New Schedule, Cooking and Coffee Shops

[abracanabra]

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My current, consistent (okay, consistent-ish--most of the time, but not always) schedule has me at the day job afternoons until 6 PM. This means two major things (in addition to a host of minor things like, "Oh lord, I hope the roomba didn't hurl itself off the stairs while I was gone," and, "I'm so pleased City Center lets people waiting for the bus hover inside by the door and doesn't kick us out into the cold," and, "I have to figure out my optimum schedule again?"):

1. Cooking is a problem. I'm the main cook, I don't get home until 7, which means food wouldn't be ready until 7:30-8:00, and I have a husband who practically self-destructs if he isn't fed immediately upon arriving home. Sometimes he has been cooking, but he's got a really limited repertoire, about where I was at 6 years ago. Sometimes he eats before I even get home, which is great for marital bonding. Sometimes I have been using the slow cooker. But here's the thing. Most of the slow-cooker recipes I have kinda suck. They're from a midwestern cookbook that's all about mixing together stuff in cans, especially canned cream-of-stuff, and the results are not great. So I ask you--what are your favorite slow cooker recipes and/or cookbooks? Bonus points if it's not soup.

2. Mornings are for working on writingy things. Right now, that means lots of editing. I can edit in company just fine. So if anybody'd like to socialize by co-existing in a coffee shop and working on projects, let me know. I'd love to hang out in a coffee shop with friends some morning.

Comments

[ann-leckie.livejournal.com]

I clicked through to recommend this book specifically.

Also, your basic big hunk of meat doesn't really need a recipe. Slap a chicken in the pot, put on whatever seasonings you like, maybe throw in some potatoes and carrots (underneath the meat), set it on low, and you're good.

[ann-leckie.livejournal.com]

Oh, and also! That sort of plain cooking--just a chicken, just a pork roast, whatever, with a bit of seasoning, makes for excellent leftovers later. A local grocery had pork butts on sale last week. I bought more than the family could eat at one meal, tossed it in the crock pot with some season salt and a sliced onion. We ate it with mashed potatoes and gravy--and then had bbq pork sandwiches the next day, which took less than five minutes to sauce, microwave, and slap on bread. Mmmm. Two days in a row of low-fuss supper.

[cloudscudding.livejournal.com]

Book is requested from library! That's an impressive double-recommendation. And you raise a good point about its ability to cook large chunks of food and make valuable leftovers.