Recent Press for The Southern Slow Cooker Cookbook

My recipe for Frito Pie was featured in Parade Magazine and USA Weekend!

So, The Southern Slow Cooker is officially out and some great press and lovely reviews are starting to roll in. Check them all out at the newly revamped Southern Slow Cooker blog!

--Kendra

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Slow Cooker Pork BBQ Sandwiches with Creamy Slaw Recipe

Ok, this recipe for crockpot BBQ (barbecue, barbeque or bar-b-que) couldn't be easier, and is one of my favorite recipes from The Southern Slow Cooker cookbook, which is about to come out this summer (whee!). It's important to note that this recipe is for an eastern NC-style 'cue, which is heavy on the cider vinegar, crushed red pepper and brown sugar. Personally, it's my favorite kind of barbecue. However, if you prefer a saucy sweet BBQ, you can always skip making my suggested BBQ sauce and pour in your favorite bottled stuff. Either way, it's gonna be tasty good. 

When it comes to NC-style barbecue, typically the pork is slow cooked over a wood burning fire for hours and hours until the meat has absorbed all the beauty of real-deal smoke. However, I've made this recipe easy peasy for the home cook by dry rubbing it in a mixture of spices and sugar and then plopping it in the slow cooker on top of some onions where it cooks all by its lonesome (or overnight if you prefer). You don't need to stoke any fires.

I recently demo'd this recipe on "The Heart of the Home", a cooking show that I host for The Virginia Farm Bureau's award winning bi-monthly show, "Real Virginia". Check out my on-line how-to and then scroll down for the whole recipe, which includes my family's recipe for creamy cider slaw. Enjoy!

Kendra

Vinegar Style Slow Cooker Pork BBQ with Cider Slaw Recipe

Serves 10-12 (makes approximately 2 quarts)

This slow cooker recipe gives a well-deserved nod to true NC-Style BBQ by incorporating a sauce that’s heavy on the vinegar and hot pepper. However, you can skip the sauce making part altogether and enjoy a basic roasted pork, which is not only fantastic on a bun with slaw and hot sauce, but is great for making burritos, BBQ pizza, or nachos.

Sidebar: I recommend using a 5-6 quart slow cooker for this recipe due to the size of the pork roast. You can also cut this recipe in half and use a smaller slow cooker.

2 large onions, sliced
5 pound pork shoulder roast
6 cloves garlic, smashed
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
2 tablespoons brown sugar
½ tablespoon red pepper flakes
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup apple cider or apple juice

For the sauce:

2 cups cooking liquid (reserved from slow cooked pork)
1 1/2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ teaspoon tablespoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
½ cup water
¼ cup cider vinegar
2 teaspoons brown sugar
Salt and pepper, to taste

Buns, slaw and hot sauce, for serving

Spray the inside of the slow cooker with cooking spray.

Place the onions in the bottom of the slow cooker. Make slits in the pork roast and insert garlic cloves. Rub salt, pepper, brown sugar and red pepper flakes into the meat. Place pork in slow cooker fat side up and pour in vinegar and apple cider. Cover and cook for 10-12 hours or until the meat is fall apart tender.

Remove meat to a large bowl and shred it with two forks. Set aside.

Pour two cups of the pan juices into a measuring cup. Let cool and skim off any visible fat. Pour this liquid into a saucepan (discard any leftover juices still in the pot). Add Worcestershire, chili powder, paprika, mustard, ketchup, red pepper flakes, water, cider vinegar and brown sugar. Bring this mixture up to a boil and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Return the shredded pork to the pot and add one cup of the sauce mixture (more if you like it wet). Give it a stir and set the slow cooker to warm. Serve any additional sauce on the side.

Serve pork straight from the pot with a slotted spoon with buns, slaw and hot sauce.

Creamy Cider Slaw
Makes about 2 cups

In true country cooking fashion, this is a recipe where one must taste as she goes, adding a little more of this or that as needed. If you like your slaw on the sweet side, add more sugar. Like it tart? Use less sugar and more vinegar.

4 tablespoons sugar, or to taste
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar, or to taste
2-4 tablespoons mayonnaise
½ medium head green cabbage, finely grated (about 2 cups grated)
Salt and pepper, to taste
Pinch of celery seed, optional

In a large bowl, whisk sugar and vinegar together until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add mayonnaise and blend dressing until it is smooth and creamy.

About 30 minutes before serving, add your cabbage (this is not an overnight slaw). Mix well to coat and season with salt, pepper and celery seed, if desired.

All photos and text ©2013 Fatback and Foie Gras. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Judging a Book by Its Cover: The Southern Slow Cooker Cookbook

Due out August 2013. Hang tight kids!

UPDATE: I just found out that The Southern Slow Cooker is officially available for pre-order as of today!  So excited! Pre-order on Amazon.

They say never to judge a book by its cover, but the fact is we all do. Just walk into any Barnes and Noble (or hit Amazon.com) and visit the cookbook section and you'll see all those books with smiling celebrity faces and food porny photos with grab-you-by-the-shirt catchy titles and subtitles which, more often than not, bear words like "simple", "fresh" and "foolproof". This is the nature of our highly competitive game, to rope you in with luscious photos, peppy titles and sleek artwork that gets you to click, pick-up, open and flip pages, or simply remember come Christmas gift time.

Only a few days ago, we (me and the folks at Ten Speed Press) decided on the cover (shot by Erin Kunkel) for "The Southern Slow Cooker" cookbook and it wasn't easy. We narrowed the choices down to three based on recipes in the book-- a lovely shot of black-eyed peas and stewed tomatoes, a soul satisfying photo of a bowl of beef stew and the picture above featuring a bowl of Chesapeake Bay crab and corn chowder topped with fresh corn relish. All three of these recipes are built for slow cooking, so theoretically any of them could grace the book's cover. However, we wanted this cover to truly stand out, not only from the hundreds of other cookbooks out there, but also from other slow cooker cookbooks (which tend to feature lots and lots of stew, chili and the like), so crab chowder it is. It's Southern, fresh and flavorful, perfect for the slow cooker and a little different from the rest.

And I'm going to come right out and say, I like it. A lot. Naturally, I hope you do, too, so much so that you'll just have to get a copy when the times comes (behold the shameless plug). In the meantime, I am down to the final copy edits and crazy as it sounds, the book will soon be available for pre-order. How the heck did that happen so fast?

Stay tuned here, here and here for updates, sample recipes and all other kinds of slow cooking goodness, and I'd love to hear what you think of the cover so feel free to chime on in!

Best to everyone this holiday season....

Kendra

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Slow Cooker Ginger Ale Baked Apples Recipe

 Check out the whole post next door at The Southern Slow Cooker blog.

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Homemade Big Mac Recipe

This shot is so sucky, I even tried to Instagram it to no avail.

Got a hankering for a burger? Try this one on for size. It's everything that makes the Big Mac so tasty, but it's 100% homemade.

Since I am in that phase of the cookbook writing process where I just had to have something that did not come from a slow cooker, I whipped up this little burger and was happy again. It's a recipe that I posted a couple of years ago, so it might look familiar, but it's still a winner, so if you feel like firing up the grill, I hope you'll give this one a try.

You could always just make a regular burger, too.

Just remember, no frozen patties here (yuck). Only ground beef pressed by hand (that's at least 15 percent fat since that has the most flavor). Also, I love to make burgers with ground chuck, a personal preference. And, for the sauce? That's homemade, too (meaning, no cheating with Thousand Island dressing, although there is a wee bit in the recipe as you'll note).

Finally, when you grill or fry your burgers, resist the urge to press down on the meat with a spatula. I see people doing this all the time and it makes me bonkers because it's the fastest way to lose all those precious meat juices.

So, grill up. Have fun, and if you make this recipe, I'd love to hear what you thought about it.

In the meantime, I'll be back to slow cooking.

Homemade Big Mac Recipe

Very Special Burger Sauce

¼ cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons Thousand Island dressing
1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish
1 tablespoon minced onion
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
Salt and Pepper, to taste

Mix all together and refrigerate until ready to use.


To Assemble Very Special Burgers
Makes one burger

2 thin hamburger patties
Salt and pepper
½ tablespoon vegetable oil
2 large sesame seed buns
One slice American cheese
2 tablespoon finely minced onion
½ cup finely shredded lettuce
3 slices dill pickles

Heat a grill pan or griddle to medium high.

Lightly salt and pepper hamburger patties. Add vegetable oil to pan and cook each burger until the juices run clean (you can also grill them). Remove burgers and set aside.

Take one of the buns, open it, and place each bun face down on the griddle or grill. Take the other bun and remove the heel (bottom part of the bun) and place it face down on the grill (save top part of bun for another burger).  Toast each bun well, letting them soak up a little of the leftover burger grease.

To assemble, spread one tablespoon of the Very Special Burger Sauce on the bottom bun and top with one tablespoon minced onions and some shredded lettuce. Top with the slice of cheese and then one of the burger patties.  Next add the remaining bottom bun.  Spread it with more dressing, minced onion, shredded lettuce, pickle slices and then add the second burger. Top with the remaining top bun.

©2012 Fatback and Foie Gras. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Fresh Figs with Feta and Black Pepper Honey Recipe

The figs have arrived! The figs have arrived! This is my sentiment when our little tree that we planted a mere 3 years ago actually produced and the tree rats didn't get to them first. Can you tell I am just a wee bit excited?

A few days ago, I climbed up under our baby fig tree and harvested these buggers with abandon, glancing behind me from time to time to make sure the squirrels weren't stalking me (and I know they were, because I could feel their furry, flea-bitten presence) and I picked my little figgies in a state of pure bliss. It was a beautiful thing, and a true first around here because we get nothing, I tell you-- no plums from the 50 year old plum tree, nary a strawberry from the garden, and this year, yard critters ate off all of our zucchini flowers and all of our Meyer lemon tree flowers, so zilcho is coming from either of those. I'm getting a BB gun and a wrist rocket, I tell you, and I'm going to park my butt on the roof and start firing away at will. Heck, even this guy can't help me, and knocking off squirrels is ingrained into his genetic code.

Hankdog gets dirty, a lot.

Much of our fig explosion I can thank our neighbors for, since they have the biggest, most immense fig tree I have ever seen. It literally towers over their house, and there's no question it was planted when the house was built over 50 years ago, and this thing is LOADED with huge, gorgeous figs that said neighbors never touch. We would ask them if we could harvest a handful or two, but they're not really around too often and, while they seem like nice people, we don't really have much interaction other than the distant neighbor wave (ya'll know what I'm talking about). Ravaging their tree late night was a consideration until they adopted a very yard protective pit bull, and while I love me some figs, I don't need to lose a leg over a tarte tatin.

Fresh figs over vanilla yogurt. Simple. Perfection.

So there the neighbor's fig tree sits filled with birds, squirrels and crows who spend a full month enjoying a high fiber snack party of epic proportions while we helplessly watch in horror and disbelief. Yet, how does this benefit me, you ask? It goes like this: when the squirrels and birds have 10,000 bigger, juicier, seemingly unending figs to eat, they leave our tree alone. Survival of the fittest in its purest form, at least for those of us who actually like to eat figs. Their tree gets uselessly pilfered while our tree rises to its fruity purpose by being turned into sugary desserts, honey-laden little bites, and savory entrees, and somewhere amidst this summery goodness Darwin is smiling and probably getting hungry.

Slow cooker pork roast with figs, balsamic, vanilla, rosemary jam and onions.

Heck, I even developed a pork recipe for The Southern Slow Cooker cookbook that I'm in the process of writing for publication next summer (behold the shameless plug). In addition, I whipped up a super easy appetizer modeled after this cool recipe I found from Bon Appetit. Since I didn't have goat cheese on hand, only feta, I subbed that and it was killer.

Fresh Figs with Feta and Black Pepper Honey

*Barely adapted from Bon Appetit* Remember food bloggers, changing one ingredient does NOT make your recipe original. Always link to the original and offer full credit or get written permission if that's the site's policy. Recipe thieves make me mad.

12-14 fresh figs (I used brown turkey figs) cut into quarters, but not through the bottom (see above photo)
1/4 cup wildflower honey (tastes best)
Lots and lots of freshly ground pepper

Nice chunk of good Greek or Bulgarian feta, drained well

Place split-open figs on a serving plate. In a small saucepan add the honey and a good amount of black pepper, to taste. Bring up to medium-low and let simmer for a couple of minutes. Stuff each fig with a chunk of feta and drizzle the honey over the figs and onto the plate (it's pretty!).

Serve with a dry rosé like Barboursville Vintage Rosé which was the perfect pairing for the slightly salty cheese, sweet figs and spicy pepper.

©2012 Fatback and Foie Gras. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Beans and Cornbread Recipe

PLUS

EQUALS

Get the recipe....

©2012 Fatback and Foie Gras. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

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Breaking Out the Slow Cooker

 NOTE: Updated post with recipe photos from The Southern Slow Cooker cookbook!

Slow cooker navy beans and turkey from The Southern Slow Cooker.

 And, so it begins.... I've got the slow cookers a cookin', all three of them, and I've officially upgraded from the archaic (vintage?) Rival I bought at an estate sale several years ago. Don't get me wrong, I totally dig my Rival, and let's face it, those cookers just won't die. Just when you think you've cooked your last pot 'o beans, that SOB rises from the ashes all Phoenix-like to take one more chuck roast. Fact: take care of your slow cooker and it'll probably outlive you.

Slow cooker pork loin with vanilla fig jam from the book.

I decided to get more than one slow cooker for recipe testing for The Southern Slow Cooker so I could experience various brands (both pricey and budget) as well as different sizes and shapes, since one of the challenges in writing a slow cooker cookbook for the general public is that my readers will own different types of slow cookers, and not only does size matter, but so does shape (think round pots versus oval). Also, many newer slow cookers will run hotter than the retro-fabulous, old school ones our mothers have and that can greatly affect overall cooking time as well as cause incidental burning issues.

Country ham breakfast bread pudding. Yup, from the book

and you can make this in your crockpot and have it ready by brunch!

So, the three cookers I have going so far are as follows:

1. Hamilton Beach Stay or Go 5-Quart Slow Cooker: I dig this little number, not only because it's portable (and apparently spill-proof once you lock it in) but because it has a nice price point at under $40. It's also super easy to use with a simple manual high, low and warm setting and it's a basic oval. I'm figuring lots of folks will have slow cookers like this one with these functions.

2. KitchenAid 6-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker with Easy Serve Lid: KitchenAid seems to only make two slow cookers and both are 6-quart programmables. What struck me about this one, in addition to the side by side pop-up lid (so when you gotta stir you can retain at least half of that valuable heat), is that it has a warm, low, hot and a medium setting. I've never seen a slow cooker with a medium setting, and to be honest, I'm not entirely sure how I will use it yet, but it does open the opportunity for more experimentation. Just digging into this one, so I shall report more later.

3. All-Clad 6.5-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker: So, this one is my fancy pants slow cooker. All-Clad only makes two slow cookers-- the 6.5 quart and a 7 quart, and they are both gorgeous and expensive. These cookers are the Rolls Royce's of slow cooking, and I figure while many regular folks may not invest in such high dollar machinery, there are home cooks out there who will (or will at least put it on their bridal registry). Plus, let's face it, I really wanted one of these because I freaking love All-Clad anything. This slow cooker will serve as my large order one for roasts, entertaining recipes, and the like. Heck, it's so pretty I just might put it over the fireplace on display.

P.S. My vintage round Rival slow cooker will be making appearances in the kitchen as well many people still cook with older models.

Have a favorite tried and true slow cooker? Please share. I would love learn more about the features, sizes and shapes you prefer to cook with at home.

Thanks, and there's more to come!

Kendra

Crockpot pasta sauce with meatballs, sausages and cubed steak. You guessed it, from The Southern Slow Cooker cookbook!

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I Just Signed a Cookbook Deal

I'm super excited to announce that I have just signed on to pen a cookbook with Ten Speed Press/Crown Publishing Group. The Southern Slow Cooker: Big-Flavor, Low-Fuss Recipes for Comfort Food Classics is set to come out next summer 2013.

I could not be more pleased to be working with Ten Speed again, and I am so proud to be in the company of such amazing authors whose cookbooks I've dog-eared and dirtied up time and time again: Martha Foose, Virginia Willis, Andrea Nguyen, Mollie Cox Bryan and David McMillan to name a very few.

It's going to be a very busy, hot-in-the-kitchen summer for me as I slug through lots and lots of recipe testing (think soups, stews and other steamy foods), but I couldn't be happier. Stay tuned here for updates along with a glimpse of what goes into the making of a cookbook. It's going to be fun ride!

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