CROCKPOT FREEDOM

If I were writing one of those "(insert subject) For Idiots" books about cooking, it would be a short story.

If you really are a cooking idiot, all you need is a crockpot. It doesn't matter too much what you throw in there, if you will just go away for a few hours, the crockpot contents will magically transform itself into something delicious.

I think you could throw any old piece of roadkill in the crockpot with some wine, garlic, and onions and still wind up with a tasty meal.

I have not tried that yet.
That doesn't mean it isn't true.

I am NOT a cooking idiot, but I do like the freedom a crockpot bestows upon the chef.

Chunk in the components and walk away.
Go to work, go fishing, go gardening, go photographing critters, go create the next GoPro Crittercam Rube Goldbergian device, go do P90X, ... go whatever ...

The crockpot will handle things while you are gone.
Love that.

So what did I do on my day off while the mixture of chuck roast, garlic, onions, kale, peppers, mushrooms, stock, seasonings, and cheap wine transformed itself?

I cleaned the Glock and caught up on some old school "paper" reading.  I plan to use that cover story as a Common Core "close read" activity when school starts again.

Maybe I can prevent a future "cat crazy" (that's YOU feral cat lovers) or get a few boys with BB guns to pause for a moment ...

The crockpot gave me lots of play time with Coquina and Bear.
The deer were in the yard at this point so they were entranced ... kind of like me watching Blue Planet.

While the crockpot filled the house with ever increasingly awesome smells, I felt free to wander down to the shrinking pond.
After staying nicely lubricated for the past 6 months, It has begun a rapid drawdown due to minimal rains.

The receding waters have exposed the mini-ponds I excavated in December of 2012. I did those for this very event. When a little water is spread over a wide area, the pond bottom, the large surface area just speeds up the evaporation process. I wanted to interrupt that by draining the last water into deeper "tanks".

My goal was that the deeper troughs that I dug into the then dry bottom would capture and hold water as a last resort for the pond critters, perhaps allowing them to make it through a droughty time.

These mini-ponds are crowded with minnow, tadpole, dragonfly nymphs, and other aquatic refugees right now.
The dike below and the shoreline is splattered with deer and coon tracks too.

This dike that separates one excavated chamber from the next was far underwater for months, but now I can walk across the pond like a pre-"Native" American immigrating from Asia across the Bering Sea.



Here is what I'm talking about. This photo is from a year ago, before the pond refilled thanks to TS Debbie. At this point, I still had a few troughs to do, but it does show the concept of the bottom troughs.

I'm calling this project a success at this point.


As for the crockpot contents, they were AWESOME served over brown rice.