Cooking Show: Crock Pot Favorites, and Baileys® Irish Creme Parfaits

Last week's cooking show featured an eclectic assortment of recipes.

I started planning a theme featuring favorite recipes for the slow cooker.

Crock Pot Chili

This is my personal favorite, as far as slow cooker recipes go.  The only prep is chopping a few ingredients and opening a few cans, then mixing it all in your crock pot and forgetting about it for 8 hours.  No additional steps, just add a few toppings at the end.  Truly a one-pot meal! 

And it's not a grease-laden chili, as you will use steak instead of traditional hamburger.  Here's the printable recipe.

Crock Pot Boneless Country-Style Ribs

With over 800,000 page views and 30K+ pins on Pinterest, this is by far the most popular recipe on this blog.

 Here is the printable recipe.

Green Beans with toasted slivered almonds and chopped bacon, not a crock pot recipe but I thought it was important to prepare a vegetable on the side! Click here for the printable recipe.

 And finally, Baileys® Irish Creme Parfaits.

Seriously good.

So good that everybody licked their spoon clean.

Really incredible, as in so incredible that they deserve their own blogpost with step-by-step instructions...but until I create that future blogpost, I won't leave you hanging.  Here's the printable recipe!

Cooking Show...Tailgating, Part III !

I can't believe we just filmed our third annual tailgating show!

I was once again joined by Maureen, the tailgating maven.  I don't know anyone who is more of a tailgating expert than she is.

Last month, it was my good luck to join in on one of her legendary tailgates, and I snapped a few photos.

Here they are:

Here's a photo of her table with appetizers and main dishes.

I think the two people that you see in the photo may be having a spirited discussion regarding whether the buffalo chicken dip tastes better with nachos or veggie sticks.

It's hard to see what was way down the other end of the table, so here's a picture of Maureen's fabulous tortellini/pasta salad and pulled pork sandwiches with vinegar slaw.

And we can't forget the dessert & drink table, featuring pomegranate mojitos and pumpkin whoopie pies, both of which we replicated for the show.

Here's what we made on the show:

Maureen thought it would be nice to have a signature cocktail for her tailgate.  

I decided that it should feature pomegranate juice, to match the colors of her alma mater.  Hence, Pomegranate Mojitos were born!  

Here's the printable recipe.

Then we moved on to Fall Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette.  Click here for the printable recipe.

In the upper left corner of the above photo, you can partially see the Brie & Jam Phyllo tarts that we made.  I wish I took a picture of them; I promise to update this post as soon as possible with a picture!  

In the meantime, if you want to make them, you will need a package of frozen phyllo tarts, a wedge of brie and a jar of jam.  Place a small (3/4-inch) piece of brie and 1/2 teaspoon of jam in each tart.  Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, until the cheese is melted and bubbly.

For the record, I used roasted garlic & onion jam which lent the perfect amount of savory sweetness to these tarts!

Our menu would not be complete without Slow Cooker Pulled Pork sandwiches!  Here's the printable recipe.

And for a sweet finish to our show, Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.  If you want to see a plate of treats disappear, make these.

During the show, someone asked me how long these will keep.  I had to answer that I didn't know, they are always gone by the next day!

Slow Cooker Baby Back Ribs

Finally.

I made a batch of baby back ribs in my crock pot that I think are blogworthy!!!

I won't go into how picky I am about slow cooker recipes.  About how I refuse to sacrifice taste for convenience;  to sacrifice texture for the supposed ease of throwing everything into one pot and hoping that it's edible.  

No, I won't go into how I have a love/hate relationship with my crock pot.

I'm just going to say that these ribs have earned a permanent spot in my dinner rotation.

Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Every time I use my crockpot, I can't help but wonder why don't I use this more often?

Is there anything better than doing a little bit of prep work in the morning, throwing it all into the slow cooker and having it ready at dinner time?

This recipe is a bit of a riff on the Maple-Mustard Pork Chops that I've made in the past.  I like the combo of sweet maple syrup and the savoriness of dijon mustard, and I couldn't help but wonder how it would work with a pot roast.

I'm happy to say that it worked out just fine!

Lobster Phyllo Cups

If only I could just get through a blogpost without having a recipe-name dilemma.

Lobster Bites.  Sounds too painful.

Lobster Tid-Bits.  Huh?

Lobster Appetizers.  Generic, much?

I settled on Lobster Phyllo Cups.  Eh...but at least it's straightforward.

If I didn't use these phyllo cups, I would have served this cheesy concoction with pita chips or water crackers and simply called it Lobster Dip and avoided the whole what-should-I call-this-recipe dilemma.

Holy cow, I just looked at the picture I posted above and noticed that the box says FILLO shells!!! What kind of cockamamie spelling is that?

I am not going to change my recipe name.  I am not going to change it.

And I'm not going to waste any more of your time throwing a recipe-naming tantrum, not when you could be spending your time filling these phyllo/filo/fillo cups with a mixture of yummy, cheesy. lobster!

Crock Pot Boneless Beef Short Ribs

The inspiration for this recipe came about as I was wandering through Whole Foods.  It was Friday afternoon, just as the snow from our latest storm was starting to fall, and I was making one last trip to the market before I got snowed in.

Yeah, THAT storm.  Here's a picture of my dogs on Saturday morning, as they woke up to more snow than they have ever seen before.  We dug tunnels across the deck and through the yard so they could get around.

Gus was having a good gosh-darn time for himself.  He stuck to the pathways.  Clyde, not so much.  He started to leap through uncharted territories........

...and ended up "swimming" through the snow.

He was happy to come back in, dry off and warm up.

We were snowed in for a couple of days, which was not a problem at all since I had bought enough food for a week's worth of snowed-in meals.  First on the list were the boneless beef ribs in today's post--boy did my house smell good with these ribs simmering in the slow cooker while the snow was falling!

Slow Cooker Parmesan Honey Pork Roast Recipe

Today's recipe is for yet another slow cooker pork roast, but what's not to love about a meal that you can throw together in the morning and then just forget about it for six hours?  And in the meantime, it makes your house smell really good!

This is another recipe from my recipe board on Pinterest.  It's nice that I'm finally starting to cook all these recipes that I've been pinning.  Let's see, this is the second Pinterest recipe that I've made this week, I probably pin one or two recipes a day, at this rate I should be caught up...never.  Oh, well, the browsing and pinning is fun, and even if I "only" make two recipes a week that are worth keeping, I still think it's a win-win situation!

Crock Pot Pork Tenderloin, And A Giveaway!!

It's been a while since I've posted.......I'm not going to make any excuses.  You've heard them all, anyway!

Thanksgiving was wonderful.  

On Saturday we took a drive to the tree farm.  It took all of three minutes for us to find the perfect tree.

Well, my kids found the perfect tree.  All I did was agree with their choice.

It's been a decorating frenzy since then.

The real tree is in the living room, and there are fake trees in the family room and dining room.

In my sewing room, a.k.a. The Land Of A Thousand Unfinished Projects, I had started making a fabric bunting from a charm pack of Mary Engelbreit prints from her "Isn't Christmas Jolly" line.

I finished it today so that I could decorate the final tree.........my dining room tree, which sort of has a kitchen theme.

Which brings us to the giveaway!

 Aren't these glass peppermint ornaments cute?

How about the gingerchef and snowchef?

I bought these at the Williams-Sonoma Outlet last year, during the after-Christmas sale when all the holiday merchandise was ridiculously reduced.  I stocked up, with my dining room tree in mind, forgetting that it's only a five-foot-tall sort of pygmy tree.

I have three extra sets of these ornaments to give away.  You will receive five ornaments--the three peppermint ornaments, the snowchef and the gingerchef.

All you have to do to enter is 1. become a follower of  my blog.  (If you already follow the blog you are automatically entered.)  Or, 2. you could enter the giveaway by leaving a comment.......about anything from what type of ornaments are your favorites to whether or not you think the Red Sox will actually have a manager under contract before next season starts.  And 3. if  you are a follower and leave a comment, you will be entered twice, which means that you could possibly win two sets of ornaments.

Winners will be drawn by noon on Friday.

{This giveaway is sponsored by me.  I am in no way affiliated with Williams Sonoma, and I can say with certainty and conviction that they have no idea that I even exist.}  

Today's recipe was something I sort of stumbled upon in desperation.  Pork Tenderloins were on sale, I bought two, and then I didn't know what to do with them.  I couldn't just sit and stare at them!  I had to cook them!  What to do?!  Google to the rescue!

I scrolled through the recipes that popped up and settled on this one.  Which I just had to tweak, of course.  I read through a few of the comments that were left and made some adjustments.   

Recurring themes throughout all the comments--"Tasty!" "Flavorful!" "Tender!" "Easy!"-- I agree!  Mr. Terrific, Sean and Erin all agree--this recipe is a keeper.

Crock Pot Chili

 During these cold winter days, nothing hits the spot like a bowl of chili!  With all the toppings, of course.

I snapped this photo of Gus on Saturday night.  Those little white spots are the remnants of the snow that covered him when he came inside (of course he shook it off as soon as he came in the door. I wish I could crack the canine code that prompts him to wait until he's in the door to shake all moisture off).

At least he has short fur.  It could be worse: 

Here's an archive photo of Gracie, with ice balls tangled in her fur after a romp in the snow.

We're lucky, we only got a few inches of snow this time.  Friends of mine in Connecticut got a foot of the white stuff, and are heading into their third day without electricity as I type this.

We only lost our electricity for 16 hours and 22 minutes (not that I was keeping track or anything), which is an unbearably long time when the temperature inside your house is dropping from lack of heat.  We were lucky that we at least had hot water (thanks to a water heater fueled by natural gas) and a stove to cook on (also fueled by gas).

I am also lucky that I decided to cook this chili before the storm hit.  Simmering a pot of chili in the slow cooker while the snow swirls outside makes me feel all warm and fuzzy, but lack of electricity would have quickly put an end to that scenario.

Crock Pot Boneless Country-Style Ribs

Well, it's about time I posted a crock pot recipe.

I haven't used my crock pot in months.  It takes up too much room in my kitchen, so I keep it on a shelf in the basement.  Out of sight, out of mind.

And then, when I finally get around to using it, I can't help but wonder:  why don't I use this more often? 

This is one of my favorite crock pot recipes.  I've tweaked it quite a bit over the years.  In its original incarnation, I just poured a bottle of BBQ sauce into the crock pot, dumped in the ribs and let it cook for 8 hours.  I've come a long way since then.

The playlist is very short today, as it will only take about 10 minutes to prep the ingredients!