Crockpot Chicken Pot Pie Stew

This recipe is chicken pot pie meets crockpot, and definitely results in awesomeness! It's especially lovely on a cold winter night. I only have a small crockpot, but this recipe fit it well. It feeds three or four nicely. The original recipe can be found here. My slightly modified recipe is below!

Blog Redesign

Given how the content of this blog has shifted, I figured I might as well update its look too. Enjoy!

Rose Hot Chocolate

Unlike my spiced hot chocolate (recipe here), this is something I tried on a whim very recently and fell in love with. If you're not someone who loves the sight, smell, and/or taste of roses, then this might not be for you. Don't knock it till you try it though! As with my spiced hot chocolate, this is more of a set of guidelines than a recipe per se.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

A slight twist on an oldie but a goodie. My recipe's below. It serves two comfortably, so if you're cooking for more than that I would double or triple the recipe. Enjoy!

Vegetable Rice with Sausage and Egg

I've been trying to economize these last couple of months - for economizing's sake, thank goodness - and a variation of what became this was suggested by a friend when I complained about being tired of fried everything. If you've lived in the PRC, you know how cheap the ingredients are! And you've probably also used them (in combination with various other things) in countless fried rice and fried noodle dinners. It's so nice to have an alternative - not a big change up, but enough to keep me
from getting tired of all the rice! (I know, I know, I'm far from enculturated. I recently had a new coworker begin our first conversation with, 'Do you like rice? I love rice. I only eat rice!' In the past I would have dismissed such a story as stereotyping, but I have yet to meet someone here who thought a proper meal was complete without rice...)

Grilled Cheese Sandwich à la Jean-Marc

Someone's probably developed this years ago, but it's something I came to modifying the grilled cheese sandwich "recipe" one of my grandmothers taught me. Feel free to modify it in any way you see fit to make it more delicious, just let me know what you do so that I can try it too!

Atkilt

This is one of my all-time favorites from Ethiopia, and a relatively simple, plain dish too. (Plain in my world - if you're someone who thinks of food with salt and pepper as "spicy," then you probably wouldn't feel the same way!) It's on the level of comfort food for me, and also a good way to get more vegetables into your diet if you're not a big salad eater. (It can also be made vegan depending on your needs and desires.) Enjoy!

Spiced Hot Chocolate

I've been making spiced hot chocolate for a few years now, so long that when I have friends over and they've (A) never heard of it and (B) love it I'm a little surprised since it's such an ordinary thing to me! I was reminded recently that it isn't ordinary to a lot of people though, so I thought I'd post a "recipe" (more like generic guidelines) for those of you who've never thought to spice up your hot cocoa a bit! Whether you're making hot chocolate from scratch or with packets this is a super easy way to take your hot chocolate to the next level!

German Pancakes

I made this for brunch for the Nativity this year and it was just lovely! The interior texture reminded me of breading pudding - I may just add raisins the next time I make this! And so much nicer to throw this in the oven than to stand by the hot plate making regular pancakes and either eating them right there or eating cold pancakes by the time they're all cooked!

Easy Breakfast Syrup

I never would've thought I would be making my own syrup, but it's just not a thing here in Manchuria. (I'm told local tastes don't like sweet stuff, but when I follow that statement up with questions about why virtually all the popular bread here is sweet no one can explain.) I did find pure maple syrup in one store, but it was prohibitively expensive for someone whose teeth are all sweet teeth! In any case, this is a great, easy, and quick recipe for making syrup!