Waiting for Gouda

With the weather turning cooler, the Lovely Wife™ and I have taken our crock-pot out of storage and are enjoying all manner of soups, stews, chowders and broths on a regular basis. For those of you not familiar with the wonder that is a crock-pot, it’s basically a large ceramic-type dish into which you place a collection of seemingly unrelated food items, stir vigorously, and then come back in approximately five to seven business days to enjoy. Unless you are feeding the entire neighborhood or just your own Catholic family, it’s not anything you would want to undertake if you have a terminal illness, or plan to leave town within the next few weeks. Not only is the actual cooking time most suitable for someone under house-arrest, but if you follow the instructions carefully, there will be enough leftovers to render the question “What’s for dinner?” moot for at least a fortnight. Therefore it’s quite important to chose ingredients that you’re certain you could never get sick of. Then, fire that baby up and get ready to prove yourself wrong. In our household, we’ve been enjoying a fantastic vegetable and Italian sausage concoction for about as long as I can remember.