The Slow Cooker Debate

I love my slow cookers.  Crockpots are a brand of slow cooker, so don't be thrown off by the difference in names, they are one in the same.  I will be posting a few recipes for them, but before I do, we need to go over some important information first.


Size matters.  Slow cookers work the best when they are at least 2/3 full, so I tend to have 2 sizes.  A "normal" one (5 qt) and then a mega-one ( 8 qt) incase I need to feed a family of 12 for some reason.


The other difference comes from the year they were manufactured.  After doing some homework (and ruining a few meals) I found out that newer slow cookers cook at higher temperatures due to different regulations.  While this sounds like a good thing, it means that some recipes are meant for lower temperature cookers.  


My rule of thumb- if it involves meat, I use my old CrockPot that looks like it's from the 70's that I purchased at a garage sale for $1 (the smaller one).  Any vegetarian meal, or any meal that involved already cooked meat, can go in the new slow cooker.  I've tried cooking meat in the new cooker on low, and it is still too high of a temperature and the meat ends up being tough.  Some other meals end up burning a little on the sides as well.  I don't worry if I leave something in my old cooker past the "end" time, but the new one will burn it, sometimes before time is up!


If you ever come across an old slow cooker at a thrift store or yard sale, buy it!  The difference it makes when cooking meat is well worth it.  

Happiness is a New Blender!

Since smoothie making is now a regular part of my week, I made the decision to upgrade my blender.  My old blender was doing the job, but it took a long amount of time, adding one thing at a time, and shaking it around from time to time when it froze up.  I knew either I would somehow hurt myself or burn out the motor in the near future.

I have heard amazing things about Vitamix blenders, but there's no way that I could justify spending that much money on a blender.  It's just insane!  I was able to find a blender by Breville that was within my price range and looked like it had all of the features I wanted.  Chris thought I was nuts spending that much money on a blender, but I bought it anyway!

Let me tell you, this thing is AMAZING!!!  It's a Breville Ikon Hemisphere LCD Blender.  It is stainless steel and glass, nice and heavy.  It has all the regular speed options, but it also has a smoothie setting.  I wasn't quite sure what the difference would be between a speed and the smoothie mode, but I soon found out!

The smoothie mode plans to have a mix of liquids and solids.  It starts off spinning regularly, then it pulses itself, and resumes this cycle for 60 seconds.  That's it.  60 seconds and it's done!  No chunks!  And it's super quiet!  Amazing!  I was so impressed!  Sometimes, all it takes is a blender!!!