Secret Slower Cooker - "Rotisserie" Chicken

Today is about the joy of a slow cooker – yup I have jumped on the band wagon or at least I am finally coming out of the closet about my love of the lowly slow cooker.

For years I have used my slow cooker to make the easy-peasy vegetarian chili that was the staple of Tuesday nights in my house. You know the night when some are off the Scouts, some off to higher learning and some (me) off to grocery shopping.

Two weeks ago I decided to jump in with both feet and try new recipes. I had a failure with the Rice Pudding and it took two days to soak/clean the stone ware. The Tortellini casserole was a gluey mess, tasty but very un-pretty and almost rejected by the family.

I sniffed out a number of versions of the “Rotisserie “ chicken and came up with one that my family love.

1          5 – 8 lbs. Roasting Chicken - defrosted

2 T      Brown Sugar

2T       Soya Sauce

A good pinch of salt and pepper

Aluminum foil

Cut 6 – 12inch lengths of aluminum foil. Crush each sheet into a lemon size ball and place in the slow cooker

Wash the chicken inside and out. Pat dry.

Mix brown sugar and soya sauce together and smear over the chicken – again inside and out.

Place chicken on top of the aluminum foil.

Cover and cook on high for 6 hours or low (my favorite) for 8 hours. The chicken will be falling off the bone and ready for any cooked chicken dish.

Make a quick gravy with the juices (1 T flour, 2T juices, cook one minute over a medium heat until combined. Add a little more juice, water or left over black tea – up to ½ a cup)

Serve with rice and your favorite steamed vegetables and salad.

Lice, Love and Happiness

I have lots of kids who have lots of friends who all have lots of glorious hair. It is the glorious hair that I want to talk about today, or at least what can live in the hair. Lice. There I said it. All my kids have has lice at one point in their school careers, some more then once.

I found that the regular over the counter treatments did not work and I hated the idea of putting such harsh chemicals on my young children's hair.


I scoured the web and found the LiceMeister Comb . I then checked out old country recipes for getting rid of lice.

Through trial and error I discovered the chemical free solution.

You will need  -
1 good lice comb - make sure it is metal and the tines very very close together.
1 wide tooth comb
1 large bottle of cheap hair conditioner
1 large towel
A collection of little towels
A good strong posable light


Wrap your child in the large towel.
Slather your child's head with conditioner and I mean slather.
Let the conditioner sit for twenty minute.
Take the wide tooth comb and comb through the hair, removing any knots etc.
Using the good lice comb work section by section through the hair. Depending on the amount of hair  this should take a minimum of an hour.
After each pass of the lice comb through the hair wipe the comb off on one of the smaller towels making sure to kill any bugs that are still moving.
Once you feel you have all the nits and eggs out have the child wash their hair. Toss all towels in a hot wash and pour yourself your favorite drink.

You should repeat one week later.

You don't have to wash everything in the house but if you suspect infestation wash all bedding in hot water. Anything not washable can go into a hot dryer for twenty minutes or be frozen for two days.