Outdoor Kitchen Station

Over the last few years, I've posted a number of times about how I like to cook on our screened porch during the worst of the hot summer weather.  It just seems wrong to cook inside.  My favorite outdoor cooking tool is a crock pot.  I now have a small collection of them in different sizes.  I continue to fine tune my system and this year's big improvement is a "new" cooking outdoor station.

I found a vintage metal desk in a shade of blue I have a hard time resisting.  It was love at first sight.

Since it's metal, I feel very comfortable turning it into a mini kitchen and having things cook on it.

There are two empty cubbies where I suppose drawers used to be.  Those hold two very colorful cutting boards and a surge protector.  I will likely figure out better uses for these spots.  Pot holders would be nice.

I made a simple, no-fuss curtain out of fabric left over from a previous project.  Clip on rings hang from a tension shower rod that is pretty much out of sight.

Most importantly, all my crock pots are stored behind the curtain.  Note that the metal cabinet is a bit chippy.  Mostly, I love the chippy-ness, but it's a bit too rough even for me where the crock pots are stored.  That will get an upgrade of some sort down the road.

The geranium on top looks pretty and I'd love to say that whenever my station isn't in use, I have it fully decorated.  Unfortunately, that's not true.  I borrowed the geranium and the bird from other spots on the porch just for the photos.  When I put them back, it just wasn't the same.  Hmmmm.  I guess I need to do a bit of rearranging.

This post is linked to Funky Junk Interior's SNS #142!

Potatoes in a Crock Pot

We've already had a number of 90 degree days in Georgia.  The forecast shows more are coming this week.  The idea of cooking a meal (and heating up the kitchen) seems insane.  On the flip side, I've been trying hard to do more "from scratch" cooking.  It's time for another outdoor kitchen.  This year, I am determined to do most of my cooking in crock pots.

My biggest source of inspiration is Stephanie from A Year of Slow Cooking.  She cooked something in a crock pot every day for a year.  During that year, she mastered all sorts of recipes and crock pot techniques.  I don't stop there.  Whenever I'm converting a recipe over, I do a bit of searching on Google to find out other suggestions.

Potatoes are so easy to cook in a crock pot.

To make baked potatoes (sweet or white), just wash the potatoes and put them in the crock pot.  Don't dry them off.  There's no need to add water.  Cook them on high for 3 to 5 hours or on low for 6 to 10 hours.  Crock pots vary and  potato sizes vary so times vary, too.  It seems like clean up would be awful, especially with sweet potatoes.  Nope.  It was a breeze.  Lots of people wrap the potatoes in foil.  The recipes I read about didn't call for wrapping so I didn't.  They were fine.  I'll try the foil method soon to see if there's a big difference.  I hope there's not.

The next potato recipe I decided to try were mashed potatoes which my husband loves.  There are loads of recipes for those in a crock pot.

The recipe I intended to use is shown below , but I never finished the recipe. I only made it through step 3. I never mashed them.  Dear hubby tried the potatoes before they were mashed and declared them the best he'd had.  I loved them because not only were they delicious - they were also so easy to make.

Wow - that looks like a TON of butter, but I used less than called for.

Slow Cooker Mashed Potatoes

(I'm so sorry, but I can't remember my source)

• 5 lbs sierra gold potatoes or red potatoes, diced with peel
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup butter, cut into chunks
• 1 tablespoon salt, plus
• ¾  teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 1/3  cups milk, warmed

1. Place the potatoes, water, and butter into a slow cooker.
2. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Cover, and cook on High for 4 hours.
4. Do not remove the excess water from slow cooker. This adds to the creamy texture.
5. Mash potatoes with a masher or electric beater, adding the desired amount of warm milk to achieve a creamy consistency.
6. Keep warm on low until serving.
7. Potatoes keep consistency for a couple of hours after mashing. Just keep the lid on the slow cooker and serve directly from there.

The Best Chicken Noodle Soup EVER!!!!

My sister-in-law, Linda, passed this recipe along to me.  It is a keeper... in fact, this one is going to be a favorite! I have tried to make homemade chicken noodle soups before.  The last time, it seemed a bit bland - much more trouble than it was worth.  But not this one!  OH. MY. GOSH! 

Linda cooked it a few days ago for her son, Daniel, and (almost) daughter-in-law, Denise (we have 3 Denise's in the family - none related by blood).   The almost DIL was under the weather and Linda made it for her.  Linda said she got the recipe from her friend and previous co-worker, Gwen.  Gwen got it from the magazine, Taste of Home.  I looked on the Taste of Home site and saw several recipes for Chicken Noodle Soup. None were like this one.  Most looked similar to the one I had that was so bland. I looked on other recipe sites with no luck - this one doesn't seem to be out there.  And this one is surely the best of all!


Linda says this is a "recipe that can be adjusted without fear of failure".  I did do some adjusting according to what I had on hand.  So did Linda.  My modifications and comments are in red.


1-2 TBS butter/margarine
1 large onion,chopped - I omitted this
3 cups chopped cooked chicken
3  14 1/2 oz cans chicken broth - I used one container of Imagine organic broth
1 can cream of mushroom soup,undiluted - I used Pacific organic cream of mushroom soup
1 can cream of chicken soup,undiluted - I used Pacific organic cream of chicken soup
8 ounce pkg spaghetti broken into 1" pieces - I started with approx 8 oz, but added more later in the cooking at my hubby's request.  I ended up using the whole pkg - 14oz, which was probably a little too much.  If you add too much, you'll need to add more liquid!
7 celery ribs, diced
6 med carrots, diced - I used a pkg of shredded carrots
2 cups milk  - From Linda: I think any milk you have on hand would be fine. I happened to have a can of evaporated milk and used that with a little of my regular milk added to bring it up to 2 cups. - I used 1 cup of almond milk and 1 cup of heavy whipping cream left over from a Christmas recipe 

STOVETOP METHOD:
Melt butter over medium heat, add onion and saute until tender.  Stir in chicken and the rest of ingredients. Simmer. It's done when celery and noodles are ready.

CROCKPOT METHOD: 
Linda cooked hers in the crock pot and I did, too.  I love putting something on in the morning when I have plenty of energy. 
Melt butter over medium heat,add onion and saute until tender.  Put everything in the crockpot.  Cook on low. It's done when carrots, celery, and noodles are ready. I had mine ready in about 4 hours. I cooked it part of the time on high and most of the time on low.  The carrots were the last thing to get done.

As you can see, there are lots of things you can change to suit your tastes.  

One thing is a must - use some kind of milk.  The recipes that use only water are too bland.  If you have an issue with dairy, use a milk substitute - I cook with Almond milk all the time and it always tastes great.  Having the whipping cream on hand was a fluke.  I buy that maybe once a year.  I was happy to be able to use up what I had left.


The noodles could easily be changed to suit you, as well.  You might prefer thicker noodles.  And you decide how much to use based on whether you like your soups thick or thin.  While I was searching for similar recipes, I saw several that included homemade noodles.  That would be fun to try  - one day when there's not so much on my To-Do list. 

I didn't think to take photos til after everything was done and we had finished eating.  My pictures just don't do it justice. In fact, they are so bad that my computer crashed while trying to upload them.  So be warned.

 Truly, the recipe is soupier than this looks, even though I did use too many noodles.

I hope these unappetizing pictures don't keep you from trying this recipe.  It really is divine!  Oh, and I almost forgot - after it's been cooking a little while, it smells wonderful.  

Check out my RECIPES page for more of my favorites!

Be sure to check out   the latest RE- Party!

We RE-do, RE-decorate, RE-organize, RE-pair,  RE-upholster,     
RE-member, RE-finish, RE-purpose, and of course, we love to RE-lax!   

This party celebrates ALL the RE-'s in our lives!  

I'm linking this post with  -

• Strut Your Stuff Thursday at Somewhat Simple 
• Show Off Your Stuff at Fireflies and Jelly Beans
• Favorite Things Friday at A Few of My Favorite Things
• Fab Friday at Frugal and Fabulous Design
• It's a HodgePodge Friday at It's a HodgePodge Life 
• What I Made This Week... or This Month... or Last Month at Simply Designing   
• I'm Lovin' It Fridays at Tidy Mom 
• Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
• Inspiration Friday at  Southern in My Heart
• Saturday Nite Special at Funky Junk Interiors
• Favorite Things Saturday at Bargain Hunting with Laurie   
• Homemaker Monday at 11th Heaven  
• Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Designs
• Creative Share Wednesday at Trendy Treehouse

Something Smells Wonderful!

One of my favorite things to do in the winter is to have a crock pot going with homemade potpourri. In the winter, with the house all closed up, the air just seems to be stale. I think I should have lived closer to the equator so I could have my house open all the time.

The best way to give the air a little lift, is with simmering potpourri. I cut up whatever fruit I have on hand - apples, oranges, grapefruit, lemons, lime... whatever. I throw in a stick of cinnamon, cloves and any other spices I am in the mood for. Then I just make sure that I add a little water from time to time. It sure does smell nice!

An Outdoor Kitchen

It's hot outside! Hot-lanta is living up to its nickname. We kept the air conditioning off as long as we could stand it. Now that it's on, I don't want to do anything to cause it to run more than it has to and that includes cooking. There are lots of things to try in the summer to avoid heating up the kitchen. Salads and cold meals. Cooking early or late when the temps are cooler. Here's one that's new for us - an outdoor kitchen of sorts. Here are the details on our first venture.

First, trip out to the garden. It's lookin' good, isn't it?
Over to the squash & zucchini section. There's plenty ready for us.

Gather the ingredients - squash, zucchini, a Vidalia onion (which must be used at every meal accordingly to Georgia law), 1/4 cup of water, and a few pats of butter.

Put it all together in the crock pot.
Take it out to the outdoor kitchen, which is set up on our porch.
Now, I have made plenty of things in the crock pot, but never a vegetable dish like this. I have always cooked squash on the stove or in the oven in the form of a casserole. I suspected the crock pot would work fine and a search online confirmed it. I cooked it for 2 and a half hours on low and it turned out perfect - not too crunchy, not too mushy. I have a feeling our outdoor kitchen will get a lot of use this summer!


By the way, there is a marvelous blog on crock pot cooking - A Year of Slow Cooking.