b'Park Wood T Slow and TastyDINERRESTAURAN Book your next gathering infor the Winour NEW Private Party RoomFresh Ingredients Voted BestWeWelcome to theFresh Fish Diner in CATER!Youre going to love our food! Daily Specials Essex County Free delivery toultimateyour home or Gourmet Salads office!BreakfastLunchDinner one-pot meal1958 Springfield AvenueMaplewood (973) 313-3990fax (973) 313-3991 BY KAREN TEDESCOM ye o grand- Its a savory dish based on fall-apart-m t h e rtender pork shoulder, potatoes and to-was a truematoes, an Italian-style stew that pro-b lievervides a meal in one pot.intheIn a broader sense, it defines what I C r o c k - see as the magic of a slow cooker: a de-Pot.Shevice that transforms a handful of ingre-was a working woman in a time anddients into a meal with layers of flavor, place when it was far more traditionalall with minimal effort. to be a happy homemakeri.e., theIverecentlyjumpedbackonthe keeper of a perfectly tended home andslow-cookertrain.Thelasttimemy polite children. family moved from one state to anoth-Like many women of the workinger, I had to purge most of the kitchen, class in the post-World War II era, sheand my old Crock-Pot didnt make the was employed on an assembly line in ajourney.manufacturing plant. She did her bestAfterseveralyearsofrelyingon to make ends meet at the same timeheavy-duty Dutch ovens to oven-braise she was raising three kids. beef short ribs, pork shoulder and oth-After the original electric slow cook- er hearty cuts of meat, I finally broke er hit the marketplace in the 1950s, mydown and bought an electric multi-grandma used hers to make family fa- cooker,whichisaslowcookerand vorites like Portuguese stew with cho- pressure cooker in one.rizo, and stuffed cabbage dumplings inIt proved to be a game changer. This tomato sauce. The food cooked whilebaby does all the heavy lifting without she was at work, filling our multi-fami- heating up the house or requiring any ly home with delicious aromas. tending-to whatsoever.These are the dishes that linger inLike all hearty braised dishes, this my familys memorytasty food madepork tastes even better when reheated a with economy and no fuss. day or two later.Fast-forwarding to the present day,Servewithasimplesaladonthe slow-cookerrecipesarenolessofasideand dont forget crusty bread to workhorse for time-strapped families.soak up those tasty juices. call to schedule a tour We all crave the comfort and conve- Karen Tedesco is a recipe developer, food nience of coming home to the smell ofstylist and photographer living in Maple-dinner cooking. wood. For seasonal recipes and more, visit This recipe delivers all that magic.her website, FamilystyleFood.com.22/ matters magazine / fall 2019 7/24/18 10:09 PMMatters Ad.indd 1'