Slow Cooker Corned Beef

Yes, we had this for St. Patrick's Day last Sunday, but honestly who doesn't love good corned beef anytime. Other than being delicious, this is like most slow cooker recipes, super simple. Put your corned beef in the slow cooker with the pickling spices in the package. Add one beer and top with some peeled potatoes. If you want cabbage to got with your corned beef and potatoes remove the them  after 8 - 10 hours on low, leaving all the liquid in the slow cooker. Add your cabbage, over with water and cook on high for another hour. Yum!

Ingredients
1 package uncooked corned beef brisket
1 beer
4 -5 five medium potatoes, peeled and halved
1 head cabbage, quartered

Directions
Rinse liquid off corned beef after removing it from packaging. Place in slow cooker. Add pickling spices from package. Pour in beer. Top with potatoes. Cook on low for 8 - 10 hours or on high for 4 - 5 hours. Then remove meat and potatoes from slow cooker to an oven proof dish. Put in a 200 degree oven to keep warm. Add cabbage to liquid remaining in slow cooker. Add enough liquid to cover cabbage. Cook on high for another hour. Remove and serve with corned beef and potatoes.

Slow Cooker Beef Short Rib Stroganoff

After a long day on the road working with my education interns I was excited to walk into my house to the smell of onions and beef. I have made more stroganoff recipes that I can count. I started long ago with and easy ground beef recipe. I've also made a gourmet mushroom stroganoff with heavy cream, sherry and Dijon mustard. Chicken stroganoff has even been made in my kitchen. I think this is the best recipe yet, and one of the easiest. The sauce is super simple but very tasty. The short ribs, cooked low and slow for 8 - 10 hours just fall off the bone.

 

Start by placing sliced onions on the bottom of your slow cooker. Put your short ribs on top of the onions. Then sprinkle onion envelope of French onion soup mix over everything. Cook on low for 8 - 10 hours. When you get home after your long day remove the short ribs and put them in a warm oven. Ladle out the drippings from the slow cooker into a fat separator and pour out the beef juices back into the slow cooker. Add cream of mushroom soup, sour cream and fresh mushrooms into the slow cooker and mix together with drippings and onions. Cook on high for another hour. Serve over buttered egg noodles topped with short ribs. Delicious!

 

 

Ingredients

1 large onion, sliced

4 beef short ribs

1 envelop French onion soup mix

2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 1/2 cup sour cream

8 oz fresh mushrooms, sliced

 

 

Directions

Place sliced onions in the bottom of the slow cooker. Top with short ribs and French onion soup mix and thyme sprigs. Cook on low for 8 - 10 hours.

 

Heat oven to 170 degrees. Remove short ribs from slow cooker and place in oven to keep warm. Ladle drippings in the slow cooker into a fat separator. Pour the beef juices back into slow cooker discarding fat. Add cream of mushroom soup, sour cream and mushrooms to slow cooker. Mix together with onions and beef drippings. Cook on high for another hour.

 

Serve over noodles or rice topped with short ribs and fresh thyme.

Mushroom & Apple Butter Slow Cooker Porkchops

You know it. The best part of using a slow cooker is walking in the door at the end of the day with the smell of dinner meeting your nose at the door! This day was even better because I was home smelling dinner cooking most of the day. I have found that pork chops can sometimes turn out very tough, but never in the slow cooker. This recipe has only a few ingredients and is super simple to put together, but has very deep and interesting flavors.

Onions, mushrooms, pork chops, cream of mushroom soup, Dijon mustard, apple butter and fresh thyme...that's all you need. Put in the first 3 ingredients. Mix together the next 3. Pour that mixture in. Lay you thyme (still on the stem) on the top. Cook on low for 8 - 10 hours. Delicious dinner, done!

I served this with stuffing I had frozen from Christmas. You could also serve with potatoes, rice or noodles.

Ingredients
1 large onion, sliced
8 oz button mushrooms, cut in half
4 pork chops
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 TB Dijon mustard
4 TB apple butter
4 -5 sprigs thyme

Directions
Put the first three ingredients in the slow cooker. Mix together the next three ingredients. Add to slow cooker. Lay thyme sprigs on top. Cook on low for 8 - 10 hours.

Smoky Slow Cooker BBQ Ribs

Who doesn't love BBQ ribs? Puppy Daddy and I certainly do. I have tried every way imaginable to prepare ribs, baking, grilling, smoking...but I think the slow cooker is the easiest and makes the most tender ribs. Just coat the ribs in your favorite dry rub and place in your slow cooker on low for 8 - 10 hours. I used Park Hill Maple Sugar and Spice Pepper from Savory Spice mixed with some smoked paprika and garlic salt. When you take the ribs out of the slow cooker put them on a baking sheet, brush with BBQ sauce and bake in the oven at 350 for about 10 minutes. Serve with a bit more sauce. You can use your favorite store bought sauce, but I love to make my own. It's super simple and you can make it to suit your own personal taste. The magic of Liquid Smoke gives you that smoked flavor with out the work of tending a smoker all day long. You should try these soon!

Ingredients

Ribs
baby back ribs or spare ribs
2 TB Park Hill Maple Sugar and Spice Pepper
1 TB smoked paprika
1 TB garlic salt
BBQ Sauce
1 TB butter
1/4 cup onion,chopped
1 cup ketchup
2 TB brown sugar
1 TB vinegar
1 TB Worcestershire sauce
1/2 TB hot sauce
2 TB liquid smoke
1 TB Dijon mustard

Directions

Ribs
Combine Maple Sugar Spice, smoked paprika and garlic salt. Coat ribs with spice mixture. Place in slow cooker and cook on low for 8 - 10 hours. Remove ribs from slow cooker and place on  a baking dish. Brush ribs with BBQ sauce and bake in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. Serve with more BBQ sauce.

BBQ Sauce
Melt butter over medium heat in a medium sauce pan. Add chopped onions. Cook until onions soften. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook over low for about 10 minutes.

Slow Cooker Mojo Pork

I love, love, love Cuban food. We have lots of great Cuban restaurants in our area, but I love finding ways to cook it at home. This recipe is so easy and the pork can be eaten as is or used for many other recipes, like the best Cuban Sandwiches EVER!


 I use pork butt or picnic shoulder. It's inexpensive and very tasty. Just slice up the orange, lemon, lime and onion. Crush or mince about 5 cloves of garlic, and sprinkle the pork with a seasoning salt. I like Badia's Adobo.

Put about half of the citrus and onions on the bottom of the slow cooker, top with crushed garlic. Put the pork in and cover with the rest of the citrus and onion. Cook on low for 8 - 10 hours. Take the pork  out, shred it and add back some of the sauce left in the slow cooker.

YUM!!!!




Be sure to save your left-overs for Cuban Sandwiches or Mojo Pork Tacos!

Ingredients

Pork Butt or Picnic Shoulder
1 orange
1 lemon
1 lime
1 medium onion
5 cloves of garlic
seasoning salt

Directions

Slice citrus and onion. Layer half in bottom of slow cooker. Top with crushed or minced garlic. Sprinkle seasoning salt on pork. Place in slow cooker. Top with the other half of the citrus and onion. Cook on low for 8 - 10 hours. Remove pork and shred. Moisten with sauce left in slow cooker.

Try this recipe and let me know what you think!

Slow Cooker Cuban Black Beans

I have been on a decades long quest to find an easy, but authentic Cuban Black Bean recipe. I can find them in lots of local restaurants, but haven't been able to recreate them at home. In fact for the last 15 years I have resorted to buying them canned in the Ethnic Foods section of my grocery store. Finally, I have figured it out. I combined the How to Cook Any Dried Beans in Your Slow Cooker recipe I just pinned on Pinterest with my own version of the Cuban Black Bean recipe from Three Guys from Miami. Easy and delicious! I made these last night with rice and Slow Cooker Mojo Pork. Two slow-cookers...I know!!!! It was a perfect meal, but if you don't have two slow cookers you can make either the beans or the pork the day before. Puppy Daddy says they both taste better the next day!

The first step is to cook your black beans. So easy! Put 1 lb of dry black beans in your slow cooker with 6 cups of water. Do NOT add salt yet. It will keep your beans from getting nice and soft. Cook on high for 4 hours.  Done!

If you like a thicker consistency to your beans you can either take our some and put them in a blender, or use my technique that doesn't require dirtying another large piece of equipment. Just mash some of the beans right in the slow cooker with your potato masher. Next add the seasoning ingredients, onion, green pepper, garlic, bay leaf, oregano, cumin, white wine, white wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Cook on low for at least another hour. If you're not ready to serve yet you can go a little longer on low, or turn the slow cooker to warm. The longer the beans simmer in the seasonings, the better they taste! Serve over rice and top with more onion if you like!

 

Ingredients

1 lb dry black beans

6 cups water

1 medium- large onion - diced

1 green pepper - diced

3 cloves of garlic - crushed

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp cumin

1 1/2 TB vinegar

1/4 cup  dry white wine

1 TB olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions

Put dry beans and water in slow cooker. Cook on high for 4 hours or until beans are soft. If you want to thicken the consistency of the beans, mash some up in the slow cooker with a potato masher. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook on low for one hour. Serve alone or over rice. Garnish with onion.

 

Whadya think?