I alluded at one point to the fact that not every dinner I’ve planned with these monthly calendars (forgot to add ‘put together the May calendar’ to this week’s To-Do List, but rest assured, I did it) has been a hit.

This was one such meal.

It looked like it would be good when I saw a picture of the final dish.

But I messed it up.

First of all, this was the first time I’ve cooked something in the crockpot.

Kathy’s a big crockpot user, and every time she’s used it she’s made something really good - that’s where she does her corned beef and cabbage, she’s made like a pulled pork-ish dish in there, among others.

(I take it back. I’ve made chili in the crockpot, but that was no different than chili in a regular pan. Same ingredients, just different way of cooking.)

This was the first time I put a wide array of ingredients into the crockpot to create something.

For some reason I came across this recipe on Facebook - among the many weird things my algorithm gives me are dishes from the actor Stanley Tucci, who I guess also cooks? Or shares family recipes? I screenshotted it to make at a later date.

This is what the final product should have looked like…

I was intrigued because it was a different way of making sausage, which is hit or miss in this house, and the hash brown aspect sounded like a great mix. As you see at the right, it also looked pretty good.

(And ‘super easy’ made me undeservedly confident.)

I started the crockpot early in the day, figuring I wouldn’t have time to do it after work, and would rather let the food sit for a bit than to start it late and eat very late.

As it turned out, that day I was sick and stayed home anyway. More on that in a minute.

The hash browns were very frozen, the sausages sliced fine, but everything was kind of in one big blob and I wasn’t confident it would cook well.

Kathy insisted that's how the crockpot works and I wasn’t too worried.

But she did tell me if it seemed like it wasn’t cooking well maybe I should add some water.

As the day went on I did think it was seeming a little burn-ish and added water, so maybe it was good that I was home…but that water combined with the melting water off the frozen hash browns maybe made it too watery?

…and this is what it actually looked like.

Maybe I should have left it alone? Maybe it wasn’t so great that I was home with the crockpot to obsess over it all day?

Regardless, it came out a little soupy. It wasn’t terrible, but no one loved it. Including me.

I didn’t even eat many of the leftovers. (Usually I’m eating the majority of the leftovers in this house.)

I would try this again. I still think that hash brown-cheddar-sausage combo is appealing if it’s cooked right.

Maybe I’ll just try it in a pan.