Slow Cooker Saturday

Posted by Lauren

I’m currently overcoming an intense sugar coma from my Holiday Cookie Swap. Please excuse any grammar errors or typos that might result from shaking hands and/or crumbs stuck in my keyboard.

I’m not kidding.

Question: Can I talk about Saturday’s slow cooker amazingness before I tell you about the delicious cookies of Sunday??

Greul. So on Saturday around 4 pm Kyle came over to my place with his slow cooker. The roast inside had already simmered for 5 hours with red wine and cream of mushroom. We plugged the slow cooker in so the meat could cook for about 2 more hours and then put another coat of chalkboard paint on my little glasses…

Those babies needed a coat of gray primer and three coats of chalkboard paint. I really appreciated Kyle’s help painting all 16 glasses… painting can kind of be monotonous.

Instead of watching paint dry, we worked on the dinner sides: roasted brussels sprouts and potatoes…. they came out perfect!

Once the roast reached 7 hours in the slow cooker, Kyle took the slab of meat out and placed it on a plate to “set.” Steamy….

I was like…

Meanwhile, Kyle had onions and mushrooms in a saute pan….

…and then he added liquid from the crockpot (wine, cream of mushroom, roast drippings) with a little cornstarch to thicken. The “gravy” was OUT. OF. THIS. WORLD.

Dinner, served!

This is one of the best meals we’ve ever put together… and I really can’t take any credit for it at all! The roast and mushroom gravy was extremely flavorful and tender. The slow cooker does wonders!

After dinner, Kyle and I went to the movie theater to see Lincoln. I’ve wanted to see this movie for a while now, partly to scope out Lincoln’s ensemble. I’ve always wanted to dress up like Abe Lincoln for Halloween, even before Schmidt made it popular.

As if the date night could get any better, Kyle ALSO had candy for the two of us during the movie… sour patch kids and the best-ever chocolate-covered raisins! (from Kim’s company)

So… before the captivating movie, before the perfect dinner, and before the glass painting, I baked a few dozen chocoooolate cookies. The key to great chocolate cookies is using great chocolate. Duh. See those slabs of bittersweet chocolate on the kitchen scale in the photo below? That’s Guittard 72%… solid stuff.

I followed this Brown Eyed Baker recipe exactly and ended up with 30 gooey “Better-Than-Brownies” cookies.

Next time: Holiday Cookie Swap details!

Question: What’s your go-to slow cooker meal?

-Lauren