Happy New Year!
On the main page of my blog under menu, I have a section that is called “Jill’s Pick’s.” When you click on that, you can see Cooking Tools & Tips. This is where I feature topics like “Cast Iron Pans,” “Cooking with Citrus” along with other subjects. For a while now, I have wanted to update my “Crock Pot” section. Now it is called Slow Cookers. Sometimes the term slow cooker is used interchangeably with crock pot. But what I have realized is that the crock pot is a type of slow cooker. Check out my newly revised section for more information.
Just before Christmas last year, Dave and I had our sailing friends, Sue and Mark Erwin, over for a dinner. I roasted a prime rib which we enjoyed. That night, I made stock from the leftover bones and meat scraps. This is easy to do. I put these into my slow cooker, fill it with water, set the temperature to low, put on the cover and let it cook overnight. The next day, I remove the bones and pour the stock through cheesecloth or a strainer. Then I freeze the stock until am ready to use it.
My first recipe this month is Easy French Onion Soup. From time to time in my newsletters, I talk about recipes like German Chocolate Cake or French toast that aren’t really from Germany or France. However, French onion soup is from France. In 18th century Paris, it was invented using beef broth and caramelized onions. For this recipe, I used my homemade beef stock and caramelized the onions in my slow cooker. I prefer salad size croutons because it’s easier to eat than one large sized crouton. So for my second recipe, I recommend using Garlic Cheese Croutons.
I enjoy growing herbs year-round. I feel that food generally tastes better when you use fresh versus dried. My AeroGarden is a countertop planter. You don’t need soil or even natural light. It has a light hood that can be adjusted by height as your herbs grow. There are many different herb seed pods to choose from depending on what you like. Right now I am growing basil, thyme and Italian parsley. In the past, I have also enjoyed cultivating chives and dill. The good news, at least for me, is you literally don’t need to be proficient at growing plants. Anyone who wants can have a green thumb.
Not all peanut butters are created the same. Natural peanut butter should have just one ingredient with no extra sugar, salt or trans fats. This was helpful to me when I made this last recipe, which is Linda’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies. Linda is a sailing friend of mine and in my opinion, she is a master cookie maker. In fact, this is the third cookie recipe of hers that I have published. The others are Linda’s Oatmeal Molasses Cookies and Linda’s Ginger Molasses Cookies. I figure that if I am going to splurge on a cookie, it needs to be tasty and these fit the bill!
Because I focused this month on slow cookers, my featured recipe of the month is Breakfast Casserole. Every month, I change my featured recipe, and it is found at the end of my home page.
From my table to yours.
Your galley guide-
