Slow Cooker Sundays: Bacon, Chard, and Shallot Risotto

4 1/2 cups chicken broth

1 pound bacon, cut into 1 inch slices

2 large shallots, peeled and chopped

1 bunch rainbow chard, washed and coarsely chopped

1/2 cup dry apple cider

2 cups arborio rice

3/4 cup manchego cheese, grated

2 tbsp butter

In a medium pot, bring the broth to a simmer with the lid on, set aside and keep warm.

In a large pan, cook the bacon. Be careful not to burn it and transfer the pieces to the slow cooker.

Pour the majority of the bacon grease out of the pan, leaving only about 1 tbsp.

Add the chopped shallots and chard, cook until shallots are translucent and chard is soft.

Add the dry apple cider and stir until the cider has reduced by half.

Stir in the rice and cook until most of the cider has been absorbed.

Scrape the mixture into the slow cooker.

Add the hot broth and cover.

Set on high for 1 hour and 15 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes or so.

The risotto is done with the rice is soft and most of the liquid has been absorbed.

Stir in the 2 tbsp of butter and the cheese until melted.

Slow Cooker Sundays: Baby Back Pork Ribs

We bought some ribs during the week and had planned to make them on the grill this weekend, until we found out that a burn ban was in effect. So I did some quick research on the internet and put together a recipe to make them in our slow cooker.

They turned out quite good and reminded me a bit of the pre-cooked ribs that you can make in the oven, I think the brand is called Lloyds, very tender and very flavorful. We also unfortunately ate them all before we got a chance to take a picture...

2 tbsp olive oil
1 half rack of baby back pork ribs
1 bottle Bards Gluten Free Beer
1 1/2 bottles of Organicville Original BBQ Sauce
Additional BBQ sauce for dipping

Pour the beer and BBQ sauce into the slow cooker and whisk together.
Heat the olive oil in a skillet on the stove top at medium.
Cut the rack of ribs in half.
Quickly brown the ribs in the skillet and then place in the slow cooker.
Flip the ribs around, coating both sides with the beer and sauce mixture.
Cover and cook on high for 1 1/2 hours.
Continue to cook on low for another 3 hours.

The First Seattle Thanksgiving

Our first Thanksgiving in Seattle was wonderful!  The first turkey we've ever cooked was a success and we had Mary, Zeke's mom, in town visiting. We made pretty much all of the traditional dishes with just a few tweaks to them to fit with our tastes and my food issues, you can find all the recipes we made at my Gluten Free Travelette Blog.

The day before, we brined our turkey in a maple sage brine that we concocted.

We cooked up a pecan pie in a gluten free whole foods pie crust.

We also cooked up some eggnog which stayed cool in the fridge overnight for us to enjoy later in the evening on Thanksgiving.

The day of we got a nice fire going and had the house all cleaned out.

We got all of our recipes lined up and ready to go for the day.

The turkey ended up being done about 2 hours early, so we ended up pushing our whole dinner to more of a "linner". We set the turkey aside under tinfoil for awhile, so it stayed warm until it was time for Zeke to start carving. Which he did with excellent skill!

Our Thanksgiving spread, minus the turkey, of gluten free stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes with all the fixings, lingonberry, and gravy.

We had our table set up in the little breakfast nook we've got, with some hot mulled cider.

Slow Cooker Sundays: Bean and Potato Chili

This was fully experimental chili as I've been feeling a bit meated-out as of recent but they had a chili cook-off at my work which left me craving some chili and cornbread!

Perfect timing too as today was our first snow of the season here in Seattle!

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 large sweet onions, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup chili powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp ground ginger
2 cans kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 green bell peppers, chopped
2 large yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and chopped with skin on
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
3 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 bay leafs
1 tsp salt

Heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the garlic and onions.
Cook on medium low heat until translucent and softened.
Add the chili powder, paprika, cumin, allspice, cinnamon, coriander, oregano, and ginger.
Cook on low heat until fragrant, about 5 minutes.
Transfer the mixture into the slow cooker.
Add the crushed tomatoes, green peppers, potatoes, beans, chicken stock, apple cider vinegar, bay leafs, and salt.
Set time for 5 hours on high.

We'll be serving this tonight with the same cornbread recipe we made here along with honey butter.

Slow-Cooker Sundays: Black Bean Enchiladas

Thanks to one awesome groomsman, we are now the proud owners of a Cuisinart Slow-Cooker, and thus have decided to start a new tradition; Slow-Cooker Sundays!

This week we decided to make the Black Bean Enchilada recipe that I found posted on Apartment Therapy a while ago.

Since the recipe contained cheese we decided to use a couple of varieties of sheeps milk cheeses, a manchego, a gouda, and mitica. We also omitted the peppers, because I just don't like cooked peppers.

Overall, it was a super easy recipe to put together and just forget about for about 4 hours.  However, the enchiladas broke up a lot, so it was hard to actually pull out one individual enchilada at a time. But it still tasted great.  I think we might try this recipe again but next time include some shredded chicken.