If you are in a bit of a tizz over a variety of things, may I highly recommend getting together with a group of girlfriends and having wine and a lot of snacks? I can’t even express how reviving it can be. This morning I am a new, freshened Swistle.
I would like to tell you about this little gentleman, which I debuted at last night’s get-together:
(image from Target.com)
One of the appetizers I like to do is a couple packs of Hillshire Farms little beef smokies cooked in a frying pan on low/medium for awhile so they get all nice and toasty-looking, plus a container of creamy/spicy mustard sauce to dip them in. I make the sauce by mixing mustard, mayonnaise, and creamy horseradish sauce; it’s a slapdash thing, but if I were making about 3/4ths cup of the sauce (which is gracious plenty, but if you make less it looks as if there isn’t enough and people are hesitant to take any), I’d guess I do like half mustard, half mayo, and a good tablespoon or more of the horseradish sauce. Creamy/spicy ketchup sauce sounds gross but is also really good: for the same 3/4ths-cup amount, I’d do mostly ketchup but maybe two tablespoons of mayo, and then a good solid squeeze of sriracha or some other spicy sauce, maybe TWO good solid squeezes. Bring a little box of toothpicks for anyone who feels weird just picking the hot doggers up with their fingers, and bring a spoon for each sauce so people can put some on a plate and dip each little hot dog as many times as they like.
ANYWAY. Benefits of this appetizer: surprisingly good, very easy, keto-friendly. Downsides: difficult to figure out how to keep them warm. Before last night, what I did was heat a baking dish in the oven, and then transfer them to it when they were done in the frying pan; then I put the hot baking dish on a towel in a cardboard box for transporting, and brought a hotpad to put the baking dish on at the host’s house. But…that didn’t keep them much warmer for much longer. So I bought the little crockpot to see if that would be better.
Here is what happened: the little crockpot DID keep them warm the whole evening. BUT: it made it harder to serve them (the crockpot had to be plugged in, of course, and then you had to go over to the little crockpot, remove the lid, get out some little smokies which were hard to see against the black interior of the crockpot, replace the lid), and ALSO it continued to cook them. I didn’t notice until I was on the way home and snitched a little smokie for the road and it was very, very cooked: dry and shriveled and dark. No good.
So. Possible solutions include: cooking them less ahead of time (but then they wouldn’t be Just Right at the beginning of the evening when most people are serving up); putting them in a sauce in the crockpot; unplugging the crockpot after the first hour; saying never mind about the crockpot for this particular appetizer and figuring out a different way to keep them warm longer; find a different appetizer that works better in the crockpot.
❤️
An excellent report. I will have to try those sauces! If the mini Crock Pot had a “keep warm” setting like many full-size Crock Pots, I think that might be just the ticket to prevent the shriveliness.
I have the baby crock pot too, and my chief issue is it cooks things HOT. Chicken breasts with salsa or jarred sauce will scorch around the sides and get dry after a few hours. Velveeta and rotel heats fast and then scorches around the edges too.
Same – my queso (or maybe it’s “queso” because it’s just velveeta + salsa) gets too hot in the mini crock pot. Maybe we all need an old school chafing dish over sterno?
https://www.amazon.com/Artisan-Stainless-Buffet-4-Quart-Capacity/dp/B004EHY5J2/ref=sr_1_56_sspa?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1535049180&sr=1-56-spons&keywords=chafing+dish+small&psc=1
I have a mini crockpot that only has a “warm” setting. Also it is white, so easier to see the food inside. Doesn’t solve the needing to be plugged in problem, though. I searched “mini crockpot” on Amazon and found several like this.
Yes! I have that same white one with only one setting (crockpot Little Dipper or something) and really like it. I have done the mini-meatballs in grape jelly in it and it was perfect! Also you can dump a frozen artichoke dip from Trader Joe’s in there and walk away and eventually have delicious dip. Though that package is small and will dry out eventually.
You could do Buffalo Chicken Dip in the Crock-Pot.
http://www.franksredhot.com/recipes/franks-redhot-buffalo-chicken-dip-RE1242-1
Also – not exactly related and not keto friendly – but a mixture of mustard and grape jelly works great for crockpot little smokies. I know it sounds gross, but it’s very tasty. I didn’t make it up, read it in a recipe book a million years ago. I used to cut my daughters’ hot dogs into not-choke-on-them sizes, fry them a bit (but not too much because YOU KNOW how picky little kids are) and put in the mustard/grape jelly and let that melt/mix together – and then serve them with toothpicks. They loved that – until they watched me make them and refused to eat them for several months (mustard!? grape jelly?!) – but then they missed having them and decided they didn’t care what the sauce was made from. ha!
My mom has done this for YEARS, but she uses currant jelly, I think because it is a little less sweet than the grape. But! It’s difficult to find, so I might just try grape next time.
Hmmmm, I often do the little smokies in a sauce in the crock pot, and that works well and is pretty good. But I really like the idea of the pan cooked crispy smokies to dip, that is a much more fun appetizer. I wonder if a layer of something else in the bottom would keep them fresher? Or sprinkling in some water after an hour? Hmmm. I am going to ponder this.
We do an appetizer with the little smokies in a crockpot that is my favorite: little smokies and an excellent spicy bloody mary mix.
The smokies don’t get that night crispy exterior, but they are so yummy! We end up draining out most of the mix once things are warm and the party is getting underway, but we leave some in the bottom because it helps keep things the little weenies from getting all shriveled and sad and dry.
I’ve never actually tried this so I have no idea if it would really work, but I wonder if you could use the crock pot similarly to a warming tray? Put some water in the bottom of the crock pot, set a smaller heat-safe dish in it and put the sausages in that?
I’ll bet an old-fashioned fondue pot with a Sterno can lit underneath would do the trick! I see them at garage sales all the time. We have one from my husband’s grandmother and it works great.
I’ve never had this dish with the smokies fried up first; that would be great. I’ve only had them heated together in the crock, and then the extra grease makes the sauce heavier. It was never my favorite.
I think the answer is to use the crockpot for the cheese, but keep cooked smokies in a fat Thermos. Then you can bring out more of the browned gems as needed.
You didn’t ask for crock-tolerant recipes, but here’s one anyway.
Frozen *Italian* style meatballs (containing cheese and spices), 2 small or one large bag
Open Pit BBQ sauce, one bottle
Can of pineapple chunks, the taller one, maybe it’s 16 oz? not sure. DRAINED. The juice is not helpful here.
Dump, mix, heat. It’s crazy how good this is. Just don’t use any other kind of meatball but Italian, or else it’s really dull.
And definitely pineapple chunks. No tidbits or shreds.
The mustard sauce sounds delish! My mom used tk make an appetizer in a mini crockpot with little hotdogs. I think she would throw a jar of plum… something (sauce? jam?) (this is not at all a helpful comment) in on top of the little hotdogs which definitely prevented shrivelege.
That sounds delicious.
I own a mini crock pot like that. I melt a block of cream cheese and can of Nalley chili and pour it in there. It’s delicious and always a hit.
Have you considered packing them in a Thermos? I mean, I don’t see why it WOULDN’T work.
I have a little crock too and I agree, it cooks hot. I also haven’t had fried smokies – I’m intrigued. Most people where I live put them in BBQ sauce, which is not bad. A crockpot recipe I’ve made and is a hit at parties, is sliced kielbasa in apricot or peach preserves. Similar idea as to what everyone else is suggesting. It’s DELICIOUS and people are always shocked it’s literally “slice it up and dump it in there”.
Meatballs cooked in sauce are my new go-to in the crock pot. But for the smokies, maybe you could put them in a water bath in the crockpot to not directly cook them? Or put the baking dish with a plug-in heating pad under it? Or just turn the crockpot on and off each time you go back for more smokies so it kind of intermittently heats.