two myths that we believe until sometime in our twenties when we realize they aren't true:
1. a saturday night at home is lame, especially with regard to eating/drinking.
2. crock pots are for old ladies.
the sooner you stop believing these, the better!
tonight - a saturday - (gasp!) we're attending a screening of a friend's film. it's at 8:30 in our neighborhood. we went out to eat last night, and really shouldn't spend the money to go out again. (another myth: money is something that you can't run out of!) around 5pm, i look at my watch and realize that if i put spaghetti in the crock pot right now, it will be reaching its point of optimal deliciousness when we get home around 10:30 pm.
spaghetti on a saturday night? 10:30 pm?
here's why cooking on a weekend night is way better than working on a week night:
- you aren't tired. even if you're like, "man, i want some coffee!" tired, there's no way you're the kind of tired you'd be if you had been at work all day.
- if you enjoy cooking, doing so when you aren't doing it because you feel like you have to (aka you just got home from work and you're tired, hungry, and poor) is an incredibly freeing feeling that you'd be surprised how infrequently you experience
- you will spend more money going out on a weekend night than you will a week night. i promise. you'll stay out later, you'll drink more, you'll eat less healthy things... it's just what you'll do.
okay fine, i'll eat at home on a saturday night. but a crock pot? i'm 25, an artist, and i live in brooklyn, man! i'm supposed to be cool!
here's why crock pots are not only cool, they're awesome:
- they do the work for you. while you're out at work, doing some job that doesn't feed your passion (you're twenty-something, right?) the flavors of your food are slowly and seamlessly melding together to create a wonderful meal for you to come home to.
- you can use cheaper meats and cheaper ingredients if you slow cook
- you can make a shit ton of soup, chili, sausage and peppers, etc. etc. etc. that can easily feed an entire herd of hungry friends or be your lunch for weeks to come
so. saturday night + crock pot + spaghetti. here's my recipe for what i'll call: saturday crock spaghetti.
ingredients:
- two jars of bullshit spaghetti sauce - i bought francisco rinaldi because all of the bottles of my fav sauce, ragu flavored with meat, were expired at the store i was shopping in (use by 7/3/10, the bottle read!)
- one green pepper (in my case, a bit of it was missing because i used it in some other dinner some other night this week. so, 8/10 of a green pepper)
- garlic, garlic, garlic. three cloves minced, three cloves roasted
- a beer (to drink while cooking)
- two shakes garlic powder
- one shake dried parsley
- two shakes crushed red pepper
steps:
if your hamburger meat is frozen, that's fine. take it out and stick it in the microwave and let it defrost while you prepare the other ingredients. if it's not frozen, take it out of the fridge while you prepare everything. beef cooks better when it's heating from room temperature.
in a pan, heat some olive oil. i like to use garlic infused olive oil when spaghetti is involved because i like my spaghetti to be high on garlic, but any olive oil will do.
while the oil is heating up, cut your two onions into rings. throw them in the pan when they're cut - if the oil is heated enough, whatever. make sure the oil coats the onion rings and let the pan continue to heat. they'll cook.
now chop up your pepper, and add it to the pan. you may need to add a bit more olive oil so all the veggies are covered -- use your discretion.
mince at least four cloves of garlic, and add them to the mix too. also: peel three garlic cloves and wrap them in foil. throw them in the oven at 400 degrees.
now cover your pan for a bit and let the vegetables mingle.
while that's going on, take out your crock pot.
when the vegetables have cooked about 10-15 minutes (the green peppers should be brighter than they once were, and the onions should be getting soft) transfer the vegetables into the crock pot. turn it on high but don't bother covering it yet.
now, throw your hamburger into in the same pan you cooked your veggies in. let it start to brown, and then add your spices to the meat: two shakes of garlic powder, a shake of dried parsley, and a shake or two of crushed red pepper.
cover and let that cook. not too long - you don't want to overcook it, just brown it.
as the meat browns, pull that foil with the three full cloves of now semi-roasted garlic out of the oven. unwrap them and throw them in the crock pot, whole.
go ahead and throw your two jars of bullshit spaghetti sauce into the crock pot. if there's any left in the jar, rather than using water, throw some olive oil in there, and swish it around. this gets more sauce out and also adds a little olive oil to your mix.
when your meat has browned, throw it into the crock pot.
cover and cook until you get home.
p.s. i have no idea if this recipe is good! i have to go get ready for the screening i have to go to, now!
p.p.s. i'll let you know how it comes out!
p.p.p.s. here's what my boyfriend and dog have been doing since before i started cooking!
i've been making my own salad dressing for years, but it's been olive oil and balsamic and some salt and pepper. not too exciting. i started to mix it up slightly when i found a combo pack of flavored olive oils (woaah!! slow down! that salad is TOO EXCITING!)... but now i can make legit dressings myself!
