Recently at Cafe Du Dad........

A few years ago a very thoughtful person gifted Alison and I a curious thing called a "crock pot" as a celebration of our marriage. Evidently, these pots are very popular with families on the go. The idea is that you can put all manner of meat, vegetables and spices into the thing, turn it on and 2 - 8 hours later have a delicious home cooked meal.

A few nights ago I was leafing through a magazine and ran across some recipes especially for the "crock pot".

"Wow, this looks good," I said to my beautiful wife Alison. "I wish we had one of these crock pot thingys."

"Uh, we do have one. Got it for our wedding. It's in the basement, still in the box. That does look good, do you think you can make it?"

So, with the hint of a challenge in the air, I made the trek into the basement to bring out our long lost crock pot. What I found was very exciting. It was a fairly good sized pot that you plug in, turn on and you're cooking. Who knew there were things like this? Technology these days is so exciting.

Alison and I put our heads together and did an inventory of the pantry. Here is the recipe we settled on for our first crock pot experiment:

Slow-Cooked Enchilada Dinner
1 pound lean ground beef
1 small onion, chopped
1 can (15 ounces) ranch style beans, undrained
1 can (10 ounces) diced tomatoes with mild green chilies, undrained
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon each salt and ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Monterrey Jack cheese
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
6 flour tortillas (6 inch)

* In a large skillet, cook beef and onion over medium heat until the meat is no longer pink; drain. Stir in beans, tomatoes, green pepper, chili powder, salt, cumin and pepper. In a small bowl, combine the cheeses; set aside.

* In a 5-qt slow cooker coated with cooking spray, place two tortillas side by side, overlapping if necessary. Layer with a third of the beef mixture and cheese. Repeat layers twice.

* Cover and cook on low for 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until heated through.

I gathered the ingredients and prepared them according to the recipe. Prep time for me was about 20 minutes. I could have done it faster, but I elected to cut the onion up with a knife instead of using the chopper that finishes an onion in thirty seconds with no tears. No reason, just forgot to use the chopper.

After plugging the pot in, I loaded Cal up for football practice. When we returned about 2 1/2 hours later, this is what we found:


Yes, Alison and Anne Marie couldn't wait. The cheesy goodness wafting through the house was impossible to resist. They had happily dug in.

"So, was it good?" I asked hopefully.

"It was awesome Dad!"

There is nothing like coming home to a happily well fed family.