Crock Pot Caramelized Fennel and Onion Dip

Debating on what delicious appetizer to make for Mother's Day?

May I suggest my ultra easy and completely decadent Crock Pot Caramelized Fennel and Onion Dip?

It's so creamy, really rich and disappears quickly. Perfect with thick kettle chips, baguette slices or veggies and you can totally make it ahead if you need to!

 I love my crock pot. I actually have three of them if you want to get technical about it, and I use them all year round. They are an easy (and most of the time) fool proof way to get a delicious meal almost completely hands free while you're busy with other things. I started making caramelized onions in my crock pot years ago when I had a huge costco size bag of  onions to use up and no time to stand over the stove for 45 minutes stirring them. The house smelled absolutely amazing and I did little to no work to get there.

Now, by all means, if you want to take the time to stand at the stove and cook these on low heat for about 30-45 minutes, you absolutely can and forgo the crock pot portion of the recipe. It'll come out just as delicious either way!

Crock Pot Caramelized Fennel and Onion Dip

4 Tablespoons butter

2 Tablespoons olive oil

4 cups thinly sliced fennel

4 cups thinly sliced onion

1 ½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

2 teaspoons sugar

3 ounces room temperature cream cheese

1 cup sour cream

Place the butter, olive oil, fennel, onion, salt, pepper and sugar in a crock pot and set on low heat for 8-10 hours. 

Once the onion and fennel are caramelized, pour the mixture into a mixing bowl and allow to cool. 

Once cooled, add the cream cheese and sour cream.

Serve immediately or chill and serve with kettle cooked chips, cut up veggies or baguette slices.

Crock Pot Hoisin Chicken Tacos with Asian Bean Salad Salsa and Sriracha Cream

I don't know about you, but right now my family is in full blown "Holiday Schedule" mode. Christmas parties, half days of school, finals, Holiday class parties, work travel..... I could go on, but I think you get it and are probably juggling the same hectic schedule too. After a crazy busy day, we need an easy to make dinner that looks like it took way more effort than it actually did.

My solution: Crock Pot Hoisin Chicken Tacos with Asian Bean Salad Salsa and Sriracha Cream

The chicken takes care of itself in the crockpot and the Asian Bean Salad Salsa and Sriracha Cream literally take seconds to throw together. Make them in the morning when you're prepping the crock pot, or right before you're ready to serve!

Crock Pot Hoisin Chicken Tacos with Asian Bean Salad Salsa and Sriracha Cream

½ cup hoisin sauce

1 ½ Tablespoons minced ginger

1 ½ Tablespoons minced garlic

2 Tablespoons apricot preserves

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

1 Tablespoon Asian chili garlic paste

¼ cup marinade from Paisley Farm Asian Bean Salad

2 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 2 inch cubes

2 cups drained and chopped Paisley Farm Asian Bean Salad

1/3 cup sliced green onion

1 Tablespoon sesame seeds

1/4 cup sour cream

1/3 cup mayonnaise

2 Tablespoons sriracha hot sauce

16 small flour tortillas

1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro

 In a small mixing bowl whisk together the hoisin, ginger, garlic, apricot preserves, soy sauce, chili garlic paste and marinade from Paisley Farm Asian Bean Salad.

Place the cubed chicken a crock pot and pour the hoisin mixture over the chicken. Stir to coat the chicken and cook on low for 4-6 hours. Once tender, shred the chicken and stir to combine.

In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the chopped Asian Bean Salad, green onion and sesame seeds. In a separate small mixing bowl whisk together the sour cream, mayonnaise and sriracha.

Evenly fill each tortilla with an equal amount of chicken and Asian bean salsa. Sprinkle with cilantro and drizzle with the sriracha cream. Serve immediately.

Makes 16 tacos.

 Paisley Farm Foods sent me their delicious line of products to test out and create recipes with for their Holiday Blogger Recipe Challenge. They've been making flavorful bean salads and marinated vegetables since 1945! Find their delicious line of products HERE

#paisleyfarm #paisleyfarmfresh #kroger

Crock Pot Turkey Carnitas Burrito Bowls with Cilantro Lime Zoodles

My son's first pick at any fair or carnival or Thanksgiving has been, and will always be the humongous roasted turkey legs. I don't know whether it's the caveman feeling of walking around with that thing in his hand or the crazy cost that you're typically charged for one when at a festival, but he truly loves them. I don't know why it never occurred to me to buy them and make them at home, and now that I have, I can tell you it was WAY easier than I ever expected. Something seemed familiar in my mind as we were chowing down on them - something about the crispy outer edges and the tender fall off the bone meat in the middle.....

Carnitas! Of course! It reminded me of one of our favorite Mexican dishes and I knew turkey carnitas needed to happen soon. 

I'm taking part in Frick's Quality Meats Recipe Challenge and when they sent me their gorgeous Smoked Turkey Drums I was so excited to turn them into this fully loaded carnitas bowl. Instead of Cilantro Lime Rice, like the typical taco joints are serving, I used zucchini noodles. So bonus points for being gluten free, right?

Crock Pot Turkey Carnitas Burrito Bowls with Cilantro Lime Zoodles

Crock Pot Turkey Carnitas

1 cup diced onion

4 cloves garlic

1 cup pineapple orange juice

½ teaspoon oregano

1 teaspoon cumin

½ cup water

1 package (2drumsticks) Frick’s Quality Meats Smoked Turkey Drums

Cilantro Lime Zucchini Noodles

1 ½ Tablespoons olive oil

9 cups spiralized zucchini noodles

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ Tablespoon lime juice

1/3 cup chopped cilantro

Toppings

3/4 cup pico de gallo

1/3 cup crumbled queso fresco

¼ cup sliced pickled jalapenos

1/3 cup julienned radish

1 large lime, cut into wedges

Place the onion, garlic, pineapple orange juice, oregano, cumin, water and Smoked Turkey Drumsticks in a slow cooker on low heat for 6 hours, or until the meat is tender and easily falls of the bone.

Once the drumsticks are ready, set broiler to high heat. Remove the turkey from the crockpot and shred the meat, discarding any bone or skin. Place on a large cookie sheet and broil, just until the edges are crispy, about 2-3 minutes watching closely to prevent burning.

Add the olive oil to a large sauté pan over medium high heat. Cook the zucchini noodles for 3-5 minutes, or until just tender. Add the salt, lime juice and chopped cilantro. Divide the noodles into 6 serving bowls. Top each bowl with turkey carnitas, pico de gallo, crumbled queso fresco, pickled jalapenos, radishes and lime wedges.

Serve immediately. Makes 6 servings.

You can find Frick's Quality Meats here, on Facebook and on Instagram

#fricks #smokedmeats #itsfrickingood

Slow Cooker BLENDABELLA Mexi-strone with Cilantro Lime Pesto

My kids started school a few weeks ago, and we hit the ground running immediately. This is the first time in years that my kids are on two different time schedules at two different campuses. Add in after school activities and that can make for one hectic week! When the schedules are packed and you feel like an Uber driver, the slow cooker can be a lifesaver!

This soup is embarrassingly easy to throw together, packed with veggies and can easily be made gluten free if you choose to use gluten free pasta or boil the pasta on the side and let people add it as they serve themselves.

The hero of this dish is the Zesty Mexican BLENDABELLA it's full of portobello mushrooms, veggies and herbs and creates the most wonderful savory base for this soup. Minestrone is typically an Italian vegetable soup but, of course, I had to change it up and give it a Tex-Mex twist! After simmering away all day, top it with the bright and fresh cilantro lime pesto and it's ready to serve.

Also, I need to know.....do you say slow cooker or crock pot? I can't decide.
Either way, crock pot or slow cooker, I think you'll love this recipe

Slow Cooker BLENDABELLA Mexi-strone with Cilantro Lime Pesto

1 (15 oz) can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 (11 oz) can Mexican style corn with peppers, drained
1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
4 cups vegetable broth
½ cup salsa verde
½ teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika
1 (12 ounce) jar Zesty Mexican BLENDABELLA
2 (small to medium) zucchini, sliced into half-moons 1/4-inch thick
½ cup mini shells pasta

1 Tablespoons olive oil
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup cilantro leaves
½ cup sliced green onion
2 teaspoons lime juice

In a 6-quart crockpot combine the beans, corn, tomato sauce, broth, salsa verde, oregano, cumin, salt, smoked paprika and BLENDABELLA. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.
30 minutes before the soup is done cooking, add in the zucchini and pasta. Cook until pasta is tender.
While the pasta is cooking in the soup, make the Cilantro Lime Pesto. In a small food processor or blender, puree the olive oil, salt, cilantro, green onion and lime juice to a small food processor. Blend until smooth.
Ladle the soup into bowls to serve and drizzle with the cilantro lime pesto.
Serves 6

#BLENDABELLA #zestymexican

If you can't find BLENDABELLA in your local grocery store, you can purchase it online HERE

Be sure to follow them on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest too for recipe ideas!

Chicken Noodle Soup- the lazy way

Recently, I had numerous people write to me and ask how I make my chicken noodle soup. Until now, I've never actually written it down. I don't usually follow a "recipe" but I follow the same lazy method every time. Most of the time I make my broth in the crockpot, and I'm usually making it because someone (usually Marshall) is sick. It's so easy to throw everything in the pot, turn it on low and go about your day. Or you can do like me and go check your kid out of school, bring them to the doctor for over an hour, go to the pharmacy for at least 30 minutes, grab a bottle of wine before checking out because of the day you've had and then you get home to an amazing smelling house and 90% of your work already done for you.

I always buy whole chickens when they're on sale and freeze them, so do that if you can. All of the other ingredients I always already have in my fridge. I'm sure if you're super rushed you could make this using a rotisserie bird, but for me, this is what I'm throwing together before I run out of the door on sick days.

Throw your whole chicken in the pot and include the neck!! I know what the neck looks like, believe me, I get it, but the flavor it gives to the broth is great. Don't look at it too long and just throw it in. Peel an onion, cut it in half and throw that in along with 3 celery stalks, 4 cloves of garlic, half a lemon, about 2 cups of baby peeled carrots, a handful of fresh thyme (I grow this in our garden, I promise fresh is so much better than dried!!), about 2 teaspoons whole black peppercorns, a heaping tablespoon kosher salt, a bay leaf, and the stems from a large bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley (never buy that curly garbage either). Fill the whole thing with water and let it go until the chicken is tender and shreds easily. I never time this because it all depends on how big your bird is, if you set it to low or high and how big of a hurry you are in. 

Once you are ready, it will look like this. Remove the chicken to a large baking sheet, let it cool a little and then pick the meat from the bones. Dump the rest into a large strainer and reserve the carrots and celery. Chop the celery and carrots and put them back in the strained broth along with the chicken you shredded. Chop up some of the parsley that you used the stems from earlier and add it to the pot. Taste the stock to see if it needs more salt and add it now if you need to. In a separate pot, boil some noodles (I usually do about 1 1/2 cups) and add them to the pot just before serving.

I hope this helps!! What's the first thing you make when someone is sick? I'd love to hear about it!



Turkey and Andouille Gumbo

Remember that  turkey I roasted a few days ago? I was so proud of the way it turned out. It was delicious, the house smelled amazing and it looked like I grabbed it out of a Norman Rockwell painting. Most people wouldn't be able to ask for much more than that on a Tuesday night, right?!

Wrong. Way wrong.

Before he was even done eating dinner, and before my son asked for his third serving, my husband was already asking when I was making gumbo with the rest of the turkey. He also asked my son to slow down and eat "other things" so there would be enough turkey left for said gumbo.

I guess that's how a New Orleans boy's mind works.

I specifically remember being young and seeing neighbors bring my grandfather turkey carcasses after Thanksgiving and Christmas. I always thought that was completely normal, and I now realize that it may be a little strange to people that are not from Louisiana to think of bringing your neighbor your picked over bones. Walking out of your house in the morning and people yelling across the street, "Hey man, I got a turkey carcass for ya, I'll bring it by later".

Either way, strange or not, as a kid I loved hearing those words because I knew what was coming next- my grandpa's amazing gumbo.

As I got older and started making gumbo on my own, I took what I loved from Pee Paw's gumbo (my mom's dad) and MoMo's gumbo (my dad's mom) and created my own version. That version was the first recipe that ever got me to a cooking contest, on Food Network of all places, and introduced me to competition cooking. There I made my Chicken, Tasso and Andouille Gumbo Link

This one is very similar, and I'll show you every step along the way to make it. Get a glass of wine, roll up your sleeves and get ready. While absolutely delicious, this is a bit labor intensive but totally worth every minute!

This is when I take help from my slow cooker. I remove and discard the skin and fat from the turkey, take off any excess breast meat and store it in the fridge, and break down the bones to fit in the slow cooker. Add the neck, 1 large onion cut in half, 2 stalks celery, 3 carrots, 5 garlic cloves, 1 Tablespoon black peppercorns, a healthy amount of salt (don't be stingy), a bay leaf and the stems from 1 bunch of fresh flat leaf parsley (you'll use the tops later in the gumbo) and cover everything with water. I let this go, on low all night long.

The next day when I was ready to start the roux I got out my gumbo pot. It's not pretty or fancy, but it's what MoMo gave me, and somehow that makes it taste better.

I heat 1 cup of vegetable oil over medium heat and add the cubed Andouille and fry it until nicely browned and crisp. I know this is not standard procedure for most, but I do this for a few reasons. First of all, sausage is always better browned and crispy; secondly, while you fry the sausage you are also flavoring the oil which then is used to make your roux.

So there.

Once the sausage is nice and crispy, remove it from the oil and start your roux. I cook my roux until it's a shade between peanut butter and milk chocolate. This usually can be achieved in the time it takes me to finish 1-1 1/2 glasses of wine.

You can thank me later for figuring out the math on that one for you

As soon as your roux reaches your desired color add all the chopped vegetables and stand back. The pot will sizzle and hiss like no other. It will sound alarming, but this is a good thing. While the vegetables cook, strain the stock that you've been making in your slow cooker. Discard all the seasonings and reserve the meat to add in later. Once the vegetables cook for 20 minutes and soften you add your stock, Andouille and seasonings and allow it to simmer at least 2 hours. Sometimes I'll add this back to the slow cooker so I don't have to babysit it.

Remember that roux you made earlier? It's essentially a cup of oil that you flavored with Andouille and then cooked your flour in. After you add the liquids to the pot, the oil that you used to make your roux will separate and rise to the top. Skim it off using a spoon and use it to fry your okra. I am a lucky girl and have a very nice friend that shared her fresh okra with me, but frozen works just fine as well.

Slice the okra and fry it in the oil, stirring constantly until the okra no longer has the slime you see falling off the spoon before adding it to your pot. No one wants slimy gumbo and this step is essential in making sure that doesn't happen.

Once the okra has been cooked and the gumbo has simmered 2 hours, add the okra, turkey, parsley and green onion to the pot. Simmer for 1 hour before serving.
 


Turkey and Andouille Gumbo

1 pound andouille sausage, chopped

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 large onion, chopped

2 stalks celery, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

1/2 green bell pepper, chopped

3 pounds shredded Butterball turkey meat

8 cups homemade turkey stock

1 (14-ounce) can Italian stewed tomatoes, pureed

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

2 bay leaves

16-ounces sliced okra

1/2 bunch green onions, sliced

1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley leaves, chopped

 

In a large pot fry Andouille in the vegetable oil until browned. Remove Andouille and set aside.  Whisk in flour and cook until desired color is reached. Add onion, celery, garlic and bell pepper to roux and cook 15 to 20 minutes. Add reserved sausages, stock, tomatoes, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves and simmer for 1-2 hours.
While gumbo is simmering, cook okra on medium heat until no longer stringy. Add turkey, okra, green onion, parsley and salt and pepper, to taste and simmer 1 hour. Serve with rice, hot sauce and file powder to taste.



Dill and Lemon Chicken Noodle Soup

 My dad recently bought me a new crock pot, this one to be exact, and I LOVE it! One of my favorite things to make in a crock pot is chicken stock. Not many things can make the house smell fabulous with very little effort, but making stock in your crock pot does just that. Whether you have a whole chicken or just some frozen bones you've been saving in the freezer (I can't be the only one that saves a bag of bones in my freezer, right?) you can put together a fabulous stock in minutes. Bones or whole chicken, salt, pepper, carrot, celery, onion, bay leaves, water and parsley stems all come together to make such a versatile stock that can be used immediately, or frozen for later use. 

One thing in particular that I love about this crock pot is the ability to sear or saute on the stove top and then transfer the crock to the base and let it do it's thing while you're gone. This morning I browned my bones and vegetables, seasoned it, added water and put it in the crock until I was ready for it.  When it came time to make dinner, it was so easy to throw together!

Dill and Lemon Chicken Noodle Soup

Adapted from Good Life Eats

serves 4 - 6

1 rotisserie chicken, shredded

1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic
1/3 cup white wine
3 carrots, sliced into rounds
6 cups homemade chicken broth
8 oz rotini pasta, uncooked
3 egg yolks
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 teaspoon dill
1 large bunch fresh spinach, chopped

Add 1 tablespoon of olive or canola oil in a large crock or soup pot. Saute the onion over medium-high heat until golden and tender. Add the garlic and saute for 1 minute more.

Add the white wine and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the broth and carrot. Bring to a boil. Meanwhile, whisk the egg yolks and lemon together. Add 1 cup of the hot broth very slowly to the egg yolk mixture, whisking as you pour. Then, transfer the mixture to the dutch ovencrock. Stir in the rotini. Continue cooking over medium-low until the pasta and carrots are tender, about 9 minutes. Just before serving, season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the dill, shredded chicken and spinach. Serve immediately.

Apple of my Eye

My son loves apples. For a while, when he was younger, he thought they were balls to throw around the house or roll on the ground. Frequently we would find petrified apples in the toy basket, behind the couch or under the TV stand. Now that he's older he realizes that they are actually there to eat, not practice in the backyard with. For some reason he really likes the first bite or two of an apple. After that he loses interest and leaves it wherever he is to go on to more exciting things. I really hate wasting food, so when I saw a bag of baby apples at the store I thought it would be perfect for him. They were only big enough for a couple bites each and I wouldn't be stuck eating half chewed apples or finding them in strange places weeks later. Well, as you could guess, of course he is not interested at all in the baby apples and has not touched one since I bought them. In trying to come up with something to do with all these apples before they went bad I remembered a crock pot recipe for apple butter I had seen a long time ago. I looked up a couple different recipes and went my own direction with it to fit what I already had on hand at home. This recipe was so easy and I loved the way it made the house smell all day! It is great on toast, english muffins and I even used it on waffles this morning instead of syrup.


Crock Pot Apple Butter

12 baby apples, cored and quartered
2 pears, cored and quartered
1 c canned apple pie filling
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 c brown sugar
cooking spray

Coat crock pot with cooking spray. Place all ingredients in pot and turn on lowest setting. Stir occasionally and allow to cook for 10-15 hours. Mash with a potato masher, or use an immersion blender to puree for a smoother consistency. Makes about 4 cups.