Foodblogger event #2 and Moroccan Chicken

This past Saturday, I was blessed to attend a second "Lady Foodblogger" event, at Shayne's house in Livonia. Or, rather, in her wonderfully appointed backyard. SO's and even families were invited to this follow-up event, so illyaa, M, and S joined me. M and Shayne's oldest, Z, got along very well. The food was again amazing. I still feel like a poseur, since my blog is a vanity blog/journal and not a dedicated foodblog like that of many of the other attendees', but I was not about to turn down a chance to eat the wonderful food of the other attendees! As a bonus, we were serenaded by the Livonia Franklin Marching Band practice nearby for most of the party.

BTW, If you're clicking through from one of their blogs and looking for my food posts, click on the "cooking" tag link on the sidebar, since they are sprinkled through my lj in no particular order. Or, click here.
( Click through for the complete entry, including recipe. )

FYI

I created feeds on lj for many of the foodblogs of MLFB foodblogger attendees and invitees. Here's a list of ones I have made so far:

4obsessionsfeed
dianadyerfeed
doghillfeed
hungrymassesrss
thefarmersmarke
unabuonaforch

I did this for my own convenience, so I will get notified on my livejournal friends page when new entries are posted, but I thought other lj users might be interested in having these in their friends page too. If I missed one you would lie me to add, please let me know. It's a perk of having a paid account that I am happy to exercise. :)

And, one that already existed that might be of interest: kitchen_chick

Edited to correct the idea that I made the kitchen chick feed, 'cause I didn't.

Updated friends wall

( Pictures of my LiveJournal Friends )

Rival Crock Pot customer service...bleh

Saturday's adventure had an added twist: the black plastic handle of my crock pot lid came completely off when I went to pack the cooker for transport. Well, the screw and nut are still there, but everything else came off. It's been getting looser and looser for a couple of months. It was rather annoying trying to serve the Moroccan Chicken with the lid in that condition, but what can ya do?

Today I called Rival's customer service to inquire about a replacement lid for this oval 6 (or is it 5.5?) qt cooker. I was told, sure, they have that listed; $10 plus tax and shipping. Oh, except they don't have any in stock, and don't know when they would or if they would at a future date. I should call back in three weeks, even though they took my name and phone number (and linked it up to my product registration record, apparently, because she had my last name on file) to record that I wanted a lid. Maybe they will decide that they need to get more lids of this style made in the next three weeks? And the kicker is the customer service then suggested going to a hardware store to get temporary hardware for my lid to use in the meantime. Argh.

I'm considering just up and buying a Hamilton Beach slow cooker with multiple crocks, which has three different models in different colors. I first saw this on one of the lj food communities I follow. therck has one now. It comes with a 2-qt, a 4-qt and a 6-qt crock, all of which use the same lid and heating unit. I would likely instantly go buy one or two replacement lids; otherwise I'd be robbing the lid from one dish to cook another all the time. So, therck, do you think I could cook a whole chicken in the 6-quart crock? Because if it's not feasible, I may have to re-think. Maybe I'd patch up the lid I have and use that when I want to roast and make chicken stock. In which case maybe I should get the black-and-stainless version so they match? I don't know. I don't think I want to wait three weeks to find out if my less-than-two-years-old slow cooker is close to junk.

Unfortunately, I can't go to the hardware store with the lid this evening, because there's gumbo in that thar pot right now. I had to make gumbo, because I got okra at the farmer's market last week, you see. ;^)