Kitchen Tools to use: Part 2 (Fall in love with your slowcooker.)

OK, I'm devoting one blog post to one of the most useful kitchen tool I own. It is my slow cooker, yep you heard me right my slow cooker.
Whether you call it a Crock Pot, Slow Cooker, or a Multicooker it does the same thing: makes eating wholesome, healthy meals easier. I use mine two to three times a week just for meals. It is so easy to prepare a healthy meal, place it in the cooker, set it and go.
I own two slow cookers, 1 3 quart and 1 5 quart. They both have ceramic insert, my 5 quart is a little more sophisticated however. It has a timer. I use my 3 quart all the time. Whether you make a pot roast, soup, or chili this cooker makes a busy life a lot easier. I am going to share with you some of my ideas that will help you develop you very own love story.

This is my Pot Roast Chicken made in my little green machine. Can anyone say umm, yummy?

Reason #1: Slow cooking stocks. I roast my bones in the oven at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes along with vegetables, then I place cooked bones a vegetables in my slow cooker. Cover the bones with water. It is that steady heat that makes wonderful stocks, and the great thing about it is I can leave it. So if I have errands to run, I can leave it. My 5 quart works the best for my large batches.

Reason #2: Busy night dinners. I work most evenings until 7 PM. Which makes for late night dinners for me and my family. Before I go into work, I prepare my meals and by the time I get home a hot meal is waiting for me and the crew. It is also easy for me to transport dinners. My friend Annie watches my kids for me when I am working. So, I just take the slow cooker with me.

Reason #3: Helps me maintain our healthy eating patterns. My slow cookers keeps me on the healthy eating path. I hear a lot of times that life gets in the way of families eating healthy. It is easier to stop by a drive through on the way to a game or some event. Having a meal waiting for you when you get home, keeps those urges off my radar. It helps me keep the temptation at bay.
So, these are my three top reasons for investing in a slow cooker. If you don't have one, where do you find one? Most department stores carry them. Check out websites: www.rivalproducts.com, www.hamiltonbeach.com, and my favorite www.vitaclaychef.com. (One day I will own one of these).

My little green machine, making Autumn's Bounty Pork Stew.

Do your research, choose the one that suits your needs. Then plan to use it regularly, incorporate it into your meal plans. Enjoy the romance!

**Note: All the recipes that I have mentioned in previous blog posts can be found at www.eatnourishing.com.

Kitchen Tools to Use, part one.

Hello, my name is Dea Warskow and I am a kitchen gadget addict. I love kitchen tools, utensils, and cookware. I admit it, I can't get enough. I love walking through Sur La Table, Williams Sonoma, and flipping through the Pampered Chef Catalog. It inspires me, fuels my curiosity, and gets those creative juices flowing. I am always coming home with a ton of ideas.
People ask me all the time, "What do you use in your kitchen?" Well I am going to share some of "secrets".
For cooking:My mother used these pans all the time, and now I use it all the time, my cast iron. I have quite the collection. Several dutch ovens, a griddle, and several frying pans. I just recently purchased the corn stick pan. So why do I love my cast iron? Here are the reasons:
1. It is the first non-stick pan. With proper seasoning** and care cast iron out performs nonstick any day. **Seasoning: the proper application of oils and heat. It gives the iron its black color.
2. Heat conductibility. Heat transfers easily through cast iron. This provides even cooking temperatures.
3. Iron. When my oldest son was younger, he was anemic. It was at that time that my family physician suggested that I prepared all his meals using cast iron. Iron will leech into the foods you prepare, giving you that added mineral supplement. To me that sounds a lot better than the other chemicals you can get from non-stick cook wear.
So where do I purchase my cast iron? Most department stores have a few pieces in their cookware section, however not many varieties and sizes. Outdoor supply stores, such as Cabela's (www.cabelas.com) or Bass Pro Shops (www.bassproshops.com) are me favorite places. I can always find the larger sizes of pans, and unique cast iron items. They are affordable as well. Just word of advice, if you are ever at an estate sale, flea market, yard sale and you see cast iron cookware, BUY IT. Unfortunately, too many people do not understand cast iron.
If you want to research cast iron I highly suggest visiting the Lodge (www.lodgemfg.com) website.

This is my trusty 14 in skillet, with my Sweet Tomato Sauce simmering away. Ahh I love it!

For Baking: I cannot stress this enough, STONEWARE. This is another natural product that I rave about. I first heard about using stoneware at my bridal shower, of all places. My mother and my sister hosted a Pampered Chef (www.pamperedchef.com) show. I fell in love with stoneware. I purchased a pizza stone, and loaf pan. That began my adventure. I now own several pieces of shapes and sizes.
So why stone?
1. It seasons like cast iron. New pieces of stoneware come coarse and pale. After repeated uses oils absorb into the stone, darkening and smoothing the surface. It too becomes a nonstick surface.
2. Stoneware retains moisture during the baking process.
3. Baked items on stoneware does not burn.
4. Clean up is very easy, however DO NOT use soap. Stoneware is porous and will absorb the soap.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Pizza on a well-seasoned pizza stone. Yummy!

The best pieces of stoneware I own all have come from The Pampered Chef, (www.pamperedchef.com). They have an excellent warranty, five years full replacement. I have broken only one piece in the 16 years and they replaced it very easily.
As I continue to unveil my kitchen supplies I hope you fall in love with kitchen gadgets as much as I am. We may have to create a support group, but I guess that wouldn't be that bad.

Keeping it together, plan first.

My husband asked, pleaded, and maybe even begged me to write a meal plan for the first 10 years of our marriage. Believe it or not, I refused. I felt it would stifle my creativity in kitchen. Well, let me be the first to say it didn't. It actually increased my dependence on processed foods. I would come home from work and pull something out of the pantry and cook it up. Maybe I would add a salad, or add a canned vegetable. This thought process led to unhealthy eating patterns, which led to weight gain (especially with me), and finally led us to be very unhealthy.
So what made me change my mind? Well, actually it was Rachel Ray made me changed my mind. I know, I know, many of my foodie friends are rolling their eyes. I really wanted to purchase 365 Meals: No Repeats. He made me a deal I couldn't refuse, buy the book and cook every meal from it. OOH Deal! As soon as I got the book I went to work right away, but I was confused. Where do I begin? What do I do? There were so many recipes and variations, and I'll admit it I was lost. So I took I deep breath, and started to scour the book, with a calendar in hand, and mapped out each month. The most amazing thing began to happen, I became addicted. You can ask my husband once I started there was no stopping me. I would plan for special events (birthdays, anniversaries, church potlucks), and eventually after 1 1/2 years we ate our way through the book. I mean this book travelled with us to New Orleans! There were times where we did have take out and left overs night; time constraints, kids' activities, and meetings (hence, the 1 1/2 years instead of 365 days).
So how do you start? You will need the following: 1. a calendar (I use my publisher program's calendar setting) 2. recipes or ideas for recipes. You can plan all of your meals a month at a time, or a week at a time. You can use recipes from websites. www.eatnourishing.com, www.nourishinggourmet.com (the Pennywise Platter is awesome), and www.tastykitchen.com are some of my favorites. I recently found a meal planning website called www.foodonthetable.com that I am researching. I look forward to keep this addiction going. If I find recipes I will post them in this blog. In the meantime enjoy organizing and planning. You will find meals on the table will get easier, and healthy eating gets simpler.