Oh crockpot, how I love thee...

...let me count the ways. Ok, so I'm not going to really count the ways, but I will tell you the number one reason why I love my crockpot. For some reason I am much more in the mood to do all the prep work involved in making dinner around lunch time than at 4 or 5 o'clock. With a crockpot you still have to do prep work like you would with any other cooking method, but there is something so nice about saying..."Hmmm, it's 5:00 and I'm hungry," and you can get out a plate or a bowl and chow down right then and there. No waiting. I'm very impatient when I'm hungry.

Sunday I made Baked Bean Soup from A Year of Crockpotting. Let me tell you...it was goooood. It was a struggle, but we even got Blockette to eat it. I had thought it would taste more like a jar of of baked beans. It didn't, but I think it was better that it didn't.

Of course, I changed the recipe a bit. Here is what I did differently: Instead of regular chili powder I used Penzey's Chili 3000 . (I had gotten this as a free small jar from their catalog and this was the first time I had used it. I think it had a brighter flavor than regular chili powder. I'll need to try this out in a few more recipes to decide if it is worth buying a large jar.) I also added 2 cups of cubed ham. (I'm still trying to use all the leftover ham we froze from Easter!!!) If I don't have any ham the next time I make this I will either add cooked bacon or oven baked meatballs. I think the meat added a lot to this soup.

I almost omitted the last step of pureeing part of the soup. I don't have a stick blender and I was feeling lazy about dragging out the regular blender. I was glad I did. It not only thickened the soup, but the puree gave the soup a smoother, richer taste. After I pureed part of the soup, I added a can of drained corn. If you don't care if the corn is part of the puree, feel free to dump it in at the beginning with all the rest of the stuff.

Baked bean soup adapted from A Year of Slow Cooking

1 (15-oz) can white kidney beans, undrained

1 cup finely diced onion

1 cup diced carrot

3 t dijon mustard

2 T unsulphured molasses

1 T soy sauce

2 t apple cider vinegar

1 T Chili 3000

1 (14.5-oz) can fire roasted tomatoes (and juice!)

2 cups water

salt to taste before serving

1 can corn

2 c Ham

Use a 5-6 quart slow cooker. Put beans into pot, and top with onion and carrot. Add all seasonings and spices. Pour in the entire can of tomatoes, and add water. Stir. Cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours, or on high for 4-5. If your beans were dry, you might need to go as long as 10 hours, depending on altitude and humidity. Before serving, put several cups of the soup in a blender until smooth and add back to the crockpot.  This will thicken your broth and provide a richer flavor. Add corn and ham and cook until warm.