Slow cooker update

One should not put water into the slow cooker's base. Who knew there were HOLES????

Good thing I didn't pour in much. I poured in just a bit, and had turned around to grab a rag, and...OH HELLO dirty water on my table and floor!

Luckily that little bit of super hot water was enough to loosen up what was stuck/burnt on the bottom. A rag with some dish soap helped break up the rest of the grease and burnt on bits.

I'm still shaking my head at the holes. Really, I had no idea. It's not like you could SEE them with all of the burnt on stuff at the bottom of the cooker.

By the way, this was my mother's idea. She said, "just put some hot water in there, with some baking soda, like you do with a pan that's got stuff stuck to it." Tomorrow, I plan on letting her know that the slow cooker has holes in the base...just in case she decides to take her own advice. ;-)

In the meantime, we've been cooking for Thanksgiving tonight. We're going to my parents' house, and will be joined by my brother and Turtle's family (his dad, brother, and grandmother).

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love that it's all about food and family and just a good time. There's no deciding which church to attend, which Mass/Liturgy, how the food will get cooked while at church, etc. (Yes, I'm Catholic and attend church weekly, but it does get HARD when you have to juggle hosting or visiting with religious services!) There aren't any presents, there isn't any build up and craziness. It's just a day to reflect and enjoy.

I made this, which is still in the oven: Gourmet Sweet Potato Classic.

I didn't take the picture, I stole it from Allrecipes.com. At least I credited it!

It's so good; it's like dessert at dinner. We've made it a few times now, and everyone loves it. This year, I doubled the recipe because when we made it last Christmas, it was devoured. I love leftovers--it's one of my favorite parts of Thanksgiving, so I would love to have some of this all weekend long! Thank you, Turtle, for finding this when you did.


Turtle made this, which is already done: Cranberry Conserve.

This isn't our picture, either. It's from FoodNetwork.com, where the recipe is from.

But it's from THIS GUY. How could it be bad!?

Don't worry, it's delicious. It puts any other cranberry to shame. The cranberries we used came from the Mother Land (Cape Cod) from my aunt who lives there. You can't get more authentic than that, especially at Thanksgiving. We also made double the recipe of this. And, tonight, we discovered that a little bit is quite good on ice cream. Just in case you'd like to use it elsewhere.

Ugh, now it's time to clean up the kitchen. This should be interesting.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!