Pork shoulder (aka pork butt, aka pork blade shoulder) is another good slow-cook meat.

And then there's always osdo bucco.

I like to throw in a whole chicken, some carrots, onion, garlic, celery, and broth. I cook the chicken on low for about 6-8 hours, take it out, let it cool a bit, pull the meat off, and put it back in the pot. Voila! Chicken soup!

I also like any amount of chicken with a jar of salsa. Cook the chicken until it's highly shreddable, then shred it, throw it back in with the salsa. Voila! Chicken tacos.

I use my crock pot very much in the way that you describe in the OP. The only thing I ever use a recipe for is chilli.

Chicken and rice
1 cup rice
2 cups water (or whatever the standard rice cooking amount is)
chicken pieces
cream of mushroom soup

Add in above order
turn on high
cook
eat

Chili

Beans (I use kidney, pinto and black) - drain all beans into a large measuring cup or bowl
1 can diced or stewed tomatos - drain into the same container as above
Add above beans and tomatoes along with a chopped onion and anything else you want to add
1 packet chili mix powder
Stir around juices to mix and pour about half the mixture in the crock pot
cook
eat

I've found it really hard to make anything that is bad in the crock pot. Add what sounds good, cook and eat.

I hope you kill it first.

I received a link today from Food Network that I thought would be perfect for this thread:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/lf_q...323700,00.html

Some of it looks good and can be a good basis for experimentation!

So, a while back, J & I saw a Crock Pot with a timer and the works. We figured, "Ahh... we'll get it later..." For two months, we haven't seen it until today. WOOHOO!

I'm doing my first pot roast, I've been keeping a small amount of bacon fat in the fridge, so I threw it in the pan, seasoned my beef on all sides with salt, pepper, cumin, dried onion and some other random stuff that sounded good. Once it was seared on all sides, I took it out of the pan, threw it in the slow cooker, put some beef broth into the pan and got the good bits off the bottom. Chopped up carrots, potatoes, onions (big chunks) and peeled some garlic, threw it all in along with some more broth and have been patiently waiting for it to finish. Sadly, I didn't feel like driving down to the state liquor store for good wine, and I didn't have any celery, which I love to throw in the later stages of my roasts.

But... smells awfully good!

My latest adventures in slow cookery took place in my mouth yesterday. And yum was the result.

Thursday night, I quickly seared a small-ish pork loin (a bit lean for slow cookery tastes, but seemed like a good choice anyway), with olive oil, salt, pepper (mixed peppercorns), and probably something else, but I don't remember, because I tend to get carried away with the moment and not take stock of what I am actually putting on things. But I think I kept it pretty simple since I knew the rest of my plans were a bit... different.

Been dying to get rid of a jar of applesauce that had been staring me in the face for a month and a half. Apparently, we like apple sauce, but only when we feel like it. Until I have the urge to make this dish again, it's applesauce cups for us. So, after I seared the pork, laid it into my slow cooker on a bed of apple sauce... mmm... Chopped 1.5 med-small sized onions. Since they were on the smaller size, I just cut them in half rather than quartered, broke it up a little and threw it in. 6 average-sized garlic cloves, roughly chopped into bigger sized pieces. Tossed those in, too. Then, I turned and remembered the apples that I bought in an effort to eat more fruit (forgetting that apples are only something I enjoy occasionally, and even then, granny smith, not gala). I took the easy way out and just chopped around the core, then took the bigger piece and chopped it in half. Three apples later, I threw it all in.

Then came a can of vegetable broth. Let's call it 15 ounces. I honestly don't remember and the trash got thrown out, so I'm no help there. But, it was a can of Swanson's veggie broth.

After staring for what seemed like about a minute and a half, I decided it needed more. I threw on some more pepper and salt. No, that couldn't be it... Oh, what the hell, how about some honey... I drizzled honey over the exposed area of the seared pork and called it a day. No I didn't... I added a bunch of cinnamon I got from the farmer's market. Some fancy kind, ground up and stuff. Then I called it a day. Threw the crock pot in the fridge and waited for dawn.

After a good 8 hour nap, I woke up, got ready for work, and tossed the pot into the cooker, and hit "10 hours, low heat." Going to work unsure of what the night's meal would bring was, well, it was like going to work on a normal day. In fact, I pretty much forgot about it until I got a call from J telling me he got sick and was home.

When I got home, I was shocked to discover that the juices had condensed into a paste (I'm sure there were a hundred reasons why that happened, none of which I'm willing to investigate). Though the house smelled amazing, I knew something needed to be done. Luckily, I had the foresight to grab an extra can of veggie broth while I was at the store, and I tossed that in. Cooked it a little longer, made some mashed potatoes (boiled with a bit of garlic oil and mashed with a small amount of goat cheese), served it up and..........

It was really good. Melted in my mouth and had that amazing combination of sweet, salty, savory and... melty. And the leftovers were pretty good, too.

If anyone wants to try it, I think it went something like:

Small pork loin
Olive Oil
Salt
Pepper
Stuff
Some random amount of apple sauce, let's call it 2 cups
1.5 smallish sweet onions, chopped lengthwise in half
6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
3 apples, chopped
Vegetable broth
Honey, apx... uh... 3... uh... spoonfuls, but I squirted it out of a cute bear thing
Cinnamon, probably a tablespoon or two

Sear pork loin, do some stuff, mix it together in a crock pot and cook for a long time. Then make some mashed tatos. Serve together.

^---- I threw up later that night.

Mean, mean, mean...