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Life's A Crock (Pot), And Then You Blog

Photo from Stephanie O'Dea

Stephanie O'Dea resolved this year to cook a meal every day in her 4-quart crockpot and write about the experience online.

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By JEFF HOUCK

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 22, 2008

Stephanie O'Dea got her first Rival Crock-Pot from her mother when she started college. Living at home with two working parents while going to San Francisco State, O'Dea would put a roast on in the morning or make stew before heading to school.

"I have some vanity issues and wasn't interested in gaining the 'Freshman 15,'" she jokes.

After she got married nine years ago, O'Dea used the slow cooker to stretch a few meals each week. It was a way that she and husband Adam could save money to buy a house in the San Francisco area. O'Dea liked the idea of making a big batch of beans or stew a couple of times a week, then using those dishes to make other meals.

It wasn't until December that the appliance became an integral part of her life. After taking a job at the online community of BlogHer, O'Dea decided to start writing her own blog. Her idea: to commit to a New Year's resolution of cooking a meal every day in her 4-quart Crock-Pot and writing about the experience online.

The result is A Year of Crockpotting ( www.crockpot365.blogspot.com). Although she has cooked only through day No. 205, O'Dea has become a hit with online food lovers and garnered national attention. This month, she was featured on Rachael Ray's daytime TV show.

"I'm not fancy," O'Dea says. "I'm not gourmet. I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't cook. I crockpot."

Each of the recipes on her site is documented with photos that show the final dish. And each of the recipes is gluten-free, since the couple's 3-year-old daughter has celiac disease. Even the homemade Play-Doh O'Dea cooks in the Crock-Pot - yes, Play-Doh is also free of wheat flour.

"I didn't start experimenting until I had children and realized I couldn't go to the store as often as I wanted," she says. "I had to just open cans and see what happened."

This year's project spurred her to try baking in the cooker - and it worked great. Cooking fish in foil packets placed inside the pot sealed in the juices very well. Her falafels tasted surprisingly tasty. And even the cheesecake and crème brûlee attempts came out delicious.

One recipe that failed: bacon-wrapped scallops. A self-described penny pincher, O'Dea shot $60 trying to make it work.

"I found that people on the Internet don't seem to care if you fail, as long as you're honest," she says. "They're so sweet when things don't work out. They're like, 'Don't give up; the next recipe will be good next time.'"

The daily nature of the blog sometimes hits a snag. A camping trip recently forced O'Dea to cook ahead, but a vacation at Yosemite National Park went well, partly because she brought the cooker. (When your child has a food allergy, bringing your own cookware helps a great deal, she says.)

"I think every three or four days I think, 'Gosh, what did you get yourself into?'" she says. "Then I'll click on an e-mail that says, 'You changed my life!' and I think, well, Glenda in Kansas needs me to keep going. So I'm going to, just for her."

DAY 158: CROCKPOT CHOCOLATE FRITO CANDY

We went on a road trip over the weekend, and road trips mean Fritos. When we were first diagnosed with celiac, we were pleased to discover that good ol' Fritos were gluten free. It's so nice to know that they are there - at every gas station and in every vending machine.

When we returned home, I still had half a bag left, and they were awfully squished after being in the back seat for two days. The best thing to do with crushed Fritos? Make candy! I saw this recipe posted on a site, and knew we had to make it. We just had to.

The verdict: Whoa, mama! Man, these are amazing and wonderful and so scary in that they are so good you want to take them all into a corner of the garage and eat them all by yourself.

Amazing. You must make them.

2 cups Fritos

2 cups pretzels

1 stick of butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons peanut butter (optional if you have allergies)

12-ounce bag of chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped peanuts (optional - we used honey roasted because that's what we had)

Put the Fritos and the pretzels in a large Ziploc and smash until crumby. Set aside.

Line a 9-by-13-inch pan or cookie sheet with foil or parchment paper. Set that aside, too.

Put the butter, brown sugar, peanut butter and chocolate chips into your crockpot and set on high for 1 to 2 hours, or until everything is really melty and mixes well. (It took 1 hour, 15 minutes to melt nicely for me in a 6-quart Smart Pot.

Stir in your pretzel and Frito pieces. Using oven mitts, dump the hot candy out onto your lined cookie sheet and spread out with a wooden spoon. Sprinkle the peanut pieces on top.

Put the pan in the refrigerator for about an hour, or until candy has set completely. Break into pieces.

DAY 123: CROCKPOT FRIED RICE.

It's day 1-2-3! Which is more amusing to me than it should be with no coffee in sight.

So let's just say that you've been using your crockpot every single day and your refrigerator has a million little plastic containers in it filled with meat and veggies and rice and quinoa. And your kids are a bit tired of eating "Mommy's leftovers!" for breakfast and lunch, so you need a way to disguise them. Because you can't throw away food because of the starving children thing and the global food shortage thing and you're Scottish.

You can use your leftovers to make fried rice. For reals. In the crockpot.

I know! It totally blew my mind, too.

2 cups leftover rice/quinoa

3 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 diced yellow onion

1 cup of whatever frozen or fresh vegetables you have on hand (I had a bit of asparagus, some carrots and peas.)

Leftover meat (I had leftover chicken and 3/4 of a cheeseburger patty from a restaurant.)

1 egg

Sesame seeds for garnish (optional)

Plop everything in there together. Mix it around, and cook on high for 2 to 3 hours, or on low for 3 to 4 hours. (You are only heating everything up and cooking the egg.)

DAY 23: CLEAN-OUT-YOUR-PANTRY MINESTRONE

It's raining again. Rain makes me want to eat soup.

Also, I kind of feel like I should eat like a rabbit for the next week or so to make up for the 181/2 platefuls of this I had yesterday.

This is an easy recipe - and one that can be thrown together in no time. I happened to have leftover roasted veggies in the fridge, but you can use frozen or fresh instead. I choose to not thaw frozen vegetables before putting them in the crockpot and leave them in for the entire cooking time. Some people don't like that, though, and thaw and stir in at the very end. Your choice.

This can definitely be assembled the night before for an easy morning plug-in.

2 cans of whatever kind of beans you like (drained)

1 can corn (and juice)

1 can tomatoes (and juice)

3 cups chicken broth (canned or "fresh")

Vegetables (I had leftover roasted broccoli, mushrooms, carrots and asparagus)

Salt and pepper to taste

Drain and rinse beans; add to crock. Add the juice and vegetables from the corn and tomato cans. Add the leftover vegetables, salt and pepper.

Cover with chicken broth. Unless you are vegetarian. Then I would imagine you'd not want to use chicken broth and opt for vegetable stock.

Cook on low for 8 hours or high for 4.

Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at (813) 259-7324 or jhouck@tampatrib.com.

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