Orange Honey Tilapia

Wow! Has it really been a month since I've cooked something in the crock pot? Not quite (but almost)...but I've only been cooking things I've already made and blogged about. No need to bore you with those (although I do keep you updated with that on my Facebook page). But last night, I cooked another one of Stephanie O'Dea's fantastic fish recipes, the Orange Honey Tilapia. Yes, you can cook fish in the crock pot!

Corn Chowder

I've left my crock pot cook books on the shelf today, and am trying one of the hundreds of wonderful recipes that Stephanie O'Dea has published on her blog: Corn Chowder

If you haven't checked out her blog, do it! She has the most amazing recipes and I've got a ton to try in the coming weeks.

She did a much better job taking pictures of the finished product than I did. Honestly, my picture looked like a big pot of....something you wouldn't want to eat. But, it tasted good! The ingredients and directions are on her site (here's the link again) but basically its...frozen corn, onion, red pepper, carrots, potatoes, and chicken stock. That's it! I love that this is a chowder recipe without any milk or cream! We are trying to eat healthier - doctor's orders now - and my husband and I are both lactose intolerant, so this was a win-win!

I did take a couple pictures...

Of my ingredients:

And my ingredients all prepared to go in the pot:

Yes, this required the use of a small pan to pre-cook the onions. But I liked that anyway because I don't really like the taste of onions but know they add a good background flavor. And I don't have the Pampered Chef chopper Stephanie has...but I'm going to get one at my friend's upcoming PC party! Baby carrots are way easier to chop up by hand than big carrots though, so at least I didn't have to worry about cutting a finger off in the process. But if I can't have my very own sous chef...then I was tools and gadgets to make it easier!

Oh...couple other important notes...I used less ingredients than the original recipe. This is partly because I was fighting a head cold and my husband, bless his heart, did the grocery shopping for me. He did not check package sizes (less corn than the recipe called for). And he found the very smallest "small onion" possible. It worked out okay though. I had used my 4qt crock pot and ended up not being able to fit everything (only used 1.5 quarts of chicken stock). (Next time, I'd use the 6qt pot.) And when I blended it all up it was more of a puree consistency instead of a chowder. My husband didn't mind. He was excited he "didn't even have to chew". Next time, I would have liked it a little bit thicker.

We also used regular corn (not smoked, like Stephanie) and I ended up adding a little salt and pepper to mine. I think the smokiness would have added a nice flavor (no Trader Joe's in Houston though....moment of silence please).

My husband bought three different kinds of biscuit products to go along with this. We ended up using the canned biscuits which were yummy. I just couldn't see corn bread going with corn chowder. Too much corn at one time and all. But any bread would be good.

This was also my first time using the immersion blender I bought last week (just because I knew I wanted to try this recipe). I love that thing! I compared models for hours! (Okay, maybe only minutes, but it felt like hours because I kept going back and forth and back and forth.) I ended up with the Cuisinart CSB-76BC SmartStick 200-Watt Immersion Hand Blender, Brushed Chrome and am so far happy with the purchase. Let's see what else I can make with that! :-)

Yeah - I love having a home cooked meal waiting for me as soon as I'm done working. Especially after a VERY TIRING day like I had today. I would have easily gone out or grabbed a bowl of cereal rather than think of cooking something. But it was nice to have this "comfort" food waiting for me. Loving my crock pot!

My Crock Pot

So, I thought I should start by sharing which crock pot I have. This was on my wish list this past year for Christmas, and thanks to my in-laws, I am the proud owner of the  Hamilton Beach 33134 3-in-1 Slow Cooker with 2-, 4-, and 6-Quart Crocks.

What I love about it is that it came with 3 different size bowls - 2 qt, 4 qt and 6qt. As I'm starting to check out recipes, I've found that size matters. So, having the flexibility to use a smaller or larger bowl is great! One of the things I'm learning is that it is best to make sure the crock pot is at least 2/3 full. If it's filled less than that, it starts to burn. I don't know yet what happens if it's more than that (I don't think I should try and find out either). So, having the flexibility of different sizes without purchasing 3 different crock pots (and then finding a place to store them) is awesome!


And besides, the muted colors of the bowls look really cute. :-)