Warm Up

Holy crud -- almost three months and no new posts! It's not that nothing has happened.

It's just that I'm lazy. And freakin' cold.

So, instead of mustering up the energy to write some deep thoughts, I'll post a recipe I made last night for dinner. C and I ate it with some Bisquick drop biscuits -- but I would have loved some chapati instead. Maybe in my next lifetime...

Side note: I'm always trying to find decent recipes for my crock pot. And by decent, I mean "does not taste like cardboard mixed with broth and vegetables." I find most crock pot recipes are not, IMO, decent. And, it's because the ONE step required for decent, tasty soups/stews is generally omitted from crock pot recipes because, well -- it adds an extra step to what's supposed to be an easy, one-pot meal. Sheesh. A double-bind if I ever saw one. What's that ONE step, you ask? Browning your meat (if using) and sauteeing all your veggies and aromatics and spices together in a pan BEFORE adding to the crock pot. Anyhoo, if you wanna be really efficient, just go ahead and drop $400 on the All-Clad Deluxe Slow Cooker. You know you want it. I do. Every. Single. Day.

Lunch ... finally.

Bastard* Mulligatawny Soup in the Crock Pot

2 TB butter
1 med onion, small dice
1 med carrot, diced
1 large sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 apple (any firm variety), peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
~ 1 TB curry powder [less spice = less hot, so vary amounts for the kiddos or whatever]
~ 1 TB garam masala
1/8 tsp ground cloves
~ 2 TB flour

Salt and pepper to taste
1, 15 oz. can diced tomatoes (with liquid)
3 cups chicken broth
~ 2 cups chopped or shredded cooked chicken (I used rotisserie chicken, white and dark meat, with skin removed).

1. Melt butter in a saute pan, then add onion and garlic. Cook until soft (don't let garlic burn).
2. Add other veggies, cooking for a few minutes into starting to soften. Season a bit with salt and pepper.
3. Sprinkle spices and flour over veggies, cook for a few minutes until raw flour smell is gone.
4. Add canned tomatoes and their liquid, stirring pan to scrape up all spice bits. Taste, and season again with salt if needed. Turn off heat.
5. Dump veggies and tomatoes into crock pot, then add chicken and broth.
6. Crank pot to High and let cook for about 4 hours. Serve over basmati rice (yum), or eat alone.

Have to say, this was the perfect dinner for a cold January night in the 'Burg. Leftovers for lunch, here we come...

* I call it "Bastard" because I cobbled this together from two different recipes, one specifically for the crock pot, the other using traditional stovetop methods. Plus, I couldn't seem to find any two recipes that are alike for this soup. Oh yeah, and the whole "No Soup for You!" thing...