It's a cold, sloppy day here in Southern Indiana; it can't quite decide whether to rain, sleet, or snow, so it alternates between the three. Yuck. The sort of day that makes me wonder why the heck I live in the Midwest.

But it's also the perfect day for slow cooker comfort food, and I've got one of the simplest and best dishes I know cooking away: Pork neckbones with turnips and cabbage. I got the idea for this from a soul food website, though they used potatoes. All I know is I love this stuff! The recipe is in 200 Low-Carb Slow Cooker Recipes, but it's so simple you really don't need a recipe, and indeed I varied it a little today -- I had more neckbones and more turnips than the recipe called for. Here's what I did:

I peeled and cut up four turnips into medium-sized chunks. Threw in about 4 1/2 pounds of pork neckbones on top -- didn't brown them or anything first, just put 'em on top of the turnips. Added 3 cups of water, 1 1/2 teaspoons Vege-Sal (salt would do) and a teaspoon or so of red pepper flakes. Put on the lid, and since I was starting late, I set the slow cooker to "high" -- if I'd started earlier I would have cooked them on low. As it is, I'll give them at least a couple of hours at the higher setting, then turn them down.

The original recipe calls for a half-head of cabbage cut in wedges and cooked with the turnips and neckbones, but the pot's too full for that. So I'm going to wait till the neckbones and turnips are done, scoop 'em out and keep 'em warm, put in the cabbage and crank it up to high again for 45 minutes or so, and serve it all together. Just throw it on a platter, dose it well with Louisiana style hot sauce (Tabasco is great, Frank's would work -- really, any hot sauce in that basic style.)

This is not a beautiful dish to look at, but it's supremely flavorful. Neckbones are the sort of tough, cheap, bony cut of meat that makes for brilliant slow cooking. If you've got cold, wet weather in your neck of the woods, try it! It'll chase the chill away.

(And yes, Rival, it is a really, truly Crockpot(tm). I own three Crockpots((tm) in differing sizes.)