Friday FUNdamentals: Crock Pot 101

As a Cool Dad who cooks; you have a lot of awesome tools at your disposal. One of the most helpful things you'll ever cook with is your crock pot.

We're about to share a secret with you.

Are you ready?

Ready?

It's almost impossible to screw up a crock pot meal. Seriously. I mean, you can try... but the Cool Dads Crew doesn't endorse that idea. Crock pot cooking is almost fool-proof; you dump a bunch of ingredients into it, set the timer and anywhere from 4-8 hours later- you have a warm, delicious meal for your family.

Seriously Cool Dads: make the crock pot your friend. If you don't own one, go out and buy one. They're fairly inexpensive, and you can buy them just about anywhere. Once you've  procured your new crock pot, you can make pork chops!

Cool Dad Creamy Mushroom & Onion Pork Chops
4-5 bone-in pork chops
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
2 large onions

Slice onions and place them in the bottom of the crock pot.

Place the raw pork chops on top of the onions.

Open the cans of soup. Using a spatula, spread the soup mixture over the pork chops (no need to add water).

Cover the crock pot, and set the timer to high for 3 hours, or low for 6 hours. No need to stir, combine or check the temperature. Seriously. Just leave it alone and let it cook. Note about the crock pot timer: you don't have to remove the food as soon as the timer goes off; the crock pot will have a 'warm' setting that will keep your food warm (but not continue to cook it), until you're ready to eat. So, start the crock pot in the morning before you leave for work; and you'll have dinner ready when the family gets hungry that evening.

 The end result of this recipe is pork chops that are fall-off-the-bone tender, and a delicious gravy that's perfect over rice or potatoes (remember the roasted potatoes we taught you how to make last week?). The end results looks something like this:

Mmm.... pork chop picture porn. This is a recipe the Wisconsin Test Kitchen makes at least once a month; because it's so easy and the results speak for themselves.
Here are some links to some crock pots we recommend, in case you need to purchase one:

http://www.amazon.com/Crock-Pot-SCCPVL610-S-Programmable-Carry-Cooker/dp/B004P2NG0K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1392342602&sr=8-1&keywords=crock+pots

http://www.amazon.com/Crock-Pot-SCRP500-SP-5-Quart-Smudge-Cooker/dp/B005FSJ5Q2/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1392342627&sr=8-10&keywords=crock+pots

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00366O6TG?psc=1

Also, if you're looking for an easy clean up after dinner, we swear by crock pot liners:
http://www.amazon.com/Reynolds-Slow-Cooker-Liners-4-Count/dp/B002U0KKK8/ref=sr_1_3?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1392343611&sr=1-3&keywords=crock+pot+liners

You put them in the crock pot before adding all the ingredients in, prior to cooking. Then, when you're done cooking, you remove the liner, and throw it away. Bam. Done- no need to scrub out a grimy crock pot. 

We hope you make the crock pot your new best friend in the kitchen- the Cool Dads promise it's a tool guaranteed to make easy meals your family will enjoy.

Stay Cool,
The Cool Dads Crew