Helping people dust off their crock pots one pot at a time.

I LOVE that I've motivated friends to dust off their crock pots. Love. Love. Love.

I know. I know. Crocking on the weekend. Again. At least I knew about this meal somewhat ahead of time. The in-laws decided to visit today and they don't do a lot of home cooking these days, so I thought I'd cook them dinner for a change. Like I needed an excuse to crock!

While perusing my cookbooks, I came across dozens and dozens of pot roast recipes. I wanted to do one that was slightly basic, but with a touch of complexity. The roasted garlic was enough complexity for my liking. The extra 40 minutes THAT takes made this meal an all day event.

"Zesty Italian Pot Roast" (6 quart pot)

~4 medium potatoes, quartered
~6 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
~1 stalk celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
~1 plum tomato, diced
~1 boneless beef chuck roast (about 2.5 pounds)
~1/2 t black pepper
~1 can condensed tomato soup
~1/2 cup water
~1 T roasted garlic
~1 t dried basil
~1 t dried oregano
~1 t dried parsley flakes
~1 t vinegar

Place potatoes, carrots, celery, and tomato in crock pot. Season roast with salt and pepper and place on top of veggies.

Mix together soup, water, garlic, basil, oregano, parsley, and vinegar. Pour over meat and veggies.

Cover and cook on low for 10 hours or until done.

4-6 servings.

Initially, this recipe was apple-date crisp, but I couldn't find dates at the store and I'd just recently become introduced to/a fan of currants, so I decided to change it up a bit. (Thanks, Tammy!)

Apple-Currant Crisp (3.5 quart pot)

~6 thinly sliced peeled apples (I used red delicious.)
~2 teaspoons lemon juice
~1/3 cup currants
~1 1/3 cup uncooked quick oats
~1/2 cup flour
~1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
~1/2 t cinnamon
~1/4 t ground ginger
~1/4 t salt
~dash ground nutmeg
~dash ground cloves
~4 T butter, softened

Coat crock pot with Pam. Place apples in medium bowl. Sprinkle with lemon juice; toss to coat. Add currants and mix well. Transfer to crock pot.

Topping:

Combine oats, flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt, nutmeg, and cloves in medium bowl. Add butter to mixture stir until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Sprinkle oats mixture over apples; smooth top. Cover and cook on low for about 4 hours or until apples are tender.

6 servings.

Considering all of the "Mmmms" heard throughout the meal, I can say that I'm pretty confident everyone liked everything. Go me. In fact, the meal might have convinced the in-laws to do more cooking at home and maybe even dust off their crock pot.

When I make the apple crisp again, I have to change one thing...I didn't stir the apples/currants enough and most of the currants ended up on the bottom. Still, it was yummy and the leftovers will be currant-tastic.