I think it's time to shake up the food blog routine. Recipe first, comments and criticism second.
Ingredients:
3 lbs. pork shoulder roast
1 packet onion soup mix
4 cups water (for soup mix)
3 cups diced potatoes
2 cups diced carrots
1-1/2 cups diced celery
1 medium onion, sliced
Mix onion soup packet and 4 cups water in crock pot. Add pork shoulder. Place vegetables around meat. Cover, set temperature and time according to your crock pot's directions, stir occasionally.
Slice pork and serve alongside vegetables.
What Went Right
This turned out to be a very tasty meal. The carrots and celery add vegetable goodness, and between the onions and the soup mix, there was a pleasant herbal savoriness to the broth.
What I Would Change
The visual appeal is a bit lacking. Everything is just a bit too pale. I might also consider adding some Italian seasoning or other herbs to add some more robust flavor.
What Went Wrong
You just can't trust crock pots, it seems. The one I used finished cooking almost twice as fast as I expected. Make sure you can trust your slow cooker to cook slowly all day! The meat was done long before the potatoes were softened, although that may be due in part to using red potatoes instead of russets.
Conclusion
It can be fun to grab whatever is on sale and try to make something new. I only measured my ingredients so I could report them here for analysis by other cooks. I had no recipe to follow, but it turned out mostly-OK anyway. I would welcome feedback in the comments so I can make it better next time!
Oooh, you just gave me a golden opportunity for my crockpot rant! My husband and I received a crockpot for a wedding present in 1983 and it lasted about 30 years. When I bought a replacement, I got frustrated because it cooked at such a high temperature, even on low. I replaced it with a different brand, but had the same issue. I finally purchased one from the same company that made the one we were given in 1983. Same problem: you can't cook anything on low for 10 hours like the recipes say to do, because it gets done in 4 hours.
Furthermore, the bottom of the crockpot is already pockmarked even though I never use metal utensils in it, and the letters for low, medium, and high began to come off the first time I wiped the outside with a damp cloth. THEY DON'T MAKE THINGS LIKE THEY USED TO!!!
Quite. I may need to scrounge through thrift stores for relic appliances at least as old as I am.
I agree!
Hint: use Hungarian paprika powder if you want to make cooked meat look more appealing. That trick always worked for me. I don't know where do you live, but if you want to be real fancy, check out your local farmers market (if you live in a large city, that is), sometimes they sell homemade paprika bought from individual Hungarian farmers and it has a better flavour that what you can buy at your store (Kotanyi is still good, though).
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