Crock-Pottery, Or One of Those Long Recipe Posts, but With a Link to the Actual Recipe Post

                 We finally finished Missy Piggle Wiggle and the Whatever Cure tonight.  One of the very last chapters sounded a lot like Kiddo, and I think she might be considering a few changes right now.  Not necessarily long lasting ones, but I might get a week or two of more focus out of her, and that's worth something.

                Being that it's finally cold here, I've been in the mood for soup.  I bought a few pounds of onions a couple weeks ago, so I chopped them up this morning and threw them into the crock pot, per a friend's recommendation.  I let them sit there with some melted butter for a few hours, and it was magical--the onions browned and caramelized by themselves!  I stirred them once an hour, then left the lid partially off after Fuzzy got home to boil down the liquid.  This is magical--I didn't have to stand over it or stir every five minutes or anything.  I'm not bold enough to leave the crock pot on overnight, but I'm definitely doing this again.  It's now simmering with the broth I heated up on the stove before pouring in, and my house smells lovely.  I had a lightish dinner, so I'll have a small bowl in about an hour before cooling the rest to go into the fridge.

                I wonder sometimes if Fuzzy regrets letting me register for this thing over a decade ago.  I have made a lot of stuff in it.  Most of it was too vegetable-heavy to intrigue him, but he dutifully scrubs it out regularly.  He doesn't even point out that it's a little nutty that I own three in different sizes (standard, two-quart, and lil dipper), or that it's a little more nutty that I kind of want a second two-quart pot.  The two-quart pot doesn't fit any recipe, but it's ideal for our little family.  I cut the recipe in half or even in quarters, then barrel forward.  When there isn't as much in the pot, you do have to watch for faster cooking times, but it still works out.  I particularly enjoy combining the smallest sliced honey or brown sugar ham I could find at the grocery store with a half can of crushed pineapple on low for three or four hours.  Lovely.  If I had a second, I could combine it with a good potato soup or something.

                In the name of keeping ourselves fed and sane, the costume shop at Dickens has a rotation of lunch bringers.  We sign up for one or two days out of the eleven of run, and bring in something that can be heated in the shop crock pot (we have two, so you can do a second dish or a hot punch).  It's given me some fantastic ideas through the years--pulled pork for wraps and sandwiches, baked potato buffet, chili, all kinds of vegetable soups.  Good stuff. 

                The first year I contributed, I found a vegetarian, gluten-free potato and cheese soup recipe.  It took some doing, but I was able to cook it between when I came home from work and the time I went to bed, and it seemed okay.  It turned out that when it was reheated, it drunkenly danced the line between potato soup and mashed potatoes.  Everyone seemed full after one bowl each, and I felt a bit foolish for making so much.  That feeling lasted until the next day, when the folks who stayed to the close that night explained that their second bowls at dinner kept them warm for the rest of the evening, and that simmering all day had turned the soup downright lifegiving.  Frankly, I think it helped that they also found the bag of bacon crumbles I had left in the cooler.  It was deemed magical, and it has been decreed that I will be bringing it to every fair as long as I can.  I try to sign up for the coldest weekend every year, and I don't have the heart to tell them how much fat is in this soup (there's whole milk.  And cheese.  And cream cheese.  And more cheese.). 

                Even though I'll have to eat the soup all alone this year, I'm considering making a quarter batch in the little crock pot.  It's supposed to top out in the fifties early next week, with a smattering of rain (finally!), so that might be an ideal moment.  Maybe I'll eat a bowl while I peruse the websites of the fair vendors, shopping for gifts.  They need the business from us, after all, and hopefully the web shopping will allow me the close looks at the goods that I so often have to forgo when the crowds are big.

Links:  Magical Potato Soup  https://www.katrina-runs.com/gluten-free-crock-pot-potato-soup

Dickens Fair Vendors Shopping  https://dickensfair.com/merchants/shop-online-dickens-fair