Of comfort foods and slow cookers

I think slow cookers are great for making winter comfort food. The original, AKA the CrockPot (shown at right) has helped many a busy parent, but I love the new one I'm testing from Hamilton Beach that has a food thermometer built in. All-Clad also has a sexy new model that's being sold at Williams-Sonoma.  

This is the time, if ever there was one, for some cosy, warm-me-up winter foods. If you feel the same way, perhaps you’ll enjoy one of my fave slow cooker recipes for brown rice pudding, which was inspired by the brill food writer Mark Bittman. Here goes.Take 1/2 cup of brown rice and put in a grinder or blender very briefly – just to break the grains a bit. Add it, along with two 14-ounce cans of coconut milk, about ½ cup of maple syrup, and a cinnamon stick to a slow cooker and turn it on low for a couple of hours. You can use regular milk but the coconut milk is so much more delish. Before serving, stir in about ½ cup of white chocolate chunks and/or chopped pan-roasted hazelnuts. Oh yeah, it's good. Do you have a great slow cooker recipe? Share it with me, please - check out my Twitter request/contest for recipe ideas.