by Donna | Jan 23, 2013
On Wednesdays, I usually use my crock pot for lunch–regardless of whether it is a true crock pot recipe or not. If it’s not a genuine crock pot dish, I simply assemble all of the ingredients on Tuesday in the crock (with all precooking done ahead of time) and turn the crock on high for an hour then on low until, oh, say 9:00, when my thirty-year-old son who co-teaches with me all day starts to dig into it during class breaks. (I really have “crock pot Wednesday” for him as he adores soups and stews. As a matter of fact, when he was in college and that whole “Got milk?” thing was so popular, I had a t-shirt especially made for him with a steaming bowl of soup in the middle and the words “Got soup?” embroidered on it.)
Today’s crock pot recipe isn’t really a crock pot recipe. It came from a cookbook that a dear friend got me for Christmas: Homestyle in a Hurry (by Gooseberry Patch). But I precooked everything yesterday and threw it in the crock, stuck in the fridge, and got it out and “cooked” as described above. I guess in that way, everything becomes a crock pot meal on Wednesdays! (I teach forty students in four different classes in our cottage class service in our home on Wednesdays, and I can’t watch a boiling pot, so the crock pot is my answer!)
So…here it goes…my revised, um, non-crock pot, slightly changed (always!) Kielbasa Chowder:
1/2 cup butter
1 huge onion, diced finely
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 tsp allspice (I used “Mural of Flavor”)
4 huge potatoes, diced and cooked
6 cups chicken broth
2 quarts half and half
1 (14 oz) packages of frozen yellow corn
1 (14 oz) can shoepeg corn, undrained
2 (14 oz) packages Kielbasa sausage, cut into rounds then in halves (bite sized pieces)
1. Melt butter in small pan over medium high heat.
2. Stir in onions, sprinkle with seasonings, and cook until dark and carmelized, about eight minutes, stirring frequently.
3. Toss everything above into the crock pot except for the broth and half and half. Put crock in fridge overnight.
4. The next morning, get it out and add the broth and half and half. (Sometimes I will heat the ingredients I’m adding to make it heat up faster. Occasionally, I will even stick the whole crock in the micro and speed up the heat through process, then transfer to the crock base.)
5. Heat in crock on high for one hour then turn down on low until heated through/flavors are mixed, about five or six hours.
Serves 12 to 16 people–or four teen/young adult guys!
Note: The real recipe says to just combine the onions, potatoes, corn, and half and half. Divide that in two and process half of it in the food processor. I just used my old fashioned hand-held potato masher to thicken/mash up some of the ingredients.Because I skipped this step and because I put my mixture into the crock pot instead of cooking down on the stove top, I had to further thicken this soup by stirring in mashed potato flakes (my thickener of choice near the end of cooking for many soups and stews!) and microwaving the crock insert (love those removable crocks!) for several minutes uncovered.
by Donna | Jan 9, 2013
On Wednesdays, I like to have something in the crock pot for lunch. We have cottage classes here, teaching over fifty homeschooled students once-a-week classes, such as writing, English, biology, economics, and more. It is tons of fun–but a super busy day, so I put a stew or soup together in the crock pot that my co-teachers (first two sons, Joshua {30} and Jonathan {20}) and Jakie (our only homeschooled student now 🙁 ) can eat whenever they get a break.
This week’s crock pot entree is Hamburger Stew. I originally got this recipe over twenty years ago when I began freezer cooking. It fit the bill perfectly then when hamburger and shredded-off-the-bone chicken were our main meats–and almost always used IN recipes to stretch them further (as opposed to chicken pieces or hamburger patties).
It can be assembled then frozen before cooking (though the ingredients are all precooked). Then I can get it out of the freezer, defrost it, and either put it in the crock pot or oven. I no longer make it as a freezer entree because I have found that if I have precooked hamburger in the freezer, this stew comes together so quickly that I don’t need to even take up freezer space freezing it already assembled. However, if you are new to freezer cooking and looking for some satisfying, one dish entrees to start with (that are simple), this is definitely one to begin with.
Note: It is a tomato-based stew as opposed to many beef stew recipes that are gravy-based. It does have a lot of beefy flavor (not tomato-y like a red sauce or something), but the tomato sauce makes it a completely different stew than our beef stew recipe. Also, I use small vegetables in this (not like the picture that has some chunky veggies). I like smaller veggies with the hamburger but larger, chunkier veggies with stew beef. Just be sure if you use some larger and some smaller that they are fully cooked before assembling; otherwise, the vegetables will get done cooking at different times.
Hamburger Stew
5 to 6 lbs. raw ground turkey or hambuger (16 to 18 cups cooked and drained)
6 cans tomato sauce (15 oz)
3 cans mushroom soup or golden mushroom soup (You may make your own or make a beef gravy for this.)
5 ½ cups beef broth
1 ½ cups milk (or cream or half and half)
6 cups cubed hashbrowns (or 3 cans potatoes)
6 lbs frozen mixed vegetables
6 TBSP minced onions
1/2 to 1 tsp garlic powder (I use a garlic-herb mixture and put more than this calls for)
6 bay leaves
Extra beef base or powdered brown gravy mix, if desired
- Precook any fresh veggies that you substituted for the frozen (i.e. carrots, green beans, potatoes, etc.)—only if using substitutions.
- Brown meat and drain.
- Mix all other ingredients together. (If mixture seems especially tomato-y or thin, I will stir in a little brown gravy mix.)
- Place heaping amounts of stew in 3 (9 x 13) foil pans (deep ones or two shallow ones; or one gallon freezer bags if planning to cook on the stove top or in the crock pot).
- Freeze and label:
Hamburger Stew Serves 10-12+
Thaw. Bake covered at 350’ for 45 – 60 minutes.
- May also place in freezer bags and label, then place in casserole dishes at baking time (or cook in crock pot).
- May also simmer on stove top for under an hour on medium, stirring frequently.
+Each recipe (this makes it three times) serves ten to twelve people.
