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Hawaii Babies
PugTails3602
member
Crock Pot Question
PugTails3602
member
Is it okay to leave the crock pot on when you're not home or sleeping?
I've done it in the past and loved coming home with dinner ready. DH and I were talking about having pot roast for dinner one night and I said I'd bring out the crock pot, but he won't let me use it because "it is a fire hazard". I kind of feel like the whole beauty of having a crock pot is that you can set it not have to babysit it. He said we should never leave appliances on when we're not home...but we leave the rice cooker warmer, the water heater, refrigerator, etc. on. Is a crock pot any more dangerous?
Also, if I get the okay to use the crock pot, anyone have any favorite crock pot recipes?
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Re: Crock Pot Question
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
Hells yes! That's the beauty - and, to my mind, entire point - of a crock pot! Now that I'm at home I don't use it as often (maybe once a week) but when I was doing the single parent thing before we moved, I busted out that bad boy several times a week. There's nothing better than coming home at the end of a long, tiring day and having dinner ready!
I loooove this recipe - I've posted it before, but it's worth it again: Vegetarian Bean Curry.
It's not technically a crock pot recipe, but I discovered that you can dump everything in right before you leave for work, set it on low, and it's perfectly cooked 8-9 hours later.
I skip the onion sauteing step and just chuck the chopped onion in with everything else. I also like a little extra spices (but I tend to like my food very - maybe overly - flavorful), and sometimes put in extra beans, depending on my mood. And don't leave out the raisins! They sound weird, but they add a delicious contrasting sweetness to the dish and break down so much in the crock pot that you don't even know they're in it.
Dollop a little plain, unsweetened yogurt on each serving and have a side of naan bread - yum!
Thanks! That sounds delicious. Hubby says I can use the crock pot on the weekends when we are at home, so I'll give it a try. Maybe after a few times he'll be okay with it.
On a slightly related note -- thoughts on using the washer and/or dryer when not home? MH won't let me do this either, but these are all things I did when I was single. Am I just a wild, crazy risk-taker?!
For real? I have a shitton of laundry - if I couldn't put a load in the washer and dump a load in the dryer before I left the house, it would never get done! Why does he think it's more dangerous than - for example - the refrigerator being on? I'm genuinely curious, since I've never heard of anyone being this cautious about appliances before. Did he have a fire scare or something in the past?
I love that bean curry recipe Lisa posted and actually double the raisins
Miss A loves it too!
I think you obviously shouldn't leave the oven on while you are away but I don't see why you shouldn't use the washer/dryer? seems overly cautious to me.
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats
At first, I wasn't comfortable having it on when no one was home, so I used to cook it over night. But now we're used to it and it's so much easier to come home and have dinner hot and ready to go. Just make sure to clear away everything around it while it's on. I've had it boil over a little before, even when it wasn't filled to capacity (meats sometimes give off juices).
I'm not much of a recipe follower, so I love that you can just dump stuff into the crock pot and it so often comes out great. I like to do pot roast, veggie bean or split pea soup, spaghetti sauce, chili, shoyu chicken or chicken adobo, skinless whole chicken, sausage with potatoes and saurkraut, or corned beef brisket. My only problem is that I always run out of room and wish I could add more veggies/sides.
Maybe DH is feeling extra cautious now that you're homeowners. I feel like a lot of things change once you live somewhere that's YOURS, especially when you pay out your nose for it. ;-) Be sure to share any good recipes. I'd be happy cooking crock pot meals every day if I could!
Okay, thanks for making me feel better. MH is a little paranoid on a number of things in general, but some of it starts to rub off on me and I think I start being a worry wart. I think with the washer he is worried about flooding and with the dryer he is worried about a lint fire (though we clean the lint trap every time). Right now we just do laundry all day on the weekends. When I brought up the example of leaving the refrigerator running, he just said that's different because it's not something that makes things hot (or something to that degree). He even gets worried if I want to leave a light on while we are out at night. Sigh.
Part of it could be because we are home owners now, but even when we were renting, he was very set on certain things. Perhaps it is the way he was raised? I don't think he's personally had a fire scare, just the stuff you see on tv sometimes.
I would love to use a crock pot while we aren't home, especially since I'll be going back to work soon, but DH is super paranoid about these things, just like your DH. It all started when a family friend's house burned down because a fan was left running overnight while everyone was home. Now I don't know the exact circumstances (age of the home, if they were doing some dangerous things with their extension cords and surge protectors), but my ILs and DH are all super paranoid about stuff like this. They don't like to leave things like fans, cell phone chargers, laptops, air conditioners plugged in when they aren't home.
DH is getting less stringent. I'm now able to leave the dryer running while we're not home, although I know even this still makes him nervous. And we have a firefighter for our upstairs neighbor.
I'm going to talk to him again about the crockpot. I'd love to come home to a finished dinner!
Ooooooh yes! The crock pot is THE BEST way to make spaghetti sauce! (I also love it for chili, but it's pretty much the only way I make spaghetti sauce anymore.) It's especially useful if you like to add extra "hidden" veggies to your sauce like I do - I grate up a few zucchini, a couple of carrots, and sometimes an eggplant and put them in there at the start with the meat, tomatoes, etc. Because it all cooks down, by the time it's done there really aren't any identifiable veggie pieces left! My kids aren't picky about veggies at this point, but it's good to know I have this trick up my sleeve if I need it in the future!
I'm nervous about it and since I'm gone 10+ hours a day I don't rely on my crock pot much but we do use on the weekends for soups and stuff that I can portion out and freeze.
DH loves to make Chicago style Italian beef sandwiches.
I don't let my dryer run when I'm gone - natural gas makes me nervous. which is probably dumb since we have a gas heat pump and use to have a gas water heater which both run without control from us. And during cold snaps I leave the pilot lit on the gas fireplace b/c it has a neat remote and I like to know I can curl up on the couch and click on the fire.
But I do run the washer and dishwasher if I have to. My grandma gets really nervous about it and usually makes me turn everything off before I leave if she is there. DH doesn't care about anything and specifically starts the dryer before he leaves sometimes when he is in charge.
we've run everything - washer, dryer, dishwasher, crock pot - while we're out of the house. not often, but it happens. i don't think about it too much (though now i probably will!)
+1 to lisa's bean curry in the crock pot though - it's super yummy!
and i'd love to make spaghetti sauce in the crockpot - anyone want to share their recipe?
Oh, actually now that you mention it, I think MH did bring up the point that we have natural gas appliances, which makes he more worried that any kind of spark might start a fire. Growing up, we never had natural gas, so maybe that is the difference.
Ahhh...don't you miss those days when we were "wild and crazy" single women?! Although it is good to hear that MH is not the only super paranoid one
I've always made this stove top but look fwd to trying it in the crockpot soon!
1/2 cup minced onion
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 (28 ounce) can crushed tomatoes
2 (6 ounce) cans tomato paste
2 (6.5 ounce) cans canned tomato sauce
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons white sugar - optional (I have started omitting this b/c I don't want A eating much sugar and it's fine, although the sugar does help to counteract the acidity of the tomatoes)
1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil leaves
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds - very important for the flavor!
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tsp dried parsley, or 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
Jaime & Brent
Oahu, Hawaii | Sept. 9, 2005
My Food Blog - Good Eats 'n Sweet Treats