the crock on warm.  Dumped my peas into the juice – they were in a 16 ounce bag, so I just used them all; seamed like the recipe was a little skimpy on the peas – and the cream and stirred until warm.  Had I felt like it I would have added a little more cornstarch to thicken up my thin sauce, but I was tired just didn’t want to.  So I poured all that back over the chicken and veggies in the crock.  Just in time to pull the hot rolls out of the oven, and everything stayed warm in the crock for my late husband while the kids and I ate. 

Totally yum for those of you who like chicken and don’t have a lot of cooking time.  Let me know what you think when you try it.