So every other Saturday night (Or Sunday morning), I make/bake something to take to game. (Every week I pretend to be a werewolf or a "kin" the non-werewolf members of the world. I'll explain later.) Generally it's baked goods. Cookies, cakes, pies, etc. I use it as a way to explore new ways of baking and my understanding of food. For isntance, if it's going to be 90* outside with a heat index of 105* you may want to put the blueberry pie in the freezer because any setting it may have done will be undone.
Last week, I made chex-mix. It owned. Completely and utterly. It owned because I made it the real way. Not with a microwave, but in the oven. It made my house almost unbearably hot but the results were worth it. I remember my mother in the wintertime making batches of these for...whatever and they were loaded with Worcestershire sauce and seasoned salt. You seasoned it each time you mixed the concoction on the cookie sheets.
Now, before I make anything, I like to research it. How easy is it, what are main themes within it, and how can I make it my own. What I discovered with this amazing world of technology is how practices that our parents and grandparents utilized are buried within the ideas that a company advertizes. I mean, I had to search various keywords to find the correct temperature for my oven for the chex-mix recipe. All because General Mills has decided that their way is the only way. I'm pretty sure that "their way" used to be with an oven at one point.
Most of my cooking is influenced by my mother and my grandmother. As is most people on this planet. And so, after making your mouth water for chex-mix, I will show you how I made "lil smokies"! Again, this is a recipe that I had to search for that wasn't influenced by corporate ingredients. It's quite easy and I put my own spin on it. (This is also my first attempt at including pictures)
First, you get a crock pot.
Second, you have your ingredients.
Third, you follow the recipe, which is as follows
1 14oz pack of little beef sausages (Store brands are just as good as "name" brands)
1C Ketchup
1C Bar-b-q Sauce
1C Brown Sugar
The sauces can be tailored to your tastes. For this batch I am using Honey Hickory Smoke BBQ sauce and Sweet Baby Ray's Vadalia Onion BBQ sauce. I recommend using 1 cup for the sauces as a guideline because that's a lot of sauce.
My final conversion was
3 14oz beef sausages
1C Ketchup
1C Honey Hickory Smoke BBQ Sauce
1C Sweet Vidalia Onion BBQ Sauce
1C Brown Sugar
As you can see, I am 2 cups short on ketchup and brown sugar and a cup short on BBQ sauce. I like sauce mind you. But I don't want my stuff drenched in it. And sauce is supposed to enhance flavors or add a small twist. Also, my crockpot isn't that big and I need to feed a lot of people.
Fourth, put all the ingredients in a crock pot and mix together. Pro Tip: Put in only some of the smokies (I used two packs) then put in the sauces and mix and then put the rest of the smokies in and stir again.
Fifth, turn it to low
Sixth, wait two hours and DON'T open it! Not even to stir!
My mom always said that if you open a crock pot before the dish is done cooking, you add a half an hour to the cooking time. I don't know if that's true or not... I have seen some other people say that too but it might have been a way to try and get us to NOT open it. The old "If you eat it now, you won't get any later" type of a deal.
And that's it! Pretty simple, huh? This took me, no joke, FIVE MINUTES to do. My alarm went off at 9am, I snoozed until 9:10, got down at 9:13, and put everything together. Including the pictures!
Now the dish will be done just before 11:30 and that's when I have to leave... so I get to transport it and hook it back up! But with crock pot dishes I think it's always a good idea to have it cooked fully or mostly before transport because then when you hook it up it's just a matter of keeping everything warm.
For those of you who are wanting the chex mix recipe here's what I do. Follow the recipe but turn the oven to 250, melt butter in a roasting pan, have several bowls (depending on how many batches you are going to make) mix in the butter, then sprinkle liberally with the onion and garlic powder, seasoned salt, and Worcestershire sauce. Lay out on a cookie sheet, sprinkle salt and sauce again, and bake for one hour. Every 15-20 minutes stir the mix and sprinkle more seasoned salt and worcestershire sauce. Of course you don't have to keep loading it up with sodium, but that's how my mom made it and that's how I'm going to make it. :)
Last week, I made chex-mix. It owned. Completely and utterly. It owned because I made it the real way. Not with a microwave, but in the oven. It made my house almost unbearably hot but the results were worth it. I remember my mother in the wintertime making batches of these for...whatever and they were loaded with Worcestershire sauce and seasoned salt. You seasoned it each time you mixed the concoction on the cookie sheets.
Now, before I make anything, I like to research it. How easy is it, what are main themes within it, and how can I make it my own. What I discovered with this amazing world of technology is how practices that our parents and grandparents utilized are buried within the ideas that a company advertizes. I mean, I had to search various keywords to find the correct temperature for my oven for the chex-mix recipe. All because General Mills has decided that their way is the only way. I'm pretty sure that "their way" used to be with an oven at one point.
Most of my cooking is influenced by my mother and my grandmother. As is most people on this planet. And so, after making your mouth water for chex-mix, I will show you how I made "lil smokies"! Again, this is a recipe that I had to search for that wasn't influenced by corporate ingredients. It's quite easy and I put my own spin on it. (This is also my first attempt at including pictures)
First, you get a crock pot.
Second, you have your ingredients.
Third, you follow the recipe, which is as follows
1 14oz pack of little beef sausages (Store brands are just as good as "name" brands)
1C Ketchup
1C Bar-b-q Sauce
1C Brown Sugar
The sauces can be tailored to your tastes. For this batch I am using Honey Hickory Smoke BBQ sauce and Sweet Baby Ray's Vadalia Onion BBQ sauce. I recommend using 1 cup for the sauces as a guideline because that's a lot of sauce.
My final conversion was3 14oz beef sausages
1C Ketchup
1C Honey Hickory Smoke BBQ Sauce
1C Sweet Vidalia Onion BBQ Sauce
1C Brown Sugar
As you can see, I am 2 cups short on ketchup and brown sugar and a cup short on BBQ sauce. I like sauce mind you. But I don't want my stuff drenched in it. And sauce is supposed to enhance flavors or add a small twist. Also, my crockpot isn't that big and I need to feed a lot of people.
Fourth, put all the ingredients in a crock pot and mix together. Pro Tip: Put in only some of the smokies (I used two packs) then put in the sauces and mix and then put the rest of the smokies in and stir again.
Fifth, turn it to low
Sixth, wait two hours and DON'T open it! Not even to stir!
My mom always said that if you open a crock pot before the dish is done cooking, you add a half an hour to the cooking time. I don't know if that's true or not... I have seen some other people say that too but it might have been a way to try and get us to NOT open it. The old "If you eat it now, you won't get any later" type of a deal.
And that's it! Pretty simple, huh? This took me, no joke, FIVE MINUTES to do. My alarm went off at 9am, I snoozed until 9:10, got down at 9:13, and put everything together. Including the pictures!
Now the dish will be done just before 11:30 and that's when I have to leave... so I get to transport it and hook it back up! But with crock pot dishes I think it's always a good idea to have it cooked fully or mostly before transport because then when you hook it up it's just a matter of keeping everything warm.
For those of you who are wanting the chex mix recipe here's what I do. Follow the recipe but turn the oven to 250, melt butter in a roasting pan, have several bowls (depending on how many batches you are going to make) mix in the butter, then sprinkle liberally with the onion and garlic powder, seasoned salt, and Worcestershire sauce. Lay out on a cookie sheet, sprinkle salt and sauce again, and bake for one hour. Every 15-20 minutes stir the mix and sprinkle more seasoned salt and worcestershire sauce. Of course you don't have to keep loading it up with sodium, but that's how my mom made it and that's how I'm going to make it. :)
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