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Triple Slow Cooker Entertaining

By Ann Hattes
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For best results, use high-quality foods, cook until done and serve while they are at their peak of quality. Use dried herbs and spices, as flavors of fresh fade with long cooking. Limit liquids as they do not boil off, and you can always add more liquid for thinner consistency at the end.

No reason for anxiety with the words “Let’s have a party!” With innovative triple slow cookers now available – one slow cooker with three stoneware vessels – throwing a party just got much easier. With triple slow cookers, you can offer a variety of hot tasty dishes, an invaluable resource whether you’re a veteran party planner or hosting an event for the first time.

Triple Slow Cooker Entertaining (Robert Rose publisher) with over 100 recipes and 30 party plans offers stress-free planning. Authors Kathy Moore and Roxanne Wyss, authors of six cookbooks, develop recipes and test products in their food consulting firm. They have menus for almost every occasion from New Year’s Eve, Mardi Gras and the Final Four to Derby Day, a graduation gathering, child’s birthday party, bridal shower or family reunion.

Slow cookers are perfect for making soups, stews, sauces, dips, hot drinks – all great foods for entertaining. As the authors point out, with the slow cooker timing is not critical like it needs to be for grilling steaks or burgers or serving a freshly made pizza. In addition, since a slow cooker lets you start cooking early in the day, the kitchen is clean and everything ready far in advance of the arrival of guests. The one appliance with three 2-½ quart vessels, each with separate controls for High, Low and Warm, gives the flexibility of different settings, with each dish cooking a different length of time but ready at the same time.

The versatile cooker gives you the option of setting out a mild, medium and hot chili for guests. Or if some like mushrooms and others do not, there can be stews with and without mushrooms. For a pasta party, guests could have the chance to sample three different sauces, a Bolognese sauce, eggplant pasta sauce, and a chicken and mushroom Alfredo sauce (all recipes in this new cookbook). At Thanksgiving, offer guests a savory sage bread dressing, mashed potatoes, and/or roasted sweet potatoes.

The authors advise to spray each vessel with nonstick baking spray before filling to make cleanup easier, and always be sure the cover sits flat and is not ajar. Cook on Low or High, not on Warm. Meats and main dishes usually require 6 to 10 hours on Low, so allow plenty of time. Cook on High when you want a shorter cooking time, with 2 hours on Low generally equaling about 1 hour on High. Remember that every time you lift the lid to check or stir, you are losing heat and adding to the cooking time.

Certain dips and fondues do need to be stirred occasionally, but do only if the recipe directs to do it. For best results, use high-quality foods, cook until done and serve while they are at their peak of quality. Use dried herbs and spices, as flavors of fresh fade with long cooking. Limit liquids as they do not boil off, and you can always add more liquid for thinner consistency at the end. In general main dishes and side dishes will stay fresh and flavorful for about 2 hours on Warm. More delicate dishes such as cheese dips, for example, may need watching for drying out or overcooking.

Whether for family or a party, give a slow cooker a try with Tex-Mex Spinach Dip or Tamale Meatballs. For Cinco de Mayo, the cookbook menu accompanies the dip with chipotle beef with fresh tomato salsa, and chicken con queso. The tamale meatballs at a graduation gathering are paired with a Vidalia onion dip and favorite BBQ ribs.

 


Recipes:

Tamale Meatballs

Tex-Mex Spinach Dip

 

Ann Hattes has over 25 years experience writing about both travel and food for publications both in the US and internationally. A senior living in Wisconsin, she’s a member of the International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association and the Midwest Travel Writers Association.

Meet Ann