Soup to Dutts

I have a complicated relationship with bell peppers. When I was a kid, they were pretty much the one thing I refused to eat. Actually, I wasn't crazy about vegetables in general, but bell peppers were the worst. They were bitter and always seemed to set my mouth on fire. What's to like about that? So I had to laugh when I realized that I'd made three different things with bell peppers just in one week. Here's the first one. Tom had been craving cornbread and chili, so I decided to make that. Usually my chili is pretty simple: ground turkey or beef, kidney beans, diced tomatoes, maybe a little onion, and some seasonings. I figured some bell peppers could only improve it. This was by far the best chili I've ever made, and the best part was that it was also the most convenient. In the past, I had always stressed over the seasonings. That was before I discovered chili beans and chili-ready tomatoes. What amazing inventions! These were already packed with chili powd...

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...