You will need a Boston pork butt, a small carrot, a stalk of celery, a small onion, a few tablespoons of flour and a lump of butter plus salt, peppercorns, garlic, bayleaf and thyme.

First, in the morning, rub the pork with salt, pepper and garlic, and put it in the slow cooker on high. (You may have to cut it into one or two pieces to help it fit in the pot.) After 30 minutes, turn the heat down to low, and leave it for 9~11 hours (Time depends on the size of the cut and the heat of your model of slow cooker.)

When the pork is done to falling-apart tender, remove it from the cooker and place it on a covered platter.

Remove the liquid that has cooked out of the pork from the slow cooker, and measure it after skimming off the fat. (I use a gravy separator.) The last time I made this, I got three cups of liquid from a 5~6 lb. butt.

Mince or grate the vegetables very small. In a large saucepan, melt the butter and sautee the minced vegetables in it until they’re soft and quite brown. Add 1 tablespoon flour per 1 cup of meat juices to the saucepan, and cook, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes more or until the vegetables and flour become very dark brown. (This is what gives the gravy its rich color.)

Whisk in the de-fatted meat juices plus a bay leaf, a large pinch or two of dried thyme and some peppercorns. Let the gravy simmer on low for 20~25 minutes until it is the desired thickness. Strain the solids out with a fine meshed sieve, pressing on them with the back of a ladle or spoon to remove as much gravy as possible. Add salt to taste, and there you have home-made gravy that’s better than anything from a can or package!

1/2 block tofu pureed (comes out like cream)
1 large cooked carrot significantly pureed
1/4 zucchini cooked & significantly pureed

Mix those 3 ingredients together thoroughly adding your choice of spices (mine are Worcestershire, creole seasoning, black pepper, garlic powder, and a couple drops of liquid smoke).

In a separate container, combine:
1/4 Cup Nutritional Yeast
1/4 Cup Breadcrumbs
3 Tbsp Flax seed meal
1/4 Cup Flour (any type)

Drop teaspoon size scoops into the breadcrumb mixture and very gently & lightly roll to coat completely. They will not be pretty! simply drop into the frying pan (we simply use cooking spray instead of oil) and they will mostly flatten and you can easily flatten with your finger. Let cook until golden, then flip.

The kids chomp these down with no questions asked – even after revealing the ingredients half way through the meal. These nuggets really are very tasty!

She’s got great recipes, and her writing is very amusing. She was even a guest on the Rachel Ray show a few months back.

(I was going to include a link — but hey, there’s an old proverb about teaching a person to fish versus giving a person a fish…)

a crock pot is also known as a slow cooker. It consists of heavy inner “crock” made of (I think) porcelain that fits inside a larger electric crock, with a lid that fits. The outer electric crock has a heating element which heats the porcelain fairly evenly, at a slow temperature. Crock pot meals are typically of a stew-like or chili-like consistency, as cooking slowly over low heat with a lid on tends to retain moisture.

Wikipedia has a good summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slow_cooker

By Request: Five Essential Crock Pot Recipes
Posted: 20 Mar 2007 01:30 PM CDT

Beef Burgundy

2 slices bacon – cooked and chopped
2 pounds sirloin tips cut into small cubes (one inch or so)
1 garlic clove

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon marjoram
1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 beef boullion cube, crushed
1 cup red wine (Burgundy if you have it)

2 tablespoons corn starch
2 tablespoons water
4 ounces fresh mushrooms (optional)

Chop up the bacon and sirloin tips and cook them in a skillet for several minutes along with the garlic clove (make it two cloves if you like garlic flavor). While the meat is cooking, put everything else together except for the mushrooms, corn starch, and water in the crock pot and stir it. Dump in the entire contents of the skillet, stir the mixture, and set it on low. Leave for work. Come home, mix together the corn starch and water, pour that in, add the mushrooms, and kick it up to high for 15 final minutes. Serve.

1 package chicken thighs
1 jar salsa
i cup sour cream
yellow curry powder

Remove skin from chicken put in crock pot, cover with jar of salsa and plenty of curry powder, I use around 4tbs. cook for 8 hours, stir in a cup of sour cream and cook for 1/2 hour. The chicken shreds naturally if you stir ut up, just fish out the bones and you have shredded curry chicken. I mix in some brown rice and this feeds the two of us for 3-4 meals each. It also freezes really well.

Another fav: 2 cans green beans, several raw potatoes, and a pound of kielbasa. Makes a complete meal, and the sausage adds great flavor to everything. A bit of chopped onion is great in it, too. 6-7 hours on low.

Way to go, Trent, on mentioning the crock pot. It really has saved me a tremendous amount of money since I started using it. When I know I have a wonderful, hot meal waiting at home in the evening, I don’t even think about “grabbing a bite” on the way home!

And for those of us too cheap to buy a dried packet of salad dressing mix, can I presumably throw in the stuff I’d use at home to make my own salad dressing? :-)