Slow Cooker Love!

So sorry for the total lack of posts in the past month and a half or so. You all know how crazy the holidays can be, and then when you add in the stress (and fun!) of moving to a new place, it's quite an adventure. Mr. C and I are slowly but surely getting settled into San Antonio, and we've both fallen in love with the city already! It's such a neat place with lots of culture to it, and the food is absolutely to die for. I'm a huge fan of Tex-Mex (especially since it's so corn based and usually pretty gluten-free!) and San Antonio is the Tex-Mex capital of the world. Now, I just need to find some good Pilates classes to make sure all of this great food doesn't go straight to my butt!

Speaking of food, one of my resolutions this year is to use my slow cooker more often. I love the fact that you can plop everything in there, turn it on and forget about it while you go about your day. There is nothing more satisfying than coming home after a long day out and about to dinner already cooked and waiting for you! Even better, I've been using the Reynold's Crock-Pot Liners, so when we're done I can just pitch the liner and not even have to clean the pot. Really, the main reason I hadn't used my crock-pot more than a handful of times in the first year of marriage was simply because I thought all crock-pot recipes involved boring old chicken in some bland sauce. Totally not the case!

I found the most amazing blog called "A Year of Slow Cooking" where Stephanie, the blogger, made a resolution to use her slow cooker everyday in 2008. The result is this wonderful blog filled with outside the box recipes for everything from main courses to drinks and desserts, all made with the crock-pot! I've already made quite a few of her recipes, and have the Margarita Chicken cooking as I write. I think my favorite so far has been the Thai Beef. This took literally five minutes to put together and was as simple as opening the can of coconut milk, opening the bottle of peanut satay sauce, pouring both onto the beef and making sure it was good and saucy, and finally dumping in a bag of baby carrots. Then I hit "cook" and walked away for eight hours. Like magic, that evening I had a delicious and healthy meal. When we were done eating, I pitched the liner, put the crock-pot away and my kitchen was still completely clean. That was the moment I fell in love with my crock-pot.

Do yall have any good slow cooker recipes? I'm always on the hunt!

Mocha Chocolate Icebox Cake

As I confessed in an earlier post, I'm always looking for quick and easy recipes that are also yummy and presentable. Earlier this week, I was watching the Today show when Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa fame came on and shared three recipes out of her new cookbook How Easy is That? One of the recipes was for her Mocha Chocolate Icebox Cake, and she had me at the ingredients list.... Kahlua, Espresso, Cocoa... how could you go wrong? Well, I decided to try it out since it was my turn to bring a snack to our weekly military wives Bible study. I think I've found one of my new staple desserts... it was quick, painless and delicious! Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the cake before it was devoured, but here's one from the Barefoot Contessa website. I'll admit, mine wasn't quite as pretty.

Here's the recipe:


2 cups cold heavy cream
12 ounces Italian mascarpone cheese
½ cup sugar
¼ cup Kahlúa liqueur
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder, such as Pernigotti
1 teaspoon instant espresso powder
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 (8-ounce) packages Tate’s Bake Shop chocolate chip cookies
Shaved semisweet chocolate, for garnish


In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, combine the heavy cream, mascarpone, sugar, Kahlúa, cocoa powder, espresso powder, and vanilla. Mix on low speed to combine and then slowly raise the speed, until it forms firm peaks.


To assemble the cake, arrange chocolate chip cookies flat in an 8-inch springform pan, covering the bottom as much as possible. (I break some cookies to fill in the spaces.) Spread a fifth of the mocha whipped cream evenly over the cookies. Place another layer of cookies on top, lying flat and touching, followed by another fifth of the cream. Continue layering cookies and cream until there are 5 layers of each, ending with a layer of cream. Smooth the top, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.


Run a small sharp knife around the outside of the cake and remove the sides of the pan. Sprinkle the top with the chocolate, cut in wedges, and serve cold 

Now, a few tips from my experience. First, this cake does not travel well! If you're driving somewhere, make sure you have somebody else with you who can hold the cake, otherwise be prepared for the cake to slip and slide across the platter (and potentially your car!) as you make turns! I learned this one the hard way :) Also, the recipe calls for Tate's Bake Shop chocolate chip cookies - you can really use any chocolate chip cookies. I baked my own gluten-free cookies from a Betty Crocker mix. Last, I found that the whipped cream wasn't enough to make five layers. I ended up with three layers and was scraping the sides of the bowl. Also, I think that next time I make this I will go for more filling and less cookies. The general consensus was that the filling is the absolute best part of the cake!


Bon appétit!