Slow Cooker Tuesday ~ Week 11 {Slow Cooker Bacon Jam}

This winter, I have come out of the crock pot box! 

As part of my Slow Cooker Tuesday recipe series, I have used my slow cooker to make not only main dishes, but also a soup, a side dish, and desserts. It's been fun to try some different things. 

But I had never considered using the slow cooker to make an appetizer! Until this week. 

I am hosting a ladies' game night on Friday evening, so yesterday I put my slow cooker to work to get a jump start on the menu by making Slow Cooker Bacon Jam. (And it smelled sooo good while it was cooking!) Yes, that's out of the box, but it's a sweet, savory, barbeque-y kind of out of the box. 

On Friday, I'll toast some baguette slices, warm the jam to room temperature, and serve this slow cooker appetizer along with other hors d'oeuvres. (I'll let you know how the ladies like it!)

~ recipe via marthastewart.com ~ Ingredients: 1 1/2 pounds sliced bacon, cut crosswise into 1-inch pieces 2 medium yellow onions, diced small 3 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled 1/2 cup cider vinegar 1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar 1/4 cup pure maple syrup 3/4 cup brewed coffee  Directions: In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium-high, stirring occasionally, until fat is rendered and bacon is lightly browned, about 20 minutes.  With a slotted spoon, transfer bacon to paper towels to drain. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon fat from skillet (reserve for another use); add onions and garlic, and cook until onions are translucent, about 6 minutes.  Add vinegar, brown sugar, maple syrup, and coffee and bring to a boil, stirring and scraping up browned bits from skillet with a wooden spoon, about 2 minutes. Add bacon and stir to combine. Transfer mixture to a 6-quart slow cooker and cook on high, uncovered, until liquid is syrupy, 3 1/2 to 4 hours.  Transfer to a food processor; pulse until coarsely chopped.  Let cool, then refrigerate in airtight containers, up to 4 weeks.

Have you ever tried anything out of the crock pot box?

Looking for a recipe from another week?

Week 1: Cranberry Pork Roast

Week 2: Mexican Chicken

Week 3: Beef Ragu

Week 4: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Week 5: Cashew Chicken

Week 6: Chocolate Fondue

Week 7: Crock Pot Chili

Week 8: Crock Pot Rice Pudding

Week 9: Spiced Fruit Compote

Week 10: Italian Chicken Crock Pot Style

Sunday Snapshots: Green (and a Recipe)

All day Saturday, Bekah said, "I can't wait for tomorrow." We would be back to our usual type of Sunday and her nieces/nephews/friends would be spending the afternoon with us after several atypical weekends. Actually, we were all looking forward to Sunday afternoon!

Yesterday, the theme was green! We are neither Catholic nor superstitious, but we had a little fun with the Irish part of our ancestry. 

Everyone wore green. There were green shirts, green dresses, green sweaters, green necklaces. (Okay, I was the one whose only green was a necklace. But then I am the only one who has no Irish heritage...)

We labeled our cups with leprechaun names Kati had assigned us for the day. There were cute names like "Clover McDoodles" and "Greenie O'Rainbow."  And there were some not-as-cute names like "Bunyon O'Tavern" and "Tater O'Bourbon." 

Of course, we had our annual corned beef and cabbage meal.

The wee folk were treated to leprechaun pickles! (We have some die hard pickle lovers in our family, so when I saw these little individual cups of mini pickles, I knew that they'd be a hit. We named them "leprechaun pickles" for the day.)

The finishing touch was grasshopper pie! Owen declared it "the best pie EVER" which means, of course, that this Gran will be making it again.

Just in case you'd like to make "the best pie EVER"...

Ingredients: 1 prepared chocolate crumb crust (I used an Oreo crust) 1 1/2 cups heavy cream 2 8-oz packages cream cheese 1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk 16 drops green food coloring 16 chocolate-covered mint cookies   Directions: Whip heavy cream until it forms soft peaks; set aside. Beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in milk until smooth. Beat in food coloring. Crush cookies; stir into cream cheese mixture. Fold in whipped cream and spoon into prepared crust.  Cover and freeze overnight. Remove from freezer 30 minutes before serving. Garnish each slice with a chocolate-covered mint cookie or with additional whipped cream (optional).

A Weekend Chat With My Reader-Friends

One of the things that has surprised me the most over the 4.5 years that I have been blogging is the community that forms between bloggers. Bloggers (and the non-bloggers who read blogs!) are real people with real lives -- and real bonds form. There is fellowship and encouragement and the richness of ideas. We pray for one another. We care. 

Today, I'm going to continue the conversation with my reader-friends (the one that began in the comments section in ~this~ post) and try to answer some of your questions. Want to grab a cuppa?

A couple of you asked about the house photos. Photos of my house all spiffed up for the holidays are slated to appear in a 2015 holiday book by Judy Condon (author of the Simply Country book series). Further details are in ~this~ post (lots of details, including the story of the chandelier fire...yikes!). I am still amazed. 



Those flour and sugar canisters. You guys are quite observant! ~big smile~

As soon as I downloaded the photos of the pot of yellow tulips, I noticed that the canisters were empty. But sunny days have been few and far between lately, so I was not about to wait for another sunny day to retake those photos. We haven't been doing a lot of baking in these past weeks as my resident baker has been under the weather (and on a strict non-fat diet), but empty canisters just don't look very homey, so they are now refilled.



Is "commenter" a word, Sharon D? My auto spell check doesn't think so, as I always have those red squiggly lines under that word when I type it. Merriam-Webster online dictionary doesn't consider it a word either. But Oxford Dictionaries does, so I'm going with that. A commenter is "one who comments," right? It should be a word. (What do you all think?)



I didn't tell Ron of my doubts about the pot rack until after it was hung. I agree with Vee totally. Such a gift should be honored, and it is. I also agree with you commenters who think that I am fortunate to have a husband with woodworking talents. I am! And I loved reading all of your pot rack stories!



The bedroom sitting area is a work in progress. The television is installed now, but the blu-ray player that we bought so that we could stream Netflix movies is one that is not equipped with internet connection. (We assumed that all blu-ray players had that capability, and we disposed of the packaging before we realized.) We'll still use it to watch movies that we already own, but we don't have the options we had hoped for.

As for the room itself, we have plans to paint it when Ron is on vacation in April. I am on the lookout for a new bedside table that can double as a desk. I'd also like to find an armoire (cheap!), so that I can streamline our space. The dresser that we have takes up a lot of horizontal space, and we think we can have just as much usable space by going vertical. I am stalking Craigslist for the right thing at the right price.

This is the photo that my friend Frances took of our bedroom in December. (She made it look better than real life!) I'll post another picture when we've made some progress, but I hope you're not in a hurry. It could be a long time before I get things the way I want them.

Photo by Frances

Lastly, I want to let my non-blogging friends know that they can always email me by clicking on my profile and clicking the email link on the left side of the page. I'd love to chat! 

The Pot Rack

Martha Ellen apparently has a keen eye for detail! When I posted the above photo as part of the Photo-a-Day challenge, she observed in the comments, "I don't think I've seen your pot rack. Did your husband make it?"

Yes, Martha Ellen, Ron did make the new pot rack! I'll tell you the long-but-brief story.

The "long" part is the fact that years ago I clipped an inspiration photo of an old ladder used as a pot rack from a Country Home magazine. I showed Ron and then tucked it aside. Every now and then, I'd come across that photo and mention it again. (Now I can't find that photo, so I can't show it to you.)

The "brief" part is that Ron took a notion to make his own "old" ladder this past fall. He measured and sketched and he made it in no time. 

But...eek! After talking about a pot rack for years, now that I actually had one, I wasn't sure if I was going to like it! What a fickle woman I am.  

As I have told you, we had a crazy, challenging autumn and holiday season, and the last thing I wanted was something new that I had to decorate and tweak. As you recall, I was also preparing (in the midst of the hubbub) for a house photo shoot, and I didn't want to add another focal piece. What if it didn't look good? What in the world would I hang on it? I tend to use trial and error and thinking and tweaking when I decorate, so I didn't want to have to work with something new before the house photos. So I convinced Ron that I needed to wait until the first of the year to hang it (without telling him that I wasn't even sure I was going to like it!). 

Now that it's here, I love it! It doesn't dominate the space as I feared it would. I think it compliments the new island rather than detract from it. 

I still haven't settled on exactly what to hang on it. So far, the pot rack doesn't have a single pot! I like the convenience of the colander hanging within easy reach. But I'm still tweaking, and that's okay now. I feel like I have the mental energy to tweak. (And no "permanent" house photos hanging over my head. Literally.) I have visions of holiday decorating too. There are all sorts of possibilities!

So there's the long and short story of my new pot rack.

Is your house always changing? Are you always tweaking things like I am? Do you think that decorating is ever "done"? 

Slow Cooker Tuesday ~ Week 10 {Italian Chicken}

Sometimes, you need a recipe that can be adapted to meet dietary needs.

You see, our Kati is on a strictly non-fat diet as she awaits her gallbladder surgery. I am trying to cook foods that she can eat, but that the rest of the family wants to eat too! This week, I pulled another recipe from those that my friend Jill shared with me, and it was a perfect fit. 

Photo by Bekah

I made the recipe as directed...almost! I used chicken tenders instead of the breasts, as they are even lower in fat. Also, I did not include the Parmesan cheese when I assembled the ingredients in the slow cooker. Instead, we passed the Parmesan at the table for those who wanted to (or who could choose to) add it. Served with Barilla Plus® Thin Spaghetti and a green salad, it met all the requirements for nutrition, flavor, and visual appeal.

(If I make it again, I will do as Jill had suggested and double the sauce ingredients!)

Ingredients: 2 pounds chicken breasts (frozen is fine) 1 package dry Italian spaghetti sauce mix 14.5-ounce can regular or Italian stewed tomatoes or dice tomatoes 8-ounce can tomato sauce 1 teaspoon oregano Parmesan cheese   Directions: Place chicken in crock pot; sprinkle with dry spaghetti sauce mix and oregano. Add tomatoes and tomato sauce. Sprinkle generously with Parmesan cheese. Cover and cook on LOW for 7 to 9 hours, or on HIGH for 3 1/2 to 4 hours.  Serve with pasta and top with shredded mozzarella and/or Parmesan cheese.  NOTE: If you like lots of sauce, double the sauce ingredients.

Do you tweak recipes to suit individual dietary needs? 

Looking for a recipe from another week?

Week 1: Cranberry Pork Roast

Week 2: Mexican Chicken

Week 3: Beef Ragu

Week 4: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Week 5: Cashew Chicken

Week 6: Chocolate Fondue

Week 7: Crock Pot Chili

Week 8: Crock Pot Rice Pudding

Week 9: Spiced Fruit Compote

Sunday Snapshots: A Ninetieth Birthday Party!

We have had a string of Sunday afternoons in which we have not done our usual thing. We have had all sorts of out of the ordinary events, including a baby shower, sickness, an out of town wedding sickness, and a birthday party. 

Yesterday, we attended a ~90th~ birthday celebration for Ron's uncle! His children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren honored him with a lovely surprise party (he was truly surprised!), and the room was filled with family and friends and good food and festive decorations. There were games, old and new photos in a slide show, music, words of wisdom, and a few (happy) tears. Uncle Paul is still healthy, active, and keen, and attributes at least some of his mental acuity to daily word search puzzles. He is quick to tell you, though, that the Lord has blessed him!

Even to your old age, I am He, and even to gray hairs I will carry you!

I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry you, and will deliver you. 

Isaiah 46:4

A Personal Photo Challenge {Words and Letters}

I have been looking forward to participating in Donna's Personal Photo Challenge this month. March's theme is "Words and Letters" and that is right up my alley! Words? I love them! 

I have been noticing photo-worthy words all month, I have mulled over lots of ideas, and I took around a hundred pictures. But then, when I chose my favorites and began to process them, I realized that "books" was my sub-theme! 

Here are my choices for this month's challenge, all taken with my Canon Rebel T3 and all edited in PicMonkey. 

The first subject is a vintage book, a gift from a friend. I decided to add a cup of Lady Grey to my composition, for what better way to enjoy a book on a chilly afternoon than with a cup of tea? I cropped my image for greater focus, boosted the saturation, and warmed the colors slightly. 

I love the burst of color in this basket of cookbooks that sits on the bottom shelf of my kitchen island. Again I cropped. This time I increased the contrast a little, and cooled the color. 

This last photo features a portion of our collection of picture books. (A smallish portion, actually.) I chose to go with an artsy feel for this one, selecting "HDR" from PicMonkey's special features. 

If you'd like to kick your photography up a level, then I'd invite you to try one of Donna's monthly challenges! Although Donna herself is a photographer extraordinaire, she has encouraging words and helpful comments for all who participate. 

Thank you, Donna, for another great challenge!

Lightening and Brightening

Feeling the need to brighten my corner of the world, I have begun to add some lighter touches to my home decor. I'll be ready for spring when it arrives. In the meantime...

I have debuted this beautiful new table runner, made by my dear friend Jodi. I think I have shown great restraint because, although Jodi gave it to me for Christmas, I have kept it tucked away in my linen cabinet until the change of seasons, just waiting for the calendar to turn. No matter that it snowed up a storm as soon as I put it on my table. It is a herald of springtime to me.

Again, I went in search of cheery flowers. This time, I found a pot of sunny yellow tulips. Cheery indeed! They are atop the kitchen island in an old crock, and they make me smile. (Do you have any tips on replanting these outside later?) 

I couldn't stand the winter white berries in this crock in the living room one more day. It's a bit too early for forsythia, so as a temporary measure I plopped in one of my topiaries. Bekah says it's too small for the crock, and I think she is right, but it's green and it's staying. For now. 

What about you? Are you lightening or brightening the corners of your world? 

Slow Cooker Tuesday ~ Week 9 {Spiced Fruit Compote}

Yes, Slow Cooker Tuesday appears on a Wednesday this week. (Explanation ~here~.)

Many years ago, I made a dish like this once or twice from a recipe that I had clipped from our local paper, but I misplaced it. Of course, I was able to find many similar recipes via google search, and so I took the elements I liked from several sources, and made my own version of a hot spiced fruit compote. 

It was better than I remembered, and now I am thinking of all the ways I could serve this! Tonight we enjoyed it as a side dish, accompanying rotisserie chicken and a green salad. But I could also see this compote as a dessert, maybe with a dollop of fresh whipped cream. I am also imagining it atop waffles, although I'd probably add a bit more cornstarch to the recipe so it would have a thicker consistency. Actually, I think it would be a great addition to many breakfast or brunch menus.

I believe I'll have the opportunity to try out some of my ideas, because my family loved it and would like to have it again! 

Ingredients: 29-0unce can sliced peaches, drained 20-ounce can pineapple chunks, drained 15-ounce can apricot halves, drained 15-ounce can sliced pears, drained 1/2 cup maraschino cherries, drained 1/2 cup brown sugar    1 tablespoon cornstarch 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg 4 tablespoons butter   Directions: Combine all ingredients in slow cooker; stir gently. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 to 6 hours, or on HIGH for 2 to 3.

Do you enjoy looking for new ways to serve a dish that you make? 

Looking for a recipe from another week?

Week 1: Cranberry Pork Roast

Week 2: Mexican Chicken

Week 3: Beef Ragu

Week 4: Chicken Tortilla Soup

Week 5: Cashew Chicken

Week 6: Chocolate Fondue

Week 7: Crock Pot Chili

Week 8: Crock Pot Rice Pudding

Tuesday Potpourri (And a Long Story)

Gathering some bits and pieces here today for a little chat. (Do you like a chatty post? Sometimes they are my favorite ones to read as I visit my blog friends.)

I will start with a medical update, first of all, because it is the most important, but also because it directly or indirectly affects everything else in my chat!

We finally have some answers about Kati's health. After two weeks of pain, visits to doctors (including two overnights in the ER), multiple tests, and w-a-i-t-i--n-g for results,  Kati has been diagnosed with a diseased gallbladder (but with no stones) and has an appointment with a surgeon next week. In Kati's words, "I am ready to get that bad boy out!" There is a sense of relief in knowing the root of the problem. In the meantime, she is following a totally fat free diet and the pain is always there, but manageable.

Because of Kati's health issues, we were not able to make the trip to Lancaster last weekend to join the Rabes for Lindsay's wedding. Boo hoo! We had been planning this for months. Ron had taken a vacation day for Friday and we were going to make a whole weekend of it. We prayed for direction, but the closer we got to the wedding date, we realized that it would not be wise to travel. Sigh.

(Want to take a peek at some wedding photos?) 

Since we were home, we were able to go out for breakfast with Ron's siblings and their spouses to celebrate his mom's 86th birthday. Seven of the eight siblings were able to attend, and we took up a whole corner of the restaurant!

Here is Ron's mom surrounded by her children...

...and here she is with the "out-laws" as my late brother-in-law used to call us.

Slow Cooker Tuesday? Also affected by medical stuff. Because I have been discombobulated, I forgot to purchase the ingredients for my recipe last week. Plan B was to stop by the grocery store after Kati's appointment yesterday, but then there was a snow storm and I made a beeline to get home afterward. So this week's Slow Cooker Tuesday will be on --ummm-- Wednesday?

Do you want the behind-the-scenes story of our harrowing journey to the doctor yesterday? 

Yes, harrowing!

I don't really like to drive on a good day, but yesterday morning was terrible. A predicted snowstorm descended on our area shortly before we left for Kati's appointment.

I have no ice scraper in my van. (I have never needed one. Unless Ron is driving, I don't go out in bad weather.) Kati went to get her wimpy little scraper out of her car. But her doors were frozen shut, so to break into her car, she kind of slammed her hip into the door...which opened it, but which also caused her pain which caused her nausea which caused her to -- okay, I'll stop. You know where this is heading. We were off to a rocky start. 

After I got the windshield cleared and the wiper blades broken loose, we began the twenty minute drive. As we drove, the windshield continued to frost over and I could hardly see, although Kati saw a car in the ditch not far from home and that took my confidence down the tubes.  We stopped off at Ron's office so that he could scrape the van windows with his Big Boy scraper (and we absconded with it), and his de-icing lasted almost until we arrived at the doctor's office.

On the drive home, we had to stop every three or four miles to de-ice the windshield.  When we finally reached the road towards home, there was a police car parked fully across it. (Presumably, the SUV we had seen earlier was being retrieved from the ditch.) So we had to backtrack and go the long way around, adding miles to our journey and more stops to scrape the windshield. It took us 65 minutes to make the 20 minute trip! 

Did you need all those details? Probably not, but Ron says I am not one to make a short story short, so there you have it.

All in all, we are grateful to have a diagnosis and an appointment with the surgeon, and to have made it safely home!

And since I have already said so much, I'll leave you with one more inglorious detail.

We had the defrost turned up so high, trying to keep the windshield as warm as possible, that, although the ice continued to form on the outside of the car, inside we were sweating in our drawers. (I can't believe I just used the word "drawers" on the Internets. All pride is gone in one fell swoop.)

Enough said.

(Or too much?)

Photo-a-Day ~ Week 4

Tidying up loose ends here with the last week of  Kati's photo challenge...a photo-a-day...

day 22: blue
I love the blue band around this old pitcher.
(And it is the perfect vessel for a bunch of red tulips.)

day 23: your shoes

Alas, I have reached the era of comfortable shoes.
I have some cuter shoes that I wear for special occasions, but my feet loudly rebel and ask for this pair.

day 24: your bedside table

As we make some changes in our bedroom decor (a paint job is slated for April),
this bedside table is here until I find exactly what I want in a price that I can afford.

day 25: green
Dried limelight hydrangeas hang on the pot rack above my kitchen island.

day 26: light
I almost missed the light.
The day was mostly cloudy with the sun peeping through only now and then,
but just before sunset, I captured this thin light faintly shining on the dining room wall,
shadows cast from inside and outside the window.

day 27: something you ate
I started to show you the package of Lance crackers I grabbed as we ran out the door at lunchtime,
but this salad is much prettier, so I'm glad I waited for dinner.

day 28: sweet
These are the pretty shortbread cookies that Bekah made to share with her book club.

And there we go, a photo every day for the month of February. Thank you, Kati, for challenging me to stretch my thinking and try some different things!