Cooking by the seat of your pants...

...as blogged by a dear ifriend (http://jodianncates.com/weblog/) is one of those things that has saved my sorry ass many times over the years. Even if my girls did sometimes poke what was on their plate with a fork and ask "What was this when it was alive?!" Working full time and having 2 growing kids and a diabetic husband to feed called for some creative cookery...and not a whole lot of time to get it done sometimes.

I learned to cook from my Mom, and she grew up on a farm in Minnesota...so there were a lot of plain "meat and potatoes" meals, but I also remember that she went to county extension service classes and brought home recipes for Pennsylvania Dutch cookery among many others. She also went to the county fair every year and picked up every recipe she could from all the "associations" represented there.

Dad wasn't thrilled about any variation from the regular fare, but us kids (me, 1 brother and 1 sister, plus various foster kids over the years) looked forward to some of the new and interesting offerings. We had chickens and ducks for eggs, plus the occasional stew hen (our ducks ran away from home, to live with someone else, LOL)...and we also raised goats for a while...they cleaned up all the blackberries around the property, then we ate them! I was heartbroken when they slaughtered them...they were my FRIENDS! They were, however, very tasty...sigh...even now I'm conflicted...

I don't think anyone could have been more excited than me when the CrockPot hit the market...what a concept! But Jeez! You had to plan ahead and have things ready to go into it first thing in the morning...and I'm not really a morning person...nor a planner-aheader...(see paragraph one)...but, when I DID plan ahead, we could have some great meals!

We currently have 2...one 6 quart, and one of those oblong ones for bigger roasts and such. I love, love, LOVE them! Soup, stew, beans, cheap cuts of beef or pork, chicken...yup, gotta love what it does. Between them and the microwave, it's SO much easier to put a good meal together...then I can spend all day playing on the interwebs and stuff, LOL!

One of my favorite dinners is a recipe Jen got from one of her friends, and then I "modified" it a couple of times. It's called Iowa Pork Steaks, and is found all over the web in numerous variations, usually baked in the oven.
But here's MY version:
 Brown some medium or thick cut boneless pork chops till they're nicely colored all over & set aside.
In the crockpot, mix 2 cans of Cream of Mushroom with Roasted Garlic Soup (I sometimes add about 1/2 a can of water), 1 packet of dry Onion Soup Mix, 2  good 'glugs' of Worcestershire Sauce and a cup or so of sour cream. Mix it all up together.
In the same pan you browned the chops, throw in some butter and a box or 2 of sliced mushrooms and cook them till they smell so good you want to eat them right NOW...pour them into the crockpot with the rest of the sauce and mix them in. Plop the chops into the pot, and try to make sure they're sunk into the 'gravy'. Spoon some over the tops if needed. Clap the lid on and cook for 6 to 7 hours on LOW. Serve up with some mashed potatoes or buttered noodles. OMNOMNOMNOM!!
This recipe also works extremely well with boneless skinless chicken breasts...but I leave out the Worcestershire and add some whole roasted garlic cloves (there's no such thing as too much garlic in our house).

I should probably also tell you that the seasoning of choice here is Morton's Nature's Seasons, I honestly don't know how I ever cooked without it! So...there you go...try it, you'll like it! Tomorrow I'll give you my recipe for 'Alicious Crocodile!