first meal in the slow cooker (lyn)

One of my friends chides me on the purchase of my new slow cooker.  “What do you need that for?  Isn’t that for people who work all day?  You’re home all day.  Just use a pot.  It’s the same thing.”

She has me almost convinced.  So much so, that when the slow cooker arrives from Amazon, I am tempted to return it, unopened.  But the post office at this time of year is, as my mother would say, “a horror scene,” so I decide to try a recipe and see if it’s worth it.  I can always return it later (assuming I can stuff it back into the box).

I find a recipe on the WW website for Chicken Cacciatore that sounds easy to make, has ingredients Alexander and I like, and is only 4 points/serving.

I get up early and go to Agata and buy the few items needed.  But the recipe calls for 1/4 cup of dry red wine.  I don’t feel like buying a bottle for this recipe, so while I’m at Agata, I ask if they can give me some dry red wine, as I shop there almost daily.  Without hesitation, they give me the needed wine.

The recipe says that the prep time is 15 minutes.  By the time I cut up 1.5 pounds of chicken thighs and remove the fat, then wash and chop the vegetables, about 30 minutes have passed.  But the real killer is opening the can of chopped tomatoes.  It takes me about 10 minutes just to do that, and in the end, I can’t get the top off the metal can to open it all the way.   I have to pry it open with a spoon, all the while hoping I don’t cut my fingers.  Who would think such a simple recipe could be so dangerous!

But I do enjoy tossing all the ingredients into one big pot, setting it for 8 hours on low, and walking away.  This is especially gratifying knowing how little clean up will later be required.   I’m liking this new appliance already.

Around 7:30, after nine hours of simmering, Alexander and I sit down to dinner.  I’m proud of my creation.  “Why is it so soupy?” Alexander asks.  He’s right.  Maybe I put too many of the crushed tomatoes in.  “No, I don’t want it on my pasta,” he announces.  “It makes the pasta too soft.”  Hmmmmm…sauce on pasta making it too soft?  He's five again.

Anyway, I think it’s great, and one cup full, which is one serving, is very filling (with a lettuce-cucumber-goat cheese-dried cranberry salad).

I wonder if the idea of the slow cooker is more impressive than its output.  Still too early to say, but I’ve decided to keep it anyway.