Crock Pot! Woo Hoo!

Saturday night, Rhett and I were at a friend's and she was telling us how much she loved her crock pot. Another friend joined in with praises, and by the next afternoon, Rhett and I had gone out and each gotten ourselves a crock pot. (This is the one I got.) He bought a slow cooker cook book, too, but I thought it was too expensive, so while he's been cooking away, I've been endlessly searching the internet for recipes that utilize ingredients I already have in the house. (Hint: in the future, go shopping the day after finding lots of recipes to try, not the day before.) My cooking style tends to be pretty simple, so the ingredients I have in the house are, too. The first recipe I'm going to try, tomorrow, came from About.com and is reproduced below:

Italian seasoned chicken with potatoes, cooked in the slow cooker.

Cook Time: 7 hours

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves
• 1/2 cup Italian salad dressing
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning (or mix basil, oregano, crushed red pepper, and garlic powder to equal same)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
• 4 to 6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges or thick slices

Preparation:

Place chicken in bottom of Crock Pot. Sprinkle with half of the Italian dressing, spices, and the grated cheese. Put the potatoes on top or around the chicken. Sprinkle with the rest of the dressing, spices, and cheese.

Cook on low for about 6-8 hours, or until the chicken is done and potatoes are tender.
Shared by Ness - www.thriftyfun.com

Chicken, potatoes, Italian dressing, basil, hot pepper, garlic powder, grated cheese - I've got all that! I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm dying to try a pumpkin soup. Several months ago, when I had an uncut Halloween pumpkin just begging to be used, I cut it up, cooked it, pureed it, and froze it. I couldn't let it all go to waste. It is now waiting in my freezer for me to figure out how to cook with pumpkin. My throat is bothering me a little, too, so soup sounds perfect, but they all call for milk! I don't drink milk, and whenever I buy it, it goes bad, so I don't keep it in the house. (I thought my roommate usually did, but she doesn't seem to have any now for me to, um, "borrow.") As soon as I can get some milk, I'm going to make me some pumpkin soup!

I ordered a slow cooker cookbook on amazon, too - cheaper than the one Rhett bought! - so once that gets here, I'll have lots more things to try. As it stands, I'm super-excited about crock-pot cooking, anyway!