Slow Cooker Beer Cheese Soup

I am amazed to have landed on two great slow cooker recipes in a row.  I adapted this one slightly from FamilyFreshMeals.com.  I did come up with some ideas for next time as well.

Slow Cooker Beer Cheese Soup

adapted slightly from FamilyFreshMeals.com

Ingredients

28 oz chicken broth
12 oz beer
1 cup diced carrots
1/2 cup diced celery
1 cup diced onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup cornstarch

Steps

1.  Mix first 9 ingredients together in your crockpot.  Cover and cook on LOW for 6 - 8 hours.
2.  When done cooking, stir in cheese and heavy cream until the cheese is melted.
3.  Whisk in cornstarch.  Cover and cook for 30 minutes on HIGH.
4.  Smooth soup by blending in batches in blender or use an immersion blender.

The Final Product

It must be good when this kid likes it so much that it drips all over his shirt.

This soup tasted fantastic.  I used a bottle of Kona Brewing Co's Big Wave Golden Ale.  It was so cheese-y and beer-y (can I just make that a word?) that I wish that I had some hard pretzels to dip in the soup.  Everyone loved it, so clearly there were no leftovers, which incidentally left me with the only option of getting pizza for dinner tonight.  There was only one note for the next time we make it - and yes, there will be lots of next times.  The soup did thicken up but not as much as I had anticipated.  So next time, I might only use 1 can or 1.5 cans of chicken broth to get a thicker soup.  I also learned that I need an immersion blender - using the blender was fine but it allowed the soup to cool a bit much for my taste.  Enjoy!

Happy Anniversary!

In just a few short days the hubby and I will be celebrating our six year wedding anniversary.  We decided to indulge a a week early by going out to dinner and attending some fun events at the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

We started off by enjoying dinner at the Chart House restaurant.  It was delicious!  I ordered the crab cakes, which were superb.  Not to mention the Molten Lava cake.  Really no anniversary meal is complete without a chocolate lava cake.  Fantastic!

We spent the remainder of our evening at the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Cooking for Solutions - Party with Alton Brown.  With a little prodding, I convinced the hubby to come take a picture with me and Alton.

 

More like I said - I'll wait in the line and you get some drinks!  So very cool!  We spent the rest of the evening tasting different organic sustainable foods and drinks.  An even bigger plus was that there were only about 700 people there, so we could wander around the aquarium looking at the fish and not worrying about the 40 other people trying to look at the same tank as you.  Sadly, the new tentacles exhibit was closed off - I guess once they get those cephalopods on a schedule you don't want to mess them up.

The next day we wrangled the kiddos up for yet another trip to the aquarium.  This time for some cooking/drink classes.  I had an absolutely fabulous class with James Beard award winning chef John Ash.  There were just under 30 people in the class.  He showed us how to make a grilled pizza.  He told us that it is probably the best way at home to imitate those huge wood burning ovens because the surface of the grill does in fact reach the 700 degrees that is obtained in those ovens.  And yes, we did cook the dough right on the surface of the grill.  Yummy grill marks.  I am set to put this on my meal plan calendar for next month (then I'll share the recipe!).  

Chef Ash then mentioned that we had extra time - so why don't we make some crab cakes?!?!  I thought - major score.  I just had the great crab cake last night at dinner, now I'll know how to make them myself.  Holy macaroni, I was so surprised at how simple the process was and how few ingredients created a super tasty cake.  I actually think the crab cake I made was even tastier then the one I had the evening prior.  Yet another recipe I plan on trying next month.

Creepily, there was a photographer there for the aquarium - so I am a little weirded out there may be photos of me cooking/enjoying wine at the this class.  I might try to do some searches to see if I find them.  I can't imagine they look great.

We passed off the kiddos and the hubby attended a class on pairing beer (Sierra Nevada) with food.  He said it was pretty good.  They let you sample food and beer.

I didn't take many pictures of my experience but I did walk away with these:

 

Given this army lifestyle, I am now a believer in if you can take advantage of an experience - do it.  You may not get another chance too.

Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli

It has been a while since my last update.  I have been trying out a few new recipes and unfortunately, they have been a little lackluster -- until last night.  I have been scouring the web for ethnic slow cooker recipes - specifically, Chinese food.  If you have not been paying attention, I have been really disappointed about the lack of good Chinese takeout.  So I somewhat reluctantly threw together this recipe after having looked at several online.  It is a combination of a couple of recipes - so I have no idea to whom I should give credit.  But thanks to everyone for all the ideas - because this one pretty much nailed it on the head.

Slow Cooker Beef and Broccoli

Ingredients

1 lb stew beef
1 cup beef broth
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 pkg frozen steamer broccoli florets
rice

Steps

1.  I had big chunks of stew beef.  I took a minute to cut them into smaller strips.
2.  Mix together the broth, oyster sauce, soy sauce, brown sugar, oil, and garlic.
3.  Place beef pieces in slow cooker and cover with mixture.
4.  Cover and cook on LOW for 6 hours.
5.  When done, create a slurry by mixing the cornstarch and some of the slow cooker liquid together.
6.  Stir the slurry back into the slow cooker and add the package of broccoli florets.  Cook on low for another 30 minutes.
7.  Serve over rice.

The Final Product
I wish I had taken a picture.  The flavors melded wonderfully.  It reminded me so much of good east coast Chinese takeout.  The only thing that I was disappointed with was that my sauce did not thicken up as much as I would have liked after having added the cornstarch.  I suspect it is because the slow cooker didn't bring the sauce up to a boil in the last half hour.  I think I will wait until the very end to make the slurry.  I will remove the beef and broccoli to another dish and pour the remaining sauce into a saucepan.  Add the slurry and bring the sauce up to a boil to get it to thicken.  Then pour the sauce back over the beef and broccoli once it is the right consistency.  Give this one a try!