My Fanciful Accounts

I wish I could embrace the slow cooker. It would really make this working girl's life so much easier. Alas, it seems to be a crap shoot when trying recipes for this machine. This week I tried two recipes from Gooseberry Patch. One was a real winner. One was a horrible disaster. And the winner was The Triple Chocolate Cake. I never would have believed that you could actually bake a cake in a crockpot, but I did and it was wonderful. The only thing is that it cooked faster than three hours and got a little dried out around the edges. Will compensate the next time I make it.

Triple Chocolate Cake

18-1/2 oz. pkg. chocolate
cake mix
8-oz. container sour cream
3.9-oz. pkg. instant
chocolate pudding mix
12-oz. pkg. semi-sweet
chocolate chips
4 eggs beaten
3/4 c. oil
1 c. water
Garnish: vanilla ice cream

Place dry cake mix and remaining ingredients except ice cream in a slow cooker; mix well. Cover and cook on high setting for 3 to 4 hours. Serve warm, garnished with scoops of ice cream. Makes 8 to 10 servings.

The disaster was the Black-eyed pea "soup." There was not enough liquid in this left to even consider this dish a stew. The black-eyed peas were like a gray mush and it tasted terrible. Now it was my first time ever eating black-eyed peas, so I don't have anything to compare them to, but it will probably be a long time before I try them again. Truly, I don't even know how I could fix this recipe to make it into what was expected. Maybe someone with more skill in the kitchen would be willing to try.

Mom’s Black-Eyed Pea Soup

16-oz. pkg. dried black-eyed peas
10-3/4 oz. can bean with bacon soup
4 c. water
6 carrots, peeled and chopped
2-lb. beef chuck roast, cubed
1/4 t. pepper
Combine dried peas and remaining ingredients in a slow cooker; mix well. Cover and cook on low setting for 9 to 10 hours. Makes 6 servings.