Call and Snow = Crockpot Cooking

Mel is on call this weekend meaning when he is home to eat all weekend is very, very unpredictable. What's more they are saying there's a 50% chance of a lot of snow come Sunday. Thus I'm making food that will lead to leftovers. At least I hope it will.

Today's crockpot recipe comes from A Year of Slow Cooking. It's Peperoncini Beef Sandwiches.

Here's the ingredients, minus the cheese, mozzarella, and rolls.

And there it is in the crockpot.

And after eight hours you get these components,

which I put on a hoagie roll with mozzarella and into the oven to melt the cheese.

Delicious, but tricky to reheat without drying out the meat.

Duck, It's What's For Dinner

My son Sam has been craving some duck. He has a vague memory of liking it in the past, but it's been a number of years since Mel, our primary source of duck, has gone hunting. But over Christmas our nephew Matthew went hunting and gave me some breasts.

I soaked them for 8 or so hours in lime juice, then dipped them in melted butter and grilled them over high heat for 6 minutes. I think the lime was a little overpowering, perhaps because I used Persian limes. But then duck is never my favorite, and at least they didn't taste gamey. I served the duck with roasted red potatoes and roasted asparagus (only 1 dirty pan!)

A final dinner note. I served this the Thursday before the BCS Championship game pitting my beloved Auburn Tigers against the Oregon Ducks. Thus I named the duck I ate LaMichael James, Sam's was Darron "Loser" Thomas, (he insisted on the Loser nomenclature), and Mel's Casey Matthews. Hopefully Auburn will eat up the Ducks just like we did.

Meanwhile

So, since the infamous cookbook has failed to yield a dinner meal, at least tonight, here's what I'm cooking and serving.

Chicken with Lemon

Braised Greens with Tomatoes and 

Herbed Lemon Orzo

I made the greens for New Years and they were delicious! I used regular chard that time, I'm using rainbow chard this time. I'm also sure I'll have to cook the chicken longer because I bought chicken breast halves and whole legs rather than cutting up (or having someone cut up) a whole chicken.

Post Mortem -- the chicken was very moist and cooked through with 5 extra minutes on the heat and 5 off. But it was a little bland. I also wish the chicken pieces had been much smaller. Guess I'll cut up the chicken next time. I liked the orzo, especially when I topped it with the cooking juices from the chicken. And the greens, while not as amazing as when I cooked them New Year's was good. I think the difference in part was that I used White Wine Vinegar instead of White Vinegar. I think the basic white vinegar added more zing.