Confessions: Holy Crock Pot!

Tonight we unwrapped a most dangerous wedding gift--our crock pot. We hadn't cooked anything in it before tonight, but after tonight we are surely addicted and will likely be using it for almost every meal from here on out. Plus, while the weather remains quite toasty, it saves us from having to heat up the house by turning on the oven and/or stove full blast. Question to the crock pot pros (see: Moms): Does running a crock pot do any serious damage to your electric bill? Because that's pretty much the only thing preventing us from using it every day....

Tonight/this morning I wanted to try something simple, and since we LOVE buffalo sauce in this house we decided to try a Pinterest recipe for slow-cooked Buffalo Chicken. It was the easiest thing ever, but James gave it an A++, which means a lot coming from such a picky eater. We did them sloppy joe style and piled it on some toasted burger buns, but boy was it delicious!! Also, as an aside, normally we use mild buffalo sauce for everything (because it's just that, mild), but when using buffalo in the crock pot it amplified it about 5 times more and we ended up going through over a half gallon of milk trying to cool our tongues during the meal!

This morning I put 6 [thawed] chicken breasts in the crock pot with 1 whole bottle of Frank's buffalo sauce. I also added 1 packet of dry ranch dressing mix. Placed the lid on top and let it cook the whole time I was at work.. anywhere from 7-9 hours on low heat was recommended so I gave it 8.

Once I got home (our house smelled delicious) I removed the chicken and shredded it on a cutting board, then dumped it back in the sauce and added a little bit of bleu cheese and 2 tbsp of butter. Then I let it cook for about an hour more until James came home from work.

I removed the buns from the oven where they were merely warming and I piled the marinated chicken on top. Armed with our milk glasses we dug in, and it was all gone in 10 minutes. I repeat, I got an A++ on this dish, and James said it was one of his top 2 we have ever made! It was so simple I couldn't believe it!

We are excited to try more "difficult" recipes and will definitely be putting this crock pot to good use in the [near] future...

We have been having friends over almost every other night for dinner these past two weeks and our menu is rapidly expanding. Besides buffalo chicken (which we did make in our traditional style), we've made lemon-garlic pasta, chicken parmesan, 7 cheese ravioli (okay, we didn't "make" these, Costco was a big help), and for my vegetarian friends I made tortellini and zucchini boats with tomato, garlic, and cheese. All of these dishes were delicious (or so we are told). We have also been dangerously experimenting with desserts and lets just say, our pants are feeling a little tight around here. Curse you, Pinterest desserts!!

My first stab at a vegetarian meal... I got two thumbs up!

Tis laundry week this week in the little Doskocil house, which means washing it on monday, folding it on tuesday, complaining about it on wednesday, and ironing it on thursday. I just really like to drag it out for masochism's sake. Kidding. I just don't have a whole day to devote to this type of thing! That is one thing that has changed exponentially since being married.... two or three times as much laundry as before (more towels, more sheets, more napkins, more clothes), and my husband wears dress shirts 3 or 4 nights a week! That's a lot of ironing....but I'm getting quicker at it ;]