Imagine my delight when I received a shiny new Cuisinart slow cooker (actually, not long after Elizabeth’s post about her classic 50’s CrockPot). Yup, there’s not much that I love more than a fancy new kitchen gadget, especially one as sharp-looking as this one! Check it out:
So, of course, the first thing I wanted to do was to try it out. But where to start? Simple. I flipped through the instruction manual/cookbook that came along with it. My experience to date with Cuisinart appliances and recipes has been entirely positive, so I didn’t hesitate to choose a likely recipe from the cookbook and give it a go. As it was still the heart of winter when I undertook this project, I opted for a nice, hearty chili recipe, which I’ve included as a pdf file here for your reference:
Download Beef Chili For a Crowd Recipe
Or, if you’d prefer to view/print a scanned image of the cookbook page, click here:
View Beef Chili For a Crowd Recipe
So, you ask, how was it? Well, first let me say it was very easy to make, (thanks in part to my Cuisinart food processor for the chopping) and smelled absolutely marvellous all day long while it was cooking. Actually, a friend who came to pick up her daughter from a playdate jokingly asked if she could stay for dinner (or at least take away a tupperware bowl full for herself!). As for how it tasted, well, delicious! It was a big hit amongst the adult and child crowds at the dinner table, although my better half did ask for the hot sauce to spice it up a bit (now, keep in mind this is a man who prides himself on the ability to eat even the hottest of hot sauces, so he’s not a reasonable spiciness gauge).
But the best part wasn’t how easy it was to prepare, how good it tasted or how well it satisfied both generations at dinner. In my humble opinion, the best part about it was the removable stoneware crock inside the slow cooker. Just take it out and place it on a trivet on the dinner table, and it is a serving dish. When you’re done (and the copious leftovers are stored – remember, this is chili for a crowd) the crock just goes into the sink or dishwasher for easy cleanup (by the non-cooking parties, of course!), and the part with the cord (retractable, would you believe?) doesn’t have to come anywhere near water. Love!
All in all, both the recipe and the appliance were a total hit. In fact, I’ve taken the slow cooker out of the cupboard many times since Beef Chili for a Crowd, for everything from soup to roast beef to apple crisp. Yup, this one’s a winner!