onions | A Pinch of Luv

I love my slow cooker! We were out and about yesterday since it was my sister’s last day in town, and my husband was coming back to NC, I wanted to make sure we all came home to a hot homemade meal.

It only took me a few minutes to brown the meat and throw all the ingredients into the slow cooker. Before you knew it, we were out the door to enjoy the beautiful Eastern North Carolina 80 degree weather.

The house sure smelled good once we got home.

This recipe Yields: 6- 8 servings

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon of olive oil

(1) 2-3 pound boneless pork loin

8 ounces unsweetened applesauce

1 teaspoon chicken base (I prefer penzeys)

8 ounces of boiling water
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground dry mustard

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

1 tablespoon dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon kosher Salt

3 cloves of garlic minced

1 medium- large sweet potato, quartered

1 (1 # bag ) of baby carrots

1 small yellow onion, quartered

1/2 cup raisins

Directions:

1. In a large nonstick skillet on medium high heat brown all 4 sides of the pork loin in the olive oil.

2. While the meat is searing, go ahead and mix the next nine ingredients in the slow cooker vessel (applesauce-garlic). Turn the slow cooker on the low heat setting.

3. Once the meat is finished browning cut in half and rotate the meat in the applesauce mix. Place the pork sides next to one another on top the applesauce mixture. Now arrange the carrots, sweet potatoes, onions, & raisins on top of the meat. Cover the dish with the slow cooker lid and allow to cook for 8 hours on low.

Enjoy!

One of my husband’s favorite soups is French Onion. Every time we go out to eat, if a restaurant has the soup on the menu he orders it. The first time we ever tried to make french onion soup, we burnt the onions (which was years ago). This is round two. I thought there is no better way to prevent burning of the onions other than to slow cook the onions in the crock pot all day.

This recipe yields 8 servings.

Ingredients:
3 TB butter, unsalted
3 extra large onions ( we used a variety red, sweet, and white)
60 oz.s of high quality beef broth
1 TB Worcestershire sauce
3 TB flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1 TB brown sugar
3 TB low sodium soy sauce
7 turns on the pepper-mill ( freshly cracked pepper)
1 Bay leaf
1/4 cup Sherry or more beef broth
2 thyme sprigs
4 -5 small garlic cloves,minced

Topping:
8 slices Baby Swiss Cheese or your favorite cheese
Beer bread croutons

Directions:

Slice the onions and add them to the crock pot with the butter and the minced garlic. Start the cooker on high.

Stir the onions every 45 minutes to an hour.

After the first hour add the pepper, salt, thyme, & brown sugar. Continue to stir every hour.

After four hours have elapsed turn slow cooker to low. Add broth, soy sauce, worcestershire sauce, sherry, and flour. Stir well and cover. Cook for 6 more hours. Stirring ever 1 to 2 hours.