PractiGal: What a crock! The Carnival of the Recipes

Ahh, the crock-pot! The slow-cooker.... My dear friend. Old faithful. Is there anything better on a busy day than coming home to a delicious meal that's been cooking for hours? OK, so there's always take-out, but we're talking home-cooked meals here... And mmmmm! The aroma!

For this week's carnival, I sent out an all-call for favorite crock-pot recipes, and I received many delicious responses. Thank you all! There are some non-crock-pot recipes in the bunch too, so if you don't have a slow-cooker, don't go anywhere!

Let's get started...

Breakfast

Peggy at Blabber Heads presents a divine Crock-pot Breakfast with eggs, hash browns, cheese,... Who's bringing the orange juice? And what time should we be there, Peggy?

Appetizers

Why not start your meal with Carmelized Onion Crostini? This recipe is presented by tricale - the wheat / rye guy.

Potatoes O'Brien is the most requested recipe at Maureen of Trinity Prep School's church potluck dinners. How can you go wrong with that kind of testimonial?

Main meal

Atten-tion! OK, at ease. From The General at BBQ General, we have a recipe for Crock Pot Hash. A South Carolina delicacy. Excuse me while I wipe the drool from my keyboard. YUM! And I'm not just saying that because it's from The General.

Thelly the Storylady at Chicken Recipes provides a recipe for Crockpot Lemonade Chicken. I don't know about you, but I looove lemon chicken, and I bet this has the same zip, with nice tender slow-cooked chicken.

David at Third World County submits a quick and easy potroast recipe -- what could be easier? & more delicious?

From Deborah at Eat Your History, Southwestern Pulled Brisket Sandwiches - Slow Cooker Style. Another Mmmmmm please? Also, is anyone interested in buying a Carnival of Recipes cookbook? Deborah would like to talk about this!

In the Headlights presents Pulled Pork Sandwiches. It's a good thing I ate dinner before pulling this together -- these recipes are amazing.

Shawn presents Spicy Crockpot Spaghetti Sauce at Everything and Nothing.

From the Slow-Cooker Recipes blog, we have 6-Hour Chicken Stew. And hey, look around here! This blog is dedicated to slow-cooker recipes. How cool is that?

Look around at World Famous Recipes, and check out Crockpot Beef and Gravy.

Check out this potroast recipe from the Ramblings of Silver Blue. This recipe calls for 3 cups of red wine - sounds interesting & different!

If chili's your thing, The Swanky Conservative offers Crockpot Chili. This recipe must be a keeper -- It won in a cook-off!

Venomous Kate has posted her recipe for Slow-Cooker Chicken with Olives.

Dubious Wonder presents Working Girl's Roast. She mentions that this is enough for "4-6 normal people or 3 teenage boys. " I'm guessing that my hubby and toddler son could polish this off -- I'm going to need a couple more crockpots before long!

Here's one with a twist: "Chicken n' Dumplings" from Taleena at Sun Comprehending Glass, actually contains no chicken. Maybe you can throw in your own mystery meat? Or turkey drums, as the recipe suggests. Sounds delish. Chicken or not!

Julie at Paging Polly Prissypants submits this recipe:

      Amazing Pork Roast for the slow-cooker

         1 (2-3 pound) pork tenderloin or roast
         1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix
         1 cup water
         3/4 cup red wine
         3 tablespoons minced garlic
         2 tablespoons soy sauce (I prefer the low-salt variety)
         1 tablespoon worchestershire sauce
         freshly ground black pepper to taste

Place pork roast in slow cooker with the contents of the soup packet. Pour water, wine, soy sauce, and Worchestershire sauce over the top, turning the pork to coat. Carefully spread garlic over the pork, leaving as much on top of the roast during cooking as possible. Sprinkle with pepper, cover, and cook on low setting for 4-6 hours, depending on size of roast. Serve with cooking liquid on the side as au jus. Great with garlic mashed potatoes!

And, here's an incredibly easy recipe for crockpot BBQ chicken, from yours truly.

Desserts

From Bill at Recipes Recipe, we have this submission for Crockpot Apple Caramel Dessert. Wow. I can smell this one cooking now -- ahhh!

Keewee at keewee'scorner presents Kahlua bread pudding OK, wow -- again. Now that just screams decadence.

Silver Blue rambled on with a dessert recipe, along with the earlier one for potroast. I think I'd be tempted to go straight to dessert for Chocolate BrowniePudding Cake (Slow Cooker Style). Brownie mix, peanut butter, chocolate chips... Is this even legal??

Slow-cooking odds & ends:

Kim at My Life in a Shoe talks about using an electric roaster to feed a large group.

Have a look: Crock pot tips -- do's and don'ts

And visit Rival's Crock-pot site for plenty of recipes!

Finally, I'll admit that I had no clue that people did things like this with crock-pots. Before you know it, we'll need to show ID to buy a crock-pot. (Thanks, Dude.) El Capitan says that this is a real recipe for crockpot-cooked meatballs, and I'll bet it does go well with boozin' -- so, if that's your thing, have a ball! or two or four...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are a few recipes that don't require a crockpot:

Looking for a tasty side dish? Check out the recipe for Grilled Sweet Onion and Tomato Salad provided at Laura Rebecca's Kitchen. I'm in for anything with grilled sweet onions.

From The Headmistress and Zookeeper at The Common Room comes a wonderful recipe for Empanadas. The pockets are made from scratch and sound absolutely delicious and easy. I can practically smell them from here!

Sandy at Foodies Across Borders presents Quick Chicken Roll-ups . With only 3 ingredients, this one sounds super easy!

Three healthy recipes from Joel Fuhrman M.D.'s site: Beans and Greens, Squash Fantasia, and Pita Apple Bake

Adam presents Smoked Pork Loin Draped in Bacon posted at Men in Aprons

NerdMom presents Nerd Family: A Garden Party! posted at Nerd Family.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In miscellaneous news:

Muse from me-ander has a plea regarding a brown sugar crisis. Can anyone help her?

Interested in discount membership in the clean plate club? Visit Wenchypoo.

Want to see past Carnivals? Visit Beth, at She Who Will Be Obeyed -- the creator of the Carnival of the Recipes. Thank you to Beth & everyone who keeps it going!

Thanks for reading! Bon appetit!

Interested in submitting a recipe link for a future carnival? Or hosting? Send a note to recipe.carnival at gmail dot com.