Once upon a time, in what feels like another lifetime, I occasionally used a crock pot for making dinner. I had a small one, and definitely did not even begin to use it to it’s potential. As someone who really loves to cook, I usually opted for the hands on approach and eventually the crock pot got relegated to the back of the closet where it collected dust and was eventually forgotten.

When we moved from NY to NC two years ago (Wow. 2 years. This month. And one year next week since we closed on the house. Time is FLYING) I found the lonely little crock pot again and vowed to give it more attention once we settled in to our new home state.

Since I started this job 6 months ago and he accepted his promotion a few months ago, we’ve both been working a lot of hours. This has left us precious little time for cooking. The fast food route became the norm. And then we remembered the crock pot! It took me 2 years, but I’m finally keeping my promise. I’ve even added a larger (slightly more sophisticated) slow cooker to the family.

For example, Saturday night we had a very delicious creamy chicken and mushrooms meal, despite the fact that I was out all day and he worked until almost 8pm. All I had to actually do was boil water to cook the pasta. So easy, very tasty, and healthy!

Creamy Chicken and Mushrooms
1 Tbsp trans fat free margarine
1/4 cup white wine
2 tbsp quick cooking tapioca
2 lbs boneless skinless chicken breasts (fat trimmed and cut in half)
1 lb mixed mushrooms (any kind you want! I used baby bellas, and cremini)
1/2 lemon (juice only)
pinch of sea salt
fresh ground pepper to taste
4 oz fat free cream cheese

1/2 bag of Egg Free Wide Noodles, prepared just before you are ready to serve.

1 – Cook 5 qt or larger slow cooker with margarine, leaving remaining margarine in the pot. Add wine and tapioca, and stir.
2 – Add chicken and mushrooms. Sprinkle salt and pepper, squeeze lemon juice over top.
3 – Cover and cook on LOW for 7 hours. Stir well to combine, cook 1 additional hour on LOW.
4 – During last 30 minutes of cooking, boil water for pasta, and cook the noodles.
5 – When chicken is done, stir in cream cheese to combine, and serve over pasta

See the plastic? Those are the Reynolds slow cooker liners – and they are WONDERFUL! Makes clean up way faster.

One full day out with friends later, this is what we had for dinner, with leftovers

4 servings, 359 calories each, 2 gm fiber, 6 grams fat (2 sat)

We had tried this before, but it needed some changes. The recipe I followed the 1st time used water instead of white wine, too few mushrooms, and no lemon. It was ok, but kind of bland. The wine and the lemon made a wonderful difference. It’s been a load of fun scouring the net for slow cooker recipes and perusing cook books in the book stores and I think we have plenty to keep us going thru the fall and winter at least!

While the slow cooker was busy making our dinner on Saturday, I went out to play. I started the day early baking Gramma’s brownies to take with me to Janet’s house, a Target run with Corey, and then an afternoon of EZ DVD Fun with the Purls.

Those are some very fudgey brownies I love making my grandmother’s favorites and sharing them with people, it always makes me smile.

While at Target, I got a few staples, but I also bought 2 books and this

It’s described as “blend of Golden Delicious Oregon pumpkins, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves brewed in small batches to deliver the rich flavor of Fall.” Have I mentioned I love the Fall? All the pumpkin-y apple-y goodness! There is however one small thing about the fall down here that doesn’t sit right. In NY, Fall is apple picking season. Imagine my surprise last week when I discovered that here in NC, apple picking season is now OVER! It feels very weird to have Fall without the chance to go apple picking and drink warm apple cider.

I wanted to talk about the EZ DVD we watched on Saturday, but I will save that for tomorrow.

Till then…

Wow, I cannot believe how long it has been since I last posted. (I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, as I’d been struggling with posting regularly for a bit before than anyway) I figured it was about time I tried again to see if I really lost all blogging mojo, or if it was just a long overdue good long break.

I will have some knitting content tomorrow (a Malabrigo birthday cowl is OTN as well as the 3 Great American Afghan squares I completed), but since I promised a few plurk pals I would share this, today I’m just going to post the baked oatmeal recipe I’ve been fine tuning and tweaking over the last week or so. It’s a little crispy on the outside, but smooth and moist on the inside, and with the change in weather, this is a favorite breakfast around here.

What I like may be different from what you like, so please don’t look at this as a “be all end all must follow exactly” kinda recipe, it’s not. I did what I always do, started with something for a base, then experimented and made changes until it was what I wanted – for example, the original recipe I got had a TON of sugar in it, so I cut it to what you see here. I also experimented with healthier versions – those changes are in (parenthesis). Mix and match your spicing – mine is drastically different from what the original called for. I added the apples in addition to the craisins called for because I like them – take them out or add a different fruit – make it your own!

All that said, here you go!

Baked Oatmeal
(or, in the interest of laying claim to my version of the recipe, you can call it “Yea, I Made Baked Oatmeal” )

• 3 cups rolled oats – NOT instant or quick oats!
• ¼ cup brown sugar (OR ¼ cup splenda for baking)
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• Freshly ground nutmeg to taste (Im a huge fan of nutmeg so I use quite a bit)
• 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk (I use 2 %)
• 2 eggs (OR 1 mashed banana OR ½ cup pumpkin puree)
• 1/2 cup melted butter (OR ½ cup applesauce)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup dried cranberries (craisins)
• 1 or 2 pink lady or granny smith apples, peeled and chopped
• Handful of chopped pecan (or walnuts – optional!)

Preheat oven to 350

Mix dry ingredients, and then mix in the wet ones. Stir until blended, and then stir in the craisins, apples, and nuts (if desired)

Put mixture into a 9 x 13 baking pan, and bake for 40 minutes. (I made 2 smaller batches today, and did mine in two 8 x 8 pans, same time. Came out fine!) Refrigerate to store when cool (if it lasts that long)

You can just eat it warm, or with a bit of milk drizzled on it. A certain man in my house likes to eat it cold from the refrigerator – cuts a square, and heads out the door for work. (I confess to having tried it that way too – not bad, but I prefer it warm.)

Please pardon the iPhone picture – and the alliteration
It’s rainy and dreary here today and this doesn’t look nearly as good as it does in person

Anyway, there you have it. If you try it, I hope you’ll let me know how it turned out, and if you have any new add-ins or other changes!

We had a very quiet and low key Christmas here – our family is all up north and friends are either up north as well, or traveled off to see their families someplace other than here. It was a nice few days off though, and we did make a nice dent in the boxes that remain to be unpacked. There’s still more in the garage, but the ones that were hanging out in the bedroom, the bedroom closet and the office have all been unpacked. I think I may have the Yarn Lair layout (aka the guest room) figured out too – I just need some cash to make it happen. Then we decided (rather spur of the moment) to paint the office. I’m undecided on my opinion yet since it is still not done (needs additional coats) but it is VERY bold. Eh, what the hell, it’s only paint

You can have a sneak peek of some of the prep (that won’t give away very much at all)

I had planned to show the progress on the last minute baby shower gift I am under pressure to complete by January 10th, however I have ripped both false starts and have no clue what the next incantation will be.

1st time it was the yarn (bought Saturday from a 50% off going out of business sale, along with 2 feet and a head – more on that in a bit). It’s splitty and I just wasn’t getting gauge, no matter what I did – up a needle size, then 2, i was either so far from gauge it was laughable or the fabric was so loose it was just ugly. Rrrrrrrrrrip!

2nd attempt was from a hemp cotton blend that has been in my stash for oh, 100 years or so (amazing what you find when you start to make a pass at unpacking boxes and maybe even organizing some). That didn’t work out so well either. It wasn’t hard to knit with as I have heard folks complain about, I just think I paired the wrong pattern with this fiber. So after this post, I am off in search of a good match since I think this will make a nice neutral colored snuggly blanket out of 1000 yards (it really does soften up nicely as you wash it!).

In addition to rash painting choices (it’s just paint. I keep telling myself we can always paint over it. Right?!?) we also went to the movies (liked it, but liked the 1st one better) and made a ton of cookies, and marshmallows. Yes, marshmallows. I caught a Good Eats rerun the other night where Alton was making them and I was intrigued. Fun!! Easy!! (and they make AWESOME s’mores!)

There was also a batch of the usual ginger cookies and snickerdoodles, and in addition to the marshmallows, caught up in some type of domesticated whirlwind, I was also inclined to attempt turtles, one of my honeys favorite candies. I was not following a recipe per se – just making caramel as I was taught as a kid (VERY similar to this one here, linked simply because I didn’t feel like typing it all out. Mine has slightly less heavy cream and a smidge more vanilla) and then adding in pecans until it looked like a good ratio, and then once those globs were cooled, dipping them into melted chocolate to cover.

There are no pictures of the dipping or the finished product because the batteries died. Sorry! I don’t like turtles – not a caramel fan really – but I’ve been told they are delicious.

And lest you think this will be an all food pic post, I have a few knitty type items to share. Consider it a reward for reading this far I guess. I mentioned the 50% off sale earlier – sadly, a LYS nearby is closing it’s doors as of January 1. Although I wasn’t by any means a regular in the shop it’s still sad when a LYS goes out of business. The owner was having a 50% off everything sale of Saturday, and Stacey, Fran (blogless AFAIK) and I ventured over. I got the aforementioned Universal Yarn and a few items I have been wanting for a while!

I hope to put them both to good use soon – right after I figure out what to make for this baby shower that’s in 16 days

And maybe repainting the office?

Yes, after several false starts I FINALLY managed to get that pattern idea out of my head and onto my needles. I tried a bunch of different things, then Wednesday (on a conference call no less!) I had an idea, so I started fiddling with the stitches in my head and drawing what I thought would happen and then, since I was at work, and couldn’t exactly whip out my needles and try it, I had to wait for later, when I went to BAM to knit.

I got there a bit early (no worries, Amanda did too!) and plopped down and gave it a shot. I made a slight alteration from my notes, but I finally got that stupid thing out into the open.

Now I am not naive enough to believe I am the 1st person to ever knit this combination of stitches, but I am certain I am the 1st person who took this long to figure it out! In the end, when I look at the square and the stitches, I have no idea why it took so long for the light to go off, it really isn’t THAT complicated a pattern! (Yes I know, the picture makes it hard to see the stitches. It’s orange, it’s night time, and its shiny “washable perfect for a test/blanket square” Red Heart yarn. And I haven’t washed it yet either! ’nuff said?)

If anyone wants to know what I did, I can transcribe my garbled notes (if it wasn’t downstairs, and I wasn’t so tired, I would scan it so you could see how serious I am about the scribbles of a madwoman!) Basically though, its 4 rows – 1st and 3rd row is a p5, k3 repeat, 2nd row is a slip 5 purlwise (with yarn in front) k3 repeat, and the 4th row is where the fun stuff happens – basically a k7, stich the right needle in thru the front of the carried strand and knit it together with the next stitch, k7 repeat. Easy right? Why it took me so long to grasp, I have no idea!

I have the Charlotte Purls holiday lunch tomorrow afternoon, and then a Christmas party at my friend Tim’s house (I worked with Tim at my last job, and thankfully a bunch of us have stayed close. Right Jared? ) Anyway, I made those guys cookies when we worked together – with the response I got from them all, it is always a pleasure to make them more, so I figured a bunch of cookies was a nice thing to bring to the party. Tonight I baked up chocolate chip and oatmeal chocolate chip…

(I hope they survive the night! Every time he comes back upstairs, he has a cookie in his hand!)

I will be baking some more in the morning though, because the dough for my snickerdoodles needs to chill, preferably overnight.

It’s been a busy day, and tomorrow is full speed too, so Im making it an early night of the new Real Simple mag and my bed!