Our Virtural Crock-Pot Party

The tables is set!

 Our party went off well and all had a great time! Now we really didn't need to have the party, but I thought why not. Take some crock-pot recipes invite the family and have a nice before Christmas dinner, as this was part of my Christmas present to them. What fun! Lots of work and a few days of planning but worth it, thanks Ginger for inviting me to do this! I made this a Mexican feast night.
The Menu:
Chimichangas
Tacos
Burrtios
Spanish Rice
Salad
Tortilla chips
Bean Dip
Apple Cider
Pound Cake with Jello and Whip Cream

The Recipes:
Mulled Apple Cider
Chunky Pinto Bean Dip
Tex-Mex Beef Wraps (which we turned into chimachucas)
Streusel Pound Cake
Look for my recipes below this post, as I don't follow these exactly.

The Family:

Let's just say these are the members who didn't mind being in pictures!

Will be posting the recipes seperate with their pictures.
Enjoy!

Mulled Apple Cider

This was soooo good, that there wasn't any left!

Mulled Apple Cider
2 quarts apple juice, not sweetened
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
about 1 teaspoon cloves
1 large orange, quartered
Put all ingredients into the crock-pot and cook on HIGH for 2 1/2 - 3 hours.
Once cooked, strain out the spices and serve warm or cooled off.

I know, that picture doesn't look that appetizing, but once you take out the spices and orange, it sure was good!

Enjoy!

Chunky Pinto Bean Dip

Pretty much I followed this recipe, but here is how I did it! Love it and will make it again, woohoo!

Chunky Pinto Bean Dip
2 cans (15 ounces each) pinto beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (14 1/4 ounces) diced tomatoes
1/2 leek washed, sliced into small pieces
1/2 cup chunky salsa
Put all ingredients in small crock-pot and cooked on LOW for 3 hours. The small crock-pot I have doesn't have setting, so I just watched it for the 3 hours and it worked fine.
Partially mash the bean mixture with potato masher.
Serve warm or at room temperature with tortilla chips of your choice. Can sprinkle grated cheese on top.
Enjoy!

Chimichanga's Glenda's style

Yummy, shredded beef!

 Guided by the recipe of Tex-Mex Beef Wraps, we made different foods with this delicious way of cooking beef.

 
How I cooked the beef:
2 pounds roast beef
1/2 cup salsa
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon grounded black pepper
1 onion, quartered
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, (if you have fresh garlic, I would suggest 2 cloves, chopped)
1 canned diced tomatoes
1 cube beef bouillon
Put all this in your crock-pot and cook on HIGH 2 1/2 - 3 hours or 6 hours on LOW. Take the beef out of crock and shred, it shouldn't be hard to do, as the beef  will be so tender.

See that small little piece of meat, well it was 2 pounds.

You can make most anything with the beef. Some of us had tacos, some the chimichanga, beef wraps and some just ate it plain. We used both flour and corn tortillas.
I always drain the liquid out of the crock-pot and save for home-made enchilada sauce. Sorry I forgot to take a single picture of the chimichanga by itself.
Enjoy!

Pound Cake with Gelatin

Started off going to make the Crock-Pot Streusel Pound Cake, but it called for a packaged mix and I decided to make my from scratch.  Plus I did a different topping. After looking through my recipes and wanting to use yogurt in the recipe I came up with. the following:

Yogurt Pound Cake
3 cups flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon soda
¾ cups butter (12 tablespoons or 1 ½ sticks), chill and cubed
2 ¾ cups sugar
6 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon fresh squeeze lemon
Zest of 1 lemon (about ½ teaspoon)
1 cup fresh plain yogurt, if possible home-made

• Sift together twice: flour, salt, soda, set aside.
• Put in your mixing bowl and beat butter, until fluffy.
• Add sugar and beat until creamed well.
• Add eggs, one at a time and beat some more.
• Add vanilla and lemon juice, lemon zest.
• Now put in ½ cup yogurt and ½ of the sifted flour mixture, mix some more.

Batter in the crock.

• Finally keep mixing and add rest of yogurt and flour mixture.
• Cream all this together well.
• Grease inside of Crock-pot with nonstick cooking spray, (I use the flour, oil kind).
• Pour batter into prepared the crock.

Looking through the steam of the cover.

• Cover; cook on HIGH for 3 to 4 hours or until done.

Doesn't look quite done, but the side are very done. Toothpick check, says a few more minutes.

• Serve plain or with berries sprinkled with powered sugar.
• Make about 8 servings.

Out of the crock and onto a plate, notice it didn't seem done at the bottom.

All in all, this cake was very moist and good. At first I thought I wouldn't make another cake in the crock-pot and have decided, I will try once more and use the oval crock. The sides were more done than the middle, but the flavor was still a good buttery pound cake. What I did was slice the cake into thirds, so that I had three layers and then took a round biscuit cutter and cut individual rounds. I also cut rounds of strawberry gelatin and put those on top of each little cake, then put on a scoop of fresh whip cream and serve them.
Everyone enjoyed their own little servings. Also next time I think I will only use 1/2 butter.
Enjoy!

Cookie Apple Cake

I started out to make these apple cookies and it was too runny, so I turned it into a delicious light apple cake. So I have re-named the recipe Cookie Apple Cake.
Here is how I did it:
Heat these ingredients in a sauce pan, until the apples are soft, then drain off any extra liquid:
3 apples, cored, peeled and sliced
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon water
Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together:
1 cup unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar, white
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla

After cream and fluffy add:
1 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
Put into an 8" round cake pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. Check and if top is brown, cover loosely with foil. If it looks set  in the middle it is done, if not bake for another 10 minutes. If top bounces up, it is done, or can check with the toothpick method. (If toothpick comes out clean it is done.)

 

This was so good! Enjoy!

Bacon Bean Soup

6 ounces bacon, diced
3 cans Northern beans, drained
1 can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 ribs celery, sliced
5 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 cloves of fresh garlic, peeled and chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 tomato bullion
1 teaspoon dried rosemary or 1 fresh sprig of rosemary
salt and pepper to taste
about 10 cups of chicken broth

Cook bacon in medium skillet over medium-heat until crisp. Drain fat, set bacon aside.
Add all ingredients to crock pot.
Cover and cook on LOW for 6-8 hours. Remove rosemary sprig, if using fresh.  Slice rosemary, that you took out and add to soup before serving, also can add more crisp bacon on top.

Isn't this colorful!

Enjoy on a cold night!