Crock Pot, Revisited

I am kind of a crock pot snob.  Not that I don't love the whole easy, dinner is done, one pot thing.  It's just that I sometimes feel like foods cooked in a crock pot end up tasting kind of weird.  Or they are so cooked to smithereens that they fall apart, and not in that mouthwatering, tender way, but in that "What was this, exactly?" way.  Don't get me wrong, I use a crock pot.  Sometimes you just can't beat the efficiency of it.  But I guess I just usually prefer other cooking methods.  However, I have recently been turned on to a couple of new uses for my crock pot, and it has rekindled my respect for this handy device.  Allow me to spread the love.

First, my friend Leslie recently posted about making her own yogurt in a crock pot.  Since y'all know what a yogurt enthusiast I am, I just had to try it.  By golly, it works!  And it is good!  And easy!  And cheap!  I like to strain mine in a colander lined with paper towels (over a bowl, to catch the excess water), and after several hours of draining it is as thick as Greek yogurt.  You can learn how to do it here.

Coincidentally, my other discovery involves another favorite breakfast food.  I am a big fan of steel cut oats.  They make good ole' Quaker old-fashioned oats run and hide in shame.  But I can never get them cooked just right (and by just right, I mean like at Cafe Eclectic, where boring old oats make you swoon and groan and sound like an Herbal Essences commercial).  Mine are always too chewy or goopy or crunchy, all of which are disappointing after the 30 minute cook time, which is really far too long to wait on breakfast anyhow.

Enter the crock pot.  After googling "Cooking Steel Cut Oats in Crock Pot," I turned up this method for using your crock pot as a double boiler of sorts, putting your oats and cooking liquid in a smaller bowl and then filling the surrounding crock with water.  Left to hang out overnight, the next morning found all three of us devouring the best bowl of steel cut oats I had ever produced.  Creamy yet firm, without being crunchy in the least.  Just perfect, really.

On a simpler note, this hot summer weather has found me busting out the crock pot for some basic cooking tasks that keep me from turning on the oven or steaming up the house with the stove top.  I've been throwing frozen chicken breasts in there with some water in the morning and then shredding it for chicken salad and other meals that require cooked chicken.  And contrary to my "cooking it down to smithereens" disgust, I've actually liked how the slow-cooker gets the chicken to a point where it easily shreds into perfect chicken salad-sized pieces.

So whether you're one of those who just adores your crock-pot and uses it every night of the week, or you've got some baggage in your relationship with the ole' CP like I do, rekindle your romance with these new tricks!  If you've got any other favorite uses for your slow cooker, leave them in the comments!