Crock-Pots Are a Wife's Best Friend

Notice that I used a plural? That's because we have not one, but two Crock-Pots. When Tom and I got married, we got one from each of our mothers, and that is just fine with me. What's not to love about a slow cooker? You throw a bunch of food in and turn a dial, and a few hours later you have a delicious meal. It's a magical thing. And tonight, I broke out both of them.

For this week's dinners, we're trying to use up things we already had at home instead of buying a ton of groceries. One of these things was a package of country-style ribs that had been sitting in the freezer for at least a couple of weeks. Now, I've never worked with country-style ribs. Before I got them, I didn't know such a thing existed. But what I do know is that just about any meat comes out perfectly when it's cooked in a slow cooker. So I put them in with some chicken broth and some salt and pepper, and I turned it on High (because the ribs were still pretty frozen) for about four hours. Delicious! We had them with honey mustard, but they would've made good barbecue too.

As a side dish, I wanted to do something with apples, because they go so well with pork and they're so perfect for this time of year. A friend of ours made applesauce the other day, and it was delicious; she told us what she used, and it seemed simple enough. But she made it on the stovetop, and I honestly just didn't feel like watching while it cooked. Enter Crock-Pot Number Two! I just chopped four apples into cubes, coated them with cinnamon and sugar, and poured in a little bit of water. Four hours on Low, and...not quite applesauce, but very tender and veeeeery good!

Crock-Pots...such a wonderful invention.