So, I haven’t cooked much lately. I started a new, part-time job in the marketing department at Lynchburg College, and I’ve been busier than usual. I also started playing tennis recently, which I love, so that’s kept me busy a couple of nights a week, too.

And I run, and I’m writing a book, and I’m still doing some freelance writing for some local magazines. And sometimes, I like to take naps. So, we’ve been eating out a lot more than usual, but this past Sunday I felt compelled to cook.

Even though it’s not officially fall yet and is expected to be in the 80s this week, likely with high humidity, I really wanted to make stew. I thought maybe we’d just turn the AC up while eating it or chase the stew with lots of Dos Equis (best idea).

For a good recipe, I turned to one of my favorite cookbooks, Tammy Algood’s “Southern Slow Cooker Bible.” I chose the sausage and hominy stew. I’ve made it before, but as usual I changed a couple of small things in the ingredients and the process.

For example, the recipe calls for two pounds of smoked sausage. Because smoked sausage came only in 13- or 14-oz. packages at my grocery store, I ended up with slightly less than two pounds. I also bought one chicken sausage and one pork sausage. At first, I thought that might be weird, but then I thought of Kentucky burgoo, which uses beef, pork and chicken.

I’m determined to make burgoo sometime this year, maybe for Christmas dinner. Every recipe I’ve seen makes a vat of it, so you can’t just make it for two people. That’s way too much burgoo, unless it freezes well, of course.

Another change I made to the sausage and hominy stew recipe was using chicken broth instead of vegetable broth. As a side note, I almost always type “brother” when typing “broth” and have to backspace twice. I have no idea why I do that. Maybe it’s the Universe saying I should call one of my brothers.

Anyway, I also used two cans of yellow hominy instead of one white and one yellow, like the recipe calls for. And I didn’t use the fresh cilantro, or any cilantro for that matter. Husband John isn’t crazy about cilantro — which I seem to want to spell “cilantry” today — so I almost never put it in recipes. It’s not a great sacrifice. I’m not nuts about it either.

I also boiled the potatoes in advance because last time I made this stew I had to cook it extra long to make the potatoes soften. Sometimes, potatoes act weird in the slow cooker.

So, here’s what I made, with the changes:

Sausage and Hominy Stew
(8 servings)

2 pounds smoked sausage, thickly sliced (whatever kind interests you or is on sale)
6 small, red potatoes, cubed and boiled (don’t peel)
About a cup of frozen, sliced carrots
3 ½ cups low-sodium chicken broth
2 (15-oz.) cans of yellow hominy (drained and rinsed)
1 (4.5-oz) can of chopped green chiles (whatever heat you like)
½ tsp. black pepper
½ tsp. ground cumin
½ tsp. dried oregano

Boil potatoes and then throw them and everything else on the list into the slow cooker. Mix ingredients together. Cover and cook for 6 hours on high.

Note: The original recipe said 8 hours on low and it also said to lightly grease the slow cooker, which I forgot to do. I’ve found that greasing the slow cooker is mostly about cleanup afterwards. I also decided to go with high heat this time because I wanted to eat this for dinner and didn’t get started until about 12:30 p.m.