That's Some Spicy Slow Cooking!

About author / Pamela Chester

Mom of two; graduate French Culinary Institute; kids cooking program instructor; Master's degree in food studies. Creates kid friendly foods and loves her slow cooker.

After all the spring cleaning I accomplished a few weeks ago, I have one last cleaning task left to complete – organizing the spice drawer. A while back, when I had a bit more free time on my hands and a new label maker, I went through and labeled the top of the lids on all of my spices and sorted them alphabetically, from Allspice to White Pepper.

It might sound a bit compulsive, but I highly recommend this system if you love to collect a lot of different spices and have a drawer or two to spare, it helps to keep any spice you might need right at your fingertips. It also helps ensure you use each one while still at its peak freshness.

For one reason or another, I have been procrastinating on getting this reorganization project done. When we moved into our new home, the spices got tossed willy-nilly into the drawer, and the more I cook with them, the more disorganized they become. Not to mention the numerous new jars of spices I have acquired that I have yet to label.

But this week I swore I would finish my spice project after spending too much time hunting down the cumin for the third time in a row while making my favorite slow cooker chili recipe. Not only that, but today is national Herbs and Spice Day. It seemed a fitting observance of that august occasion.

And you know what, not only did I find the cumin, I also found out I have three jars of cinnamon. Time to make some monkey bread and spiced ice tea! I have fond memories of making Monkey Bread as a child, so called because you pull apart chunks of the sticky sweet rolls and eat them like a monkey. It’s a fun twist on cinnamon rolls that is so easy to make in the crockpot and so good for brunch or a sweet snack. The recipe for Crockpot Monkey Bread below will fill your house with a lovely home-baked cinnamon smell and is sure to please kids and grownups alike.

While I like to use fresh herbs whenever possible, I also keep plenty of dried ones on hand for making pasta sauce and flavorful soups. Now that I can see which ones I have, I can see I have enough to make probably fifty batches of tomato sauce. The slow cooker is a great tool to make a huge quantity of homemade spaghetti sauce that can be frozen for easy to prepare weeknight meals.

In my dad’s town there is an excellent spice shop, and I make it a point to go there every time I visit (Hence the reason I have so many spices). Not only do they have several types of regular chili powder, they carry ancho, chipotle and jalapeno chili powder. These have become some of my favorite spices to jazz up any hot and spicy recipe, such as slow cooked chili. Another set of unique spices I forgot I had are ones I can use in cooking Thai dishes: lemongrass, Thai basil, and kaffir lime leaves.

Spices add so much unique character to slow cooking. Now that my spice drawer is nice and neat and organized, I am excited about rediscovering some of my old favorite spices and using them creatively in the crockpot!

Serves/Makes: 12

• 3 cans (8 ounce size) buttermilk biscuits
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans