Slow Cooker Italian Sausage, Chicken & Veggie Stew

Sometimes what a fast paced life needs is just a little bit of slow...in the form of a slowcooker, of course. There is nothing like coming home from a long, busy day and opening the door to the welcoming, wafting aroma of a hearty dinner. 

In this case, chicken and sweet Italian sausage simmered with red and green bell peppers, red onion, yellow squash, eggplant, garlic, spinach, mushrooms, fresh basil and a good jarred marinara sauce into a stew-like delight that I served over gluten-free spaghetti. Kimber enjoyed hers over spaghetti squash, but you could just as easily simply serve it in bowls as a veggie-hearty Italian stew.
 
When it comes to slow cooking, I like to take a few extra steps to ensure good depth of flavor. It might take a little bit longer to brown the chicken and sausage before loading them into the crock, but the difference in the end is worth it. 

Think of the difference between roasted chicken and boiled chicken...THAT'S the difference...I like to call it oomph. Then, too, I deglaze the pan with the marinara sauce and a little water to get every single smidgen of goodness into the slowcooker and, eventually, into your mouth!
 
So here's the recipe for a vitamin-rich, hearty, colorful, e a s y one-pot wonder of a dinner. What more do you need? Oh yeah...a glass of good red wine would be very nice. 

 Slow Cooker Italian Sausage, Chicken & Veggie Stew

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 3 sweet Italian sausage links
• salt and pepper, to taste
• granulated garlic, to taste

• 1 small red pepper, seeded, 1/2" dice
• 1 small green pepper, seeded, 1/2" dice
• 1/2 large red onion, cut into slivers approx 1/4" wide
• 1 small yellow squash, cut in half lengthwise and across into 1/4" slices
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 2 cups spinach, torn
• 1 large eggplant, cubed
• 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, torn
• 2 teaspoons oregano, dried

• 1 1/2 cups marinara sauce, your favorite store-bought brand
• 1/4 cup tomato paste

• 3 tablespoons water
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch

Heat oil in a heavy skillet. Season chicken with salt, pepper and granulated garlic to taste. Brown the chicken breasts and sausages until just cooked through. Remove from pan and set aside. Leave the drippings in the skillet and set aside.
 
Add the veggies to a large slow cooker. Slice the chicken across the grain, slice the sausages into 1 1/2" pieces and mix into the veggies in the crock. Any juices that may have accumulated from slicing the meats, add them to the skillet.
 
To the skillet, add the marinara sauce to the pan juices, add water and tomato paste and stir up all the brown bits over low heat. Pour over the meats and veggies in the crock and mix gently.
 
Cover and turn heat to high for an hour. After the hour, turn the slow cooker down to low and cook for another 5 hours. When ready to serve, mix the water and cornstarch together and stir gently but thoroughly into the meats and veggies to thicken the sauce. Serve as is as a stew or over pasta or spaghetti squash.

One dish dinner, baby!

Corncake Chorizo Stuffed Acorn Squash

Two perfectly beautiful, deep shiny green acorn squashes were in my CSA basket last week. In my book, that's a SURE sign of autumn! Why does the appearance of winter squash seem to be timed along with falling leaves and the resultant cleaning those suckers out of the pond? And mucking debris from the bottom of said pond when the pond water is freezing!
 
Shouldn't there be some sort of a special reward for voluntarily turning oneself into a human pond popsicle complete with shriveled, ice cold, blue hands from digging in the depths of fish, frogs and slime? There is. And it involves those gorgeous acorn squashes.
 
I was looking for a side dish to snuggle up to some nice steaks on our dinner plates one evening and you KNOW those lovely forest green squashes came to mind immediately. I could have baked them and served them salted, peppered and with brown sugar, but I was thinking something less sweet and more substantial. 

Sausage stuffed acorn squash is always is good choice, but a meat-stuffed squash didn't seem like a proper side dish for a steak - oh I know, some of you guys out there think meat makes a perfect side dish for meat. Nuh uh.  
Then I thought corn...which lead to thoughts of Mexican corncake and once again we were back to the too sweet problem. Buuuuuut...wait a minute....how about....chorizo? Salty, spicy chorizo made the perfect foil to sweet corncake to balance out the sweet, salty, spicy and savory notes perfectly. Problem solved. If only closing down the pond for the season could be that easy!

 Corncake Chorizo Stuffed Acorn Squash

• 2 acorn squashes, halved, seeds scraped out

• 1 stick butter, softened
• 1/3 cup masa harina, I prefer yellow
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 1/2 cups creamed corn (that's a 14.75 ounce can)
• 1/4 cup cornmeal, I prefer yellow
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

• 1 chorizo link, removed from casing, crumbled and browned well

Squash: Spray the inside of the cut squashes with vegetable or olive oil. Bake cut side down at 400 degrees for 40 minutes or until a knife pierces easily, but not to a mushy mess, please! Remove from oven and let cool before filling and baking again.
 
Corncake: Beat the butter with the masa harina. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well until completely incorporated.
 
Assembly: Fill the insides of the squash with the corncake mixture. (Leftover corncake mixture? Butter the insides of small ramekins, fill and bake alongside the squashes. You may need to remove the ramekins from the oven before the squash, so watch them carefully.) 

Sprinkle on the crumbled chorizo and bake at 375 degrees for approximately 45 minutes or until the corncake is baked through. Remove from oven and enjoy!
 
NOTE: This would really make a lovely, light dinner on its own with a side salad or fresh veggies!

Greek Potatoes - A Recipe Fairytale.

Long, long ago a recipe from Suzie's Greek restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh ran in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. It was a lovely recipe. It was an enchanted recipe. The potato casserole included zucchini, onion, tomatoes, olive oil, oregano & feta along with the potatoes.  It sounded lighter and healthier than a typical gratin - no cream, butter or flour - magical!  I made it, the fam loved it (!) and I promptly lost the recipe. What to do?!  

The quest to recreate it began.  No toe of frog or eye of newt went into the pot, but pinches of this and touches of that were added along the way...lemon zest and juice, oregano...more earthly ingredients than mystic ones for this concoction.  The result was bewitching.  The family was happy.  The end of the story?  Not quite.  
 
Back in those dark ages - before Food Network - the only cooking shows to be found were on PBS - locally, WQED in Pittsburgh. One Saturday morning in 1998 while I was watching Chris Fennimore on the "WQED Cooks" show, he asked viewers to submit recipes for an upcoming show called "P is for Potatoes."   Did I have a recipe for him! The recreated, all new Greek Potatoes sounded like just the fair recipe Mr. Fennimore sought.  So I sent the recipe to the kingdome of WQED to see if it was worthy.  

Lo and behold, not long after the recipe was submitted, my phone rang...who was on the other end of that line? Chris Fennimore himself. The king of the WQED cooking show asked me to appear and actually make the dish on camera! You KNOW I said YES! I told you it was an enchanted recipe. And so, I went to the land of WQED studios.  

What an experience! I thought I'd be nervous, but the entire kingdom of WQED made me and the other guest cooks feel quite comfortable.  Once I was in place with all my ingredients spread before me and the red light of the camera went on, we chatted and cooked together while telling stories and laughing...what a good time!  Honestly, it was just like being in my very own, very humble kitchen.

The bonus of the appearance was seeing my recipe in print in the "P is for Potatoes" cookbook...but there was an even bigger thrill to come.  Greek Potatoes made it to the WQED Best of the Best cookbook!  It was a happily-ever-after experience.

You'd think that was the end of the story.  In fact, I did too.   After all these years, there is a little epilogue to the fairytale. Chris Fennimore, a.k.a King of WQED cooking shows, will be one of the judges for the Savor Pittsburgh Culinary Competition at Southside Works for the benefit of Magee-Women's Research Institute & Foundation. Little ol' commoner me will be one of the judges, too. 

I can hardly wait for September 6th to stand side by side with Mr. Fennimore (and Rick Sebak, too!) as part of the judging crew who get to taste over 20 recipes prepared by the best chefs of the best restaurants in Pittsburgh to determine the fairest dish in all the land. And they most certainly lived very happily ever after.    

If you'd like to enjoy an enchanting evening of fine food and great entertainment - all for a very good cause - follow this link for more info and to purchase tickets:   http://www.savorpgh.com In the meantime, here's the recipe that started it all. 



Greek Potatoes


• 4 baking potatoes, washed, dried, unpeeled & sliced
• 1 small zucchini, sliced
• 1 small yellow squash, sliced
• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• salt (Crazy Salt) to taste
• freshly ground pepper, to taste
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 red ripe tomatoes, sliced (can use diced, canned tomatoes if necessary in winter)
• 4 ounces feta cheese
• oregano


Mix potatoes and the rest of the veggies in a large bowl. Toss with zest, juice, Crazy salt, oregano, pepper and olive oil. 


Lightly oil a 9 x 13 baking dish. Pour the potato mixture into the dish and top with tomatoes and cheese. Sprinkle again with oregano and drizzle with a touch more olive oil.  


Cover loosely with foil and bake at 375 for 1 hour.  Uncover and continue baking until and bubbly and nicely melded together.  If the cheese starts to brown, cover with the foil again - loosely.

Serves 4-6