Prepared orange juice, unsweetened 1/2 cup
Pineapple juice unsweetened 1/4 cup
Lemon juice 1 tbsp.
Diet Seven Up soft drink 1 cup
Have all ingredients chilled. Combine orange, pineapple and lemon juices in pitcher. Add Seven Up. Stir lightly. Diet ginger ale may be used instead of Seven Up, but the color of the punch is dull rather than bright. Makes 2 servings.
If I’m going to eat breakfast in the morning, overnight breakfast is a must-do! A typical night owl, my mornings have only enough spare time to make sure my teeth get brushed. Prepping overnight breakfasts the night before takes just a few minutes, and Hot Logic makes cooking mercifully simple.
After experimenting with overnight oatmeal (with great success!) I decided to try out egg-based dishes. Protein is an important part of any meal, especially breakfast, so I was eager to see if I could use Hot Logic to close the protein-gap in my mornings.
This recipe took about 10 minutes to assemble. I stuck it in the Hot Logic 400 overnight, and in the morning it was ready for me to stick in an insulated bag and take with me to work. I have to say, it was more creamy and delicious than any frittata I’ve ever baked in the oven. I suspect the slow, low cook time allowed it to cook up more like custard, avoiding the leathery texture eggs tend to get when overcooked.
For the prep:
Whisk four eggs, with salt and pepper, directly in your Hot Logic pan. Add 3-4 small tomatoes (or 1 medium tomato) as well as a few diced peppers. I used heirloom hungarian peppers because I like a mild kick. You could upgrade to serrano or jalapeno if you like more heat, or downgrade to red or green if you like to keep it mild.
Toss them into the eggs, the put the lid on it and set it on the shelf (or put it in the Mini, which works just the same).
Voila! Eggs and veggies for breakfast.
I absolutely adore tart Michigan cherries. Last year, I pitted and froze a huge batch of them, so I decided to clean out the last bag with a Hot Logic experiment. Cherry pie and cherry cobbler are delicious, but who has the time to fuss? For the Hot Logic, I decided to keep it simple. Just cherries, some seasoning, sugar and a dusting of graham cracker crumbs.
Now, with normal cherry pie and cherry cobbler, I always use tapioca pearls to absorb the extra juice from the cherries. Using enough tapioca and flour to suck up the juice is important to getting your cobbler or pie to stand up, and not be soupy.
Since Hot Logic’s shelves don’t need to cook as high as a regular oven, I decided a more healthful, lower heat solution to tapioca: chia seeds.
These little seeds are packed with protein and good fatty acids, and they act like tapioca without any heat at all. When in liquid, they suck it up and turn into little balls very much like tapioca, but with a crunchy little center. They’re delicious, filling and relatively tasteless, so they’re great for desserts.
Anyway, here’s the recipe:
4 cups tart red cherries, frozen
1/4 cup cane sugar
1 tblsp corn starch
3 tblsp chia seeds
1 tblsp lemon juice
1 package graham crackers, finely crushed
Toss the chia seeds, corn starch and sugar together, then toss them in with the cherries in the flat-bottomed container. Sprinkle the lemon juice and graham cracker crumbs over, and then FORGET ABOUT IT.
It turned out delicious. And, considering a little sugar and graham crackers were the only bad ingredients in it, super healthy, too!
You know the only thing better than buffalo chicken wings smothered in bleu cheese dip? Buffalo chicken dip smothered in its own cheesy goodness!
This recipe was originally written for the crock pot, which does a great job – until it starts to burn and overcook the dip. Even on warm, the crock pot usually simmers this delicate cheese dip too high, creating a crust of burnt dip and altering the flavor.
It goes without saying overcooking and burning isn’t a problem in Hot Logic. Quite the contrary – it’s the perfect temperature for blending and simmering these ingredients together, and keeping it at ideal serving temperature indefinitely.
Since Hot Logic cooks cheese dishes so well, it looks like I’ll have to take a stab at homemade mac and cheese next week. I have a strong suspicion it’ll be a delicious cakewalk.
As for the recipe, it’s as simple as tossing each of these ingredients into a container and setting it on the shelf. Once everything is all gooey, just mix it thoroughly and serve whenever you want.
Buffalo Chicken Cheese Dip:
– 1 lb shredded mozzarella
– 8 oz Frank’s Red Hot
– 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter
– 1 8 oz package cream cheese
– 2 chicken breasts, cubed and cooked
Try it! It’s great with tortillas, or any other kind of chips.
Buffalo Chicken Cheese Dip: Hot Logic Original Recipe
Hot Logic 400
Canned ham flakes (33% reduced salt) 6 1/2 oz.
Ground raw turkey 1/2 lb.
Chopped green onion 1/4 cup
Canned water chestnuts, drained, finely chopped 1/2 cup
Dry bread crumbs 1/4 cup
Large egg, fork beaten 1
Water 1 tbsp.
Garlic powder 1/4 tsp.
Combine all 8 ingredients in bowl. Mix well. A bit more water may be added if too dry, but it shouldn’t be too soft. Shape into marble size balls about 1 inch in diameter. Arrange on pan that has been sprayed with no-stick cooking spray. Bake in 425°F oven for 15 minutes. Serve hot with picks and Mustard Sauce, if desired. These may be chilled and reheated. Makes about 60.
As brand new technology, Hot Logic requires a bit of a learning curve for new users. Like adjusting to electric stovetop burners rather than gas, or switching from a regular convection oven to a cast iron oven, Hot Logic’s slow cooking process takes a little getting used to.
But make no mistake: Hot Logic is an oven – and a slow cooker. And yes, it does cook food, in addition to reheating. It does both really, really well, and without any extra effort from the cook (that’s you).
So what, exactly does Hot Logic cook?
Well, most things, with a few notable exceptions. But the more important question is how it cooks, which is conductively. In other words, transferring heat directly to the food, rather than through the air around it (convection) or through microwaves.
The key to opening up a new way of cooking with this tech is to understand how conductive cooking works. Some dishes – like meat on the bone, or potatoes – need to be prepared a little differently to cook in Hot Logic’s ultra low heat technology. To thoroughly cook, there needs to be contact with the bottom of the pan, which in turn has direct contact with the shelf (that’s why you need to use flat-bottomed pans). Hot Logic’s technology creates a thermal bond between the hot plate and the meal.
When cooking raw food, that means food that needs to cook more – e.g. meat – should be on the bottom, with any veggies piled on top or around it. When cooking large, hard tubers, they should be cut up into smaller pieces and submerged in water or stock, to give them the most conductive heat to cook it. Similarly, meat on the bone usually needs to cook in liquid to cook all the way through.
Here are a few notable examples of what it does cook, and how:
Raw chicken & fish – chicken breasts are a simple no brainer in Hot Logic. They cook evenly, and don’t dry out. You can even layer veggies in with them for a complete one-dish meal. Chicken on the bone can also be cooked all the way through, but it’s done a little differently. Either cook only one or two pieces at a time, or submerge them in water or stock to thoroughly cook them. One piece by itself in a dish will typically cook all the way through. You can also toss a pile of drumsticks or wings in a container, and cook them most of the way through on the shelf as an alternative to parboiling them for grilling.
Raw pork – pork, either in steaks or on the bone, cook exactly the same way chicken does. Parboiling ribs in broth or a marinate on the shelf is the perfect way to prep ribs for grilling.
Beef – same rules apply here as for chicken and pork, with the qualifier that Hot Logic is a slow cooker. In other words, if your’e looking for a way to sear up a raw steak, you need to pull out the grill or skillet. Hamburger, hot dogs and small roasts are ideal walk-away-and-forget-about-it meals in hot Logic.
Fresh veggies – raw veggies are Hot Logic’s specialty. Regular veggies, like peas, peppers, green beans, sweet corn and summer squash, cook to crisp perfection. Veggies that require a little more cook time – like carrots and potatoes – need to be cut up and submerged in water to cook all the way through.
Eggs – frittata is one of my favorite things to make with Hot Logic. Add veggies, seasonings, whatever; it always turns out tender and delicious. You can hard boil eggs easily by submerging them in water, or you could slow poach them the same way. You could also slow-fry them by just cracking the eggs straight into the pan. The options are pretty much limitless.
Breakfast grains – whether you’re a grits fan or love instant oatmeal, Hot Logic is the ultimate overnight breakfast machine. I have several recipes for overnight oatmeal which use steel cut oats, powdered milk, fruit, flax seeds and whatever else I care to throw in. It’s the perfect power start to the day.
So, what does Hot Logic NOT cook?
It’s a pretty short list:
Beans and rice – navy beans and the like are just too dense, and require high heat to be broken down. If you pre-boil beans on the stove, then finish a bean dish – such as baked beans – on the shelf once the beans are mostly cooked, you’re in business.
Whole potatoes – for reasons mentioned above. Quarter them and toss them in water and they’re nice and tender.
That’s all I’ve found so far. I still need to test cooking pasta and legumes – be sure to stay tuned.
