Always on the lookout for new crockpot recipes to try, and this one was very good. Easy and a good riff on the takeout classic. I might add a hair more garlic and some Sriracha next time, but just being picky. You could serve this over rice or noodles, but we actually just had it on its own and enjoyed it that way.
So I feel like I may be stretching it a bit if I call this a recipe. But it is like crack dip and Velveeta for the win, of course! This was great for a crowd, and you can really adapt it any way you like. I made this for a fun girls’ night at the barn and we enjoyed it!
I have had a chorizo/black bean chili recipe from Cooking Cooking light saved forever. But of course when I go to actually make it, the store is out of chorizo. Andouille seemed like it would also go well, and actually it was pretty good! This was a mish-mash of two similar Cooking Light recipes in the end, and I altered it for the crock pot. It has made a great freezer meal, and the only thing I would change is next time, I would not add the sausage until the last hour or so of cooking – just to heat it through. It lost some flavor in the crock pot all day.
Steamed clams are one of our favorites, since we both grew up on steamers. It’s hard to find them down here, but we did get some cherrystones today, and they were great steamed in a beer, garlic, and parsley broth. We had this with corn on the cob, grilled kielbasa, and a baguette to soak up the broth – a great end of summer dinner. 🙂 And it doesn’t get much easier than steamed shellfish!
This is a fun take on Chipotle’s cilantro-lime rice, and it was a tasty side with beer can chicken. If you tossed it with some peppers and some tomatoes, it might also be a good lunch salad, too.
Compared to last year’s meek tomato harvest, this year is insane. I brought in 34 tomatoes tonight alone – so you can imagine how backed up we are getting on ‘maters! Luckily most of these guys are Romas, which I specifically planted for canning purposes. This was my first shot at canning tomatoes (pre-sauce, anyway), and it was remarkably simple. You really can preserve any kind of tomato, though the “meatier” kinds definitely hold up best. Next time, maybe some of my heartier heirlooms.
Summertime slow cooker recipe trial and error continues, and I have to say that we really enjoyed this one. Next time, I might thicken the sauce for a bit longer afterwards to get a better coating, but this was pretty great even with a watery sauce. The leftovers were awesome as well! We had this with zucchini and summer squash, because we are pretty much drowning in both. 😉
Much like our green beans, our squash is out of control this year too, and we were looking for ways to use it up. I found a few different suggestions out there for zucchini chips, and decided to give one a go – they are AWESOME. Seriously, if you have a ton of extra squash, this is an awesome use for it. I found this on a blog call Add a Pinch and I made no changes. You can definitely play around with it and make all kinds of flavors, though. I do think without a mandolin slicer, this would be a serious pain, but you could still do it.
We grew green beans for the first time this year, and holy smokes are they prolific! They are definitely one to plant again. But like any heavy producing veggie in the garden, when you end up with a glut of them, it can be hard to use them all up. I decided to try refrigerator dilly beans. I got the basics from Cooking Light’s recipe for spicy dill beans, but I toned the spice down. Last year I overdid it a bit and the pickles were all kind of too hot for us. They would make a cute summery food gift if you wanted to take the final step and actually can them.
Missy sent me this really excellent chicken marinade, and we had to give it a try. It’s Asian-y and delicious. We made a few changes, cut back on the spice a bit because we’re not huge on heat, and added a couple of cloves of garlic. It was great and we’ll definitely do it again – the leftovers for lunch will be awesome. We had it with some bok choy as a side.
Om nom nom! 