Slow Cooker Cheesy Bacon Potatoes with Helpful Hints

The recipe I am posting today is for potatoes made in the slow cooker.  These potatoes can be used as a side dish or with some added ham or vegetables as a main dish.

Slow Cooker Cheesy Bacon Potatoes

6 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled
3 pounds red potatoes, cubed*
1 1/2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 pkg. powdered ranch dressing mix

Line the slow cooker with aluminum foil** and spray with cooking spray.  Leave enough foil to fold over the top.

Put a layer of potatoes evenly on the foil, top with 1/3 cup cheese, sprinkle with some ranch seasoning and bacon.  Repeat this two times more, leaving 1/2 cup of cheese for later.

Fold the foil over the potatoes and cook for 8 hours on low or 3-4 hours on high.
Sprinkle on the remaining cheese and put the cover back on for a couple minutes until the cheese melts.

* I imagine southern style frozen hash browns would work for this step and the cooking time would be a lot less.  I actually needed more cooking time.  I used the 3 to 4 hours on high method, and my potatoes were still slightly crunchy.  They were very firm raw red potatoes and needed extra time.

My method for making the cubes was using one of my favorite gadgets.  It is the Vidalia Chop Wizard.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2012/12/a-day-of-recovery.html

Slice the washed red potatoes into 1/2 inch slices.

Place slice on vidalia using the larger insert.

Results are uniform cubes of raw potato made in minutes.

**The next hint I have is for lining the slow cooker.  For most things I use the liner bags.  It saves washing the baked on food from the slow cooker.

 
However, this recipe said to line the slow cooker with foil, so that is what I did.  A good trick for lining a pan with foil is to first turn the pan upside down and form the foil around it.  It works for a crock pot insert or a cake pan.  The hard part about lining a pan with foil is to get the corners to fit without ripping the foil.  This eliminates that problem.

I'm showing this with a cake pan, but it also works for a crock pot.

Turn pan upside down and form the foil around the pan.

Take the foil off the pan, turn over and it fits perfectly even in the corners.

The Lost Ring

Happy Easter to all.  For some of you this is a very important religious holiday.  For others it is all about the Easter Bunny.  Whatever is important to you, I wish you a meaningful day.

This weekend was meaningful to me in a way I didn't expect.  On Good Friday we were busy.  We went to several grocery stores to pick up items for our family brunch.  We usually go out to eat with my dad on Fridays, so we took him on our shopping trip.  We didn't go to our usual places, but decided to try Kentucky Fried Chicken because basically it was the only game in town.  Well, not really, but it was convenient.  It wasn't a complete success for dad, but my husband and I liked it for a change. 

When we arrived home with the groceries, we put them away and then my husband went outside to split some logs.  He was outside for several hours.  That evening as we were sitting watching TV, my husband noticed he was missing his wedding ring.

He has been wearing this ring since 8/24/68.

I couldn't believe it.  Some days we don't leave the house, but that day we were in several places.  It was almost dark when he discovered it, so there was no looking around the yard.  I did look in the car and on the garage floor, but nothing showed up.  The next morning, we didn't have time to look.  We were having brunch with our daughters, their families and my daughter's mother and father in law.  Again after we arrived home, my husband went outside to work a little.  He barely looked for the ring because it could have been in the trash bag at KFC, or it could have been in the grocery store. 

I went about my business.  At some point in the afternoon, I went out to feed the birds and retrieve the camera card from the trail camera.  As I was walking in the house, Mike was raking around the bushes near the house.  He held up his hand and there was his ring on the second finger of his left hand.  He quietly said "I found it".  That's his personality.  I would have jumped up and down and ran to show him.  He figured I would notice eventually. 

He had remembered loading the wheelbarrow with debris.  Some of the big pieces were put in the burning barrel, but the excess got dumped at the edge of hill going down to the marsh.  To avoid erosion, we put excess debris and leaves on the hill.

This is the pile of leaves and small branches that get dumped on the hill.

He looked in the burning barrel but didn't see the ring.  Then he pushed the wheelbarrow to the the dumping spot.   He looked down and low and behold.  THE RING!  He couldn't believe his eyes, and I couldn't believe he found it. 

While cleaning up after splitting wood, he reached into his pocket to get out his knife.  Since his phone was on his belt, getting into the pocket was a tight squeeze.  This may have caused the ring to slip off and fall off without him noticing.   Then later while raking up the debris, the ring ended up in the wheelbarrow and dumped on the hill.  Hopefully that will never happen again.  He lost another ring his mom bought him in Green Lake five or six years ago.  That ring was never found, we thought this one was gone forever as well.

On a superficial note, a second miracle occurred for us yesterday.  We were born and raised in Wisconsin so it is logical that we are Wisconsin Badger sport fans.  Last night, Wisconsin beat undefeated Kentucky in the semifinal NCAA Men's Basketball game allowing them to play Duke for the National Championship.  It was a good day.

Lester Schwartz Sculptures Discovered

Last weekend we learned about making maple syrup.  I wrote about it in a blog.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2015/03/a-maple-syrup-tour.html

What I didn't include is what else I learned that day.  As we drove onto the property for the tour, I noticed several metal sculptures in the landscape.  I had seen these from the road for many years, but I never took the time to find out about them.  Apparently this was the home and property of Lester Schwartz, and it was his daughter and her husband who created the informative maple syrup tour.

I learned that Les Schwartz founded the art department at Ripon College and was a famous artist.  He was the Artist in Residence at Ripon College for many years.  At his home, near Green Lake Wisconsin, he built large scale sculptures made from scrap metal.  His sculptures were inspired by his travels and his love for the circus.  He named the sculpture garden "Gloria Hills" after his late wife.  Lester died in 2006 and the park is no longer open to visitors.  Hopefully some of these sculptures can be preserved and moved to a park, to the Town Square in Green Lake or better yet, to the Ripon College campus.  Moving them may be a huge project, but they should be available for people to see on a regular basis.

Here is a link with more information about Lester Schwartz:
http://www.wisconsinart.org/archives/artist/lester-o-schwartz/profile-150.aspx

I don't know the name or history of these sculptures but they were very interesting.

Piper Saves The Day

We have a little grand dog.  Her name is Piper Ann, and she is a cockapoo.  I have written this story before, but will mention it again.  She got her name because when my daughter was expecting her second child, ultrasound photos said she was probably having a girl.  Probably is an important word because five years ago yesterday our fourth grandson was born.  They had chosen a girl name but not a boy name.  For a few hours our grandson was nameless.  They finally agreed on naming him Ewan.  It seemed to fit with his brother's name which is Dylan.  Since they liked the girls name Piper, that is what they named their girl dog.

Piper is a spunky little thing.  She is extremely smart but can be a bit naughty at times.  Many times when my daughter gets home from work, her bedroom door is open and Piper is lounging on the bed.  She can go into a purse and gently remove a mint or tissues without disturbing anything else.  She loves tissues.  We took care of her this weekend, and she can remove one tissue from the box without disturbing the box or any other tissues.  We tie her out on a long tie out when she is with us because she can find all kinds of things in the woods.  We also don't want to be responsible for her getting away from us.  She is the only dog we have had who can untangle herself from trees or bushes.  They have tried to train her not to open doors or steal items, but today it was a good thing she didn't pay attention.

My daughter lives in the country now.  She has had an unbelievable number of Asian Beetles (or as my grandson says Ancient Beetles).  She will vacuum for a half hour and ten minutes later there are fifty more on the window sills.  She finally had enough even though spraying for them was not what she wanted to do.  She hired an exterminator who came to their house and sprayed today.  He went out on a balcony they have so he could reach some of the window sills on the second floor.  When he tried to come in, the door was locked.  He knocked and knocked until my daughter heard him and opened the door.  While she was upstairs, he wanted to show her where some of the beetles were gathering.  As soon as they went back out, the door slammed shut.  There she was, locked out on a balcony with a strange man.  She was thinking about what to do and who to call, when she heard Piper.  She called to her and told her to come.  Yup, the dog opened the door for them.  The man called her a Hero Dog.  So in this case, Piper's stealth skills came in very handy.  You never know when you might need a dog that can pick a lock.