By Deanna Darr

 

When I was a kid, I hated pot roast — because like a lot of kids I wanted everything separate on the plate. And mushy vegetables? Eeeeww.

In those days, Mom made pot roast in a pressure cooker, so my memory is that the vegetables were REALLY mushy. Today, I love pot roast, which I usually cook in my slow cooker — and I don’t believe the vegetables turn out half as mushy as they did when I was young.

About a year ago, I decided my slow cooker needed replacing because I didn’t like its colors — avocado green with a brown pot. So out it went and I  bought a new one — a wasteful decision for which I paid in more ways than one. Of course, the new one didn’t cook half as well as the old one. My pot roasts and stewed chickens started overcooking and even burning. I should have learned a lesson when I tossed out an old toaster for some other silly reason — haven’t had a proper piece of toast since.

It was my husband, after enduring several dried up and burned up crockpot meals, who told me of a good idea someone at his job had given him. The hint was to place four copper pennies between the pot and the heating element so that the slow cooker slows down.

The other day I put together a very simple pot roast with carrots, rutabagas, onions and potatoes on the bottom and the pot roast on top. I poured about one cup of beef broth mixed with several crushed garlic cloves on top and set the pot for nine hours.

 When I got home from work, I found an absolutely perfect pot roast ready for dinner. In fact, it was the most moist and tender beef, with vegetables of a perfect texture, that I have had in a long, long time.

So if you have a slow cooker that is too speedy, it might be worth four cents to try this remedy.

What’s for dinner? It’s a question many of us hear every day from hungry children, spouses and friends. It’s not easy coming up with something quick and tasty, and going out to eat is not always a healthy or economical option. Even if you love to cook, dinner is just so … daily.

 

My sisters and I were bemoaning this very struggle as we chatted after Thanksgiving dinner. We all like to cook; in fact, we spent much of the day discussing and copying recipes from a new church cookbook. But sometimes coming up with dinner becomes a burden.

 

So why not share some ideas? We hope you’ll join us on this new blog to share recipes and time-saving tips, dish about a great restaurant you visited or tell us about your family’s favorite meals. Contributors will include Journal writers and editors who face this challenge every day. We invite you to add your comments, send in a recipe or just tell everyone what you fed your family or friends today.

 

I’ll start with a recipe for Terry’s Chili from my brother-in-law. It’s a quick, delicious meal that can be thrown together in the morning and simmered in a crock pot all day long. My world record for putting it together is 4 minutes. The secret? Brown multiple pounds of hamburger at a time, drain, divide into 1-pound portions and freeze in zippered bags.

 

Terry’s Chili

1 pound hamburger, browned and drained

1 can pork and beans

1 can chili beans

1 small jar picante sauce

1 small can tomato sauce

1 cube beef bouillon, dissolved in ½ cup hot water

2 tablespoons chili powder

Mix in crock pot and cook on low 4 to 6 hours, or until you’re ready to eat.

 

What are your favorite crock pot recipes? We invite you to make a comment, add a recipe or just tell us what you fed your family today. Help!

 

– Deanna Darr