Homemade Crockpot Carmel Sauce

Wanna show off this holiday season?! Of course you do! Look like you worked in the kitchen all day juggling a candy thermometer --- but really it just takes a few minutes of prep. This is the easiest recipe I have tried to make for amazing homemade carmel sauce. It would be great on ice cream, in holiday cocktails, drizzled over popcorn, or dipping sauce for fall apples! You only need one ingredient, a crockpot, and a few awesome jars.

Things to collect:

-Crockpot

-Jelly jars or other mason jars

-A few cans of sweetened condensed milk

It doesn't matter what brand you use for any of the items, however, I tried a low fat milk... Not good!

After you gather your supplies, just transfer the condensed milk into jars of your choosing. I used small widemouthed 4 oz Ball jars. As long as you have tops, it's up to you! Jelly jars work great too! After pouring sweetened condensed milk into the jars, not quite to the top, place lids. 

Place jars in crockpot water bath. This is easy peasy! Just add water an inch or so above top of jars. Cook your carmel for 6-7.5 hours on low. Always keep water above lids-- this helps seal the jars. The liquid will begin to turn from a creamy color that is runny to a deeper color that is thick.

Check one of the jars to make sure it has reached perfection! It may be slightly chunky- that's OK! Just stir before serving. These make great gifts when packaged thoughtfully. SO freakin' good! And easy. I mean hard. Very very hard. Slave all day hard. I'm so worn out, I may need a scoop of ice cream topped with carmel sauce ;-)

Store in fridge and binge! Happy Holidays!

What's in Crock Mama's Crockpot today?! Organic Chunky Red Sauce!

At one of our homeschool co-ops we have an amazing organic garden with all kinds of veggies the kids planted. And, my fav, chickens!!! It was super fun last week when we got to tend to the garden and chickies when everyone 'flew the coop' (hahaha- couldn't help myself) and went on vacation. They told us to help ourselves to anything we wanted, so with a frost looming every night last week, we did! After baskets full of goodies were hauled home, the thought eventually entered my mind- crap! what do we don with all this stuff?! So... we decided on crockpot chunky veggie red sauce! We made some, made some more, and more... Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas ;-)

Ok. So. Last night we decided to chop veggies and toss in crockpot and let cook overnight. This morning the house Smells. De. Vine. Yum.
This is how Crock Mama did it--- you can also substitute items to suit your taste or use canned, frozen, fresh veggies. Get creative and have fun!

Recipe:
tons and tons of peeled tomatoes-- really specific huh?
1 huge zucchini, chopped in small pieces
a handful of baby carrots, chopped finely
2-3 celery sticks, chopped
1 large fresh from garden onion, diced
large handful of sliced mushrooms- We used dried from Whole Foods
10 or so cloves of fresh garlic, chopped
2 large cans of organic tomato paste-- you can use tomato sauce to if you like a very thin sauce
spices for taste-- Crock Mama used- fresh basil, and then some dried spices including cinnamon (not to much), dried red peppers, pepper, and Ms Dash italian blend. You can do whatever your little heart desires!
Try the finger taste test... I ended up adding about 1/4 cup of sugar due to the high acid content.
Cook on LOW for 6-10 hours. Amazing sauce when complete! With this amount after it cooked down, we had enough for a few cans of sauce.
Then we canned! Yes, you heard me right. Canned.

Post to follow :-0
You can enjoy this sauce on pasta, rices, meats, pizzas, you name it! Crock Mama amazing!

Blast from the Past Apple Cake

Here is a post from a year or so ago that I had another blog I wrote. Came across it the other day and still love the cake! I will be making this today while I'm home with a sick kid. Yummy!

So we all loaded in the car last weekend and made the annual jaunt over the hill to Apple Hill. In the snow. In October?!?! Fantastic.

We enjoyed the crafts, ponies, fed the sheep, bought pies, picked pumpkins, and of course, got apples.

To be honest...we always get apples, but they usually sit on the counter till they reach a perfect texture of squishy. Well, this year I have plans. Oh yes, plans. Thought we would start out with a scrumptious apple cake. Ran up to William Sonoma and preceded to buy the creme le creme of apple peelers. Did you even know that such an ingenious contraption existed? Not only does it peel- it cores and slices as well. Or so it says it does.

Try it. Maybe we are just apple peeler rejects, but it took forever to figure it out and made of a mess than anything else. We did however learn how to use the peeler part, which was pretty nifty!

After the adventure of making sure we still had our 10 fingers left (and a few cups of cut apples), we proceeded to make our fabulous apple cake. In the words of mother bear, we were "surprised and delight" at how the bundt turned out. Give it a whirl or a spin and enjoy with a cup of joe!

Also- if anyone has any wondrous tips on how to really work and apple peeler...let us know :)

3 C of sliced apples

1 1/2 C oil

2 C sugar

2 eggs

1 C chopped walnuts

3 C flour

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

2 t vanilla

1 t cinnamon

Mix apples, oil, sugar, eggs and nuts in a large bowl. Set aside. Mix dry ingredients plus the vanilla in a separate bowl, then add to apple bowl. It will be ridiculously thick. Pop in the oven at 350, for 1 hour or until knife comes out clean.We used a bundt pan, but you can enjoy an ungreased 13x9 baking pan too. Enjoy!