That many grocery stores will sharpen your knives for you FREE while you shop?
That buying minced garlic in a jar is way simpler and just as tasty as picking up an entire head of garlic? (Unless your recipe calls for roasted garlic, in which case you'll have to get the whole head). (And why does that sound dirty?)
That kids will often eat things they wouldn't normally touch with a 10-inch long candy stick if it's wrapped and baked in Crescent Roll dough?
That adding a small amount of cocoa powder and red wine to a tomato-based sauce illuminates multiple gastronomic dimensions you can't get with onion and garlic alone?
You asked about non-cream soup crock-pot recipes. Here are two that I make frequently: Chicken Curry (combine chicken thighs, onions, can of garbanzo beans, several spoonfuls of curry paste, can of chicken broth in the crock-pot, cook on low for 7 hours), serve over rice; and Beef Pot Roast (combine beef chuck or blade roast and 1 jar of chili sauce in crock-pot, cook on low for 7-10 hours), serve over noodles. I have also tried an Italian variant of the Beef Pot Roast where I used a jar of Pepperoncini peppers in place of the chili sauce. That was good, but a little too spicy for the kids.
Posted by: BigSkyMum | September 30, 2008 at 02:43 PM
Wow...I didn't know the store would sharpen your knives....in the meat department I would guess.
I will have to check that out!
Thanks for the info~~
Posted by: Tammy | September 30, 2008 at 05:40 PM
Hey I just checked in and noticed a CHANGE...it looks awesome!!
Posted by: Tammy | October 02, 2008 at 10:25 PM
Cocoa powder & red wine? Hmmmmm! I love both of these things.
Anything worth doing is worth doing half-assed right? As we say in our house: "It's the American way".
Love the blog-
Michele over at http://michele-dogslife.blogspot.com
Posted by: Michele | October 03, 2008 at 06:27 AM
Seriously? Does Fred Meyer do it?
My knives are in serious blunt-land.
Posted by: Nora Bee | October 03, 2008 at 09:51 AM
I did not know those things, but I have a strange feeling I'm going to remember them...
Posted by: Michelle | October 03, 2008 at 04:04 PM
Wow, I wonder if my grocery store will sharpen my knives. Cause they definitely need it...
Posted by: Tatiana | October 03, 2008 at 04:37 PM
I haven't tried cocoa powder in my red sauce, but it absolutely doesn't taste right without red wine and a bit of lemon juice (it brightens the flavors the red wine brings out).
Posted by: Bethany | October 13, 2008 at 07:54 AM
I also drip one little drip of vanilla into my red sauces as well as red wine. I want to try the lemon and the cocoa as well.
I put a hershey kiss or 2 in my chili, that makes it richer somehow.
Posted by: Carrie | October 14, 2008 at 12:58 PM