Crocket!

Things have been rough. Not the kind of rough that I should really complain about, but rough in terms of the critical work time to personal time ratio. With a schedule of 8am to 8:30pm (which means home by 9pm), our cooking has taken a beating. I never knew how much cooking calmed me down and how wonderfully relaxing it was to sit down to a warm dinner until the days started to get short and cold again. The problem is, no matter how much I planned, coming home so tired and so late doesn’t leave many options for dinner, let alone the complex dinners that I dream of.

Being that one of my New Year’s resolutions is to save more money, I decided that cooking and thus having leftovers instead of buying for lunch would have to be reintroduced into my life.

I had heard bits and pieces about the magical “crock pot”, both from those that look down on it as a source of evil fitting perfectly into the fast-paced lifestyle of lazy Americans to those that revere it by dedicating blogs and whole books to recipes that would bring out the best in the slow cooker. So while buying pillowcases that were actually more expensive than the pillows themselves (story for another time), I gave into temptation (oops) and bought myself a $30 crock-pot. It was love at first sight, or first slow cooking.

The first thing I made was a brisket that cooked overnight. I knew that brisket was one of the tougher meats to cook but would also be magical if cooked right, so I thought the challenge fitting for my new companion. I must admit I was SO excited I almost was worried I would wake up to check on the brisket.

In the morning, I trimmed the excess fat and let it rest in the fridge throughout the day. That night, it was indeed like magic had happened. The brisket was soft and flavorful and I had a nice meal that kept me warm in the midst of a snow-covered city. So, alas, now I have become a believer who also sings praises about the crock-pot on her blog.

Good thing: I’m glad that I was kindly reminded that 5lbs of meat might be too much so I switched down to 2.5lbs of brisket.

Bad thing: I’m out of brisket and wish I had more. To compensate, I do have a lot of brisket sauce that’s just waiting to be turned into something great.