One woman. One crockpot. One year.

By Jeff Houck
Media General News Service
Published: July 23, 2008

Stephanie O’Dea got her first Rival Crock-Pot from her mother when she started college. Living at home with two working parents while going to San Francisco State, O’Dea would put a roast on in the morning or make stew before heading to school.

After she got married nine years ago, O’Dea used the slow cooker to stretch a few meals each week. It was a way that she and husband Adam could save money to buy a house in the San Francisco area. O’Dea liked the idea of making a big batch of beans or stew a couple of times a week, then using those dishes to make other meals.

It wasn’t until December that the appliance became an integral part of her life. After taking a job at the online community of BlogHer, O’Dea decided to start writing her own blog. Her idea: to commit to a New Year’s resolution of cooking a meal every day in her 4-quart Crock-Pot and writing about the experience online.

The result is A Year of Crockpotting ( http://www.crockpot365.blogspot.com). Although she has cooked only through day No. 205, O’Dea has become a hit with online food lovers and garnered national attention. This month, she was featured on Rachael Ray’s daytime TV show.

“I’m not fancy,” O’Dea says. “I’m not gourmet. I have no idea what I’m doing. I don’t cook. I crockpot.”

Each of the recipes on her site is documented with photos that show the final dish. And each of the recipes is gluten-free, since the couple’s 3-year-old daughter has celiac disease.

“I didn’t start experimenting until I had children and realized I couldn’t go to the store as often as I wanted,” she says. “I had to just open cans and see what happened.”

This year’s project spurred her to try baking in the cooker — and it worked great. Cooking fish in foil packets placed inside the pot sealed in the juices very well. Her falafels tasted surprisingly tasty. And even the cheesecake and crème brûlée attempts came out delicious.

One recipe that failed: bacon-wrapped scallops. A self-described penny pincher, O’Dea shot $60 trying to make it work.

“I found that people on the Internet don’t seem to care if you fail, as long as you’re honest,” she says. “They’re so sweet when things don’t work out. They’re like, ‘Don’t give up; the next recipe will be good next time.’”

“I think every three or four days I think, ‘Gosh, what did you get yourself into?’” she says. “Then I’ll click on an e-mail that says, ‘You changed my life!’ and I think, well, Glenda in Kansas needs me to keep going. So I’m going to, just for her.”

Day 158 was Crockpot chocolate Frito candy.

We went on a road trip over the weekend, and road trips mean Fritos. When we returned home, I still had half a bag left, and they were awfully squished after being in the back seat for two days. The best thing to do with crushed Fritos? Make candy! I saw this recipe posted on a site, and knew we had to make it. We just had to.

The verdict: Whoa, mama! Man, these are amazing and wonderful and so scary in that they are so good you want to take them all into a corner of the garage and eat them all by yourself.

Amazing. You must make them.

Day 123 was Crock-Pot fried rice.

So let’s just say that you’ve been using your crockpot every single day and your refrigerator has a million little plastic containers in it filled with meat and veggies and rice and quinoa. And your kids are a bit tired of eating “Mommy’s leftovers!” for breakfast and lunch, so you need a way to disguise them. Because you can’t throw away food because of the starving children thing and the global food shortage thing and you’re Scottish.

You can use your leftovers to make fried rice. For reals. In the crockpot.

I know! It totally blew my mind, too.

• Jeff Houck is a staff writer for The Tampa Tribune in Florida.