The Slow Cooker: A Writer's Best Friend Blog Hop

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Yay everyone! It's time for "The Slow Cooker: A Writer's Best Friend" Blog Hop!

I seriously love my Crock Pot.

I am an experimental cook in large part, not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. I also have no patience for fiddling... That makes the Crock Pot my dear friend! I can throw a bunch of ingredients in, turn it on, stir occasionally and at the end of the day have a warm and (hopefully) succulent meal to show for my "efforts."

I'm sharing a recipe I pulled from my newest cookbook acquisition:

The Indian Slow Cooker: 50 Healthy, Easy, Authentic Recipes

I've always wanted to try my hand at cooking Indian food... but most times the recipes are too... fiddly. Well, not now! Anyhow, here's my favorite so far.

Dry Spiced Dal (recipe by Anupy Singla)
Sooki Dal/Slow cooker size: 3 and a half quarts/Cooking time: 2 and a half hours on low (I cooked this on high, and for much longer than 2 and a half hours before the lentils were soft enough, though)/Yield: 7 cups

Ingredients:
3 cups dried, split, and skinned yellow moong dal or split and skinned urad dal, cleaned and washed thoroughly.
1 small onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 (1 inch) piece ginger, peeled and grated
2-3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced or grated
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
1 tablespoon salt
3 cups water
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
Chopped green chilies for garnish (optional)
Chopped onions for garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. Put the lentils, onion, ginger, garlic, cumin, turmeric, salt, and water in the slow cooker.
2. Cook on low for 2 hours, stirring once or twice. (Again, I cooked on high and for 3+ hours before the moong dal softened... just be prepared). Check to see if the water has been absorbed. If not, cook for another 30 minutes until no liquid remains.
3. Garnish with the cilantro, chopped green chilies, and onions. Serve with rice, roti or naan and spicy achaar, or spread on a flour tortilla.

Yep... it's THAT easy! And the flavor was delicious. I highly recommend Singla's book if you're interested in trying more Indian style slow cooker recipes.

For other recipes from this blog hop, head over to the following blogs:

1. The Barenaked Critic
2. Rebekah Loper, Writer
3. The Merry Mennonite
4. Sue Ann Bowling
5. Thoughts of a Visual and Verbal Artist
6. Write Backwards - Jamie Dement (LadyJai)
7. Bonnie Rae, Just Words

The Slow Cooker: A writer's best friend Blog Hop!!!

I totally just signed up for this awesome blog hop that will take place on March 2nd! I'm so excited!!! I love cooking in my crock pot (hands free, low maintenance and all...) and I just yesterday bought a cook book of slow cooker Indian food recipes!

I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with and to try some new dishes! If you want to join in, you can go to Rebekah Loper's blog and sign up!

In other news, I have now TWO exciting announcements that I'm on the cusp of being able to reveal to you. I know, I know, the wait is killing me, too! Just a few more things to finalize before I can spring my good news on you. I'm so excited!!! (Hints are in the post tags, if you want to take a guess or two.)

Nightmares

image from
http://www.steampunklab.com/

Usually, any bad dreams I have melt away in the morning light, be it ever so dreary. But this one... this morning... still lingers like heartburn or a bad hangover. I haven't been able to shake the exquisitely painful melancholy it has left in its wake... like a shadow cast by a nuclear explosion, the memory of this dream refuses to fade.

And so I've written 600 words towards it... I can't tell if it's making it better or worse, extracting these characters, these horrible scenes, from my subconscious and giving them life on-screen. But that's all I can do for now.

That... and bake cupcakes.