French Dip Sandwiches

Using a slow cooker to cook the meat to just-right tenderness, you too can serve a true French Dip to all of your friends and family during the cold winter nights! C'est si bon!'
Original recipe yield: 10 servings.
Prep Time:
10 Minutes
Cook Time:
12 Hours
Ready In:
12 Hours 10 Minutes
Servings:
10 (change)
INGREDIENTS:
1 (4 pound) boneless beef roast
1/2 cup soy sauce
1 beef bouillon cube
1 bay leaf
3 whole black peppercorns
1 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1 teaspoon garlic powder
20 slices French bread
DIRECTIONS:
Remove and discard all visible fat from the roast. Place trimmed roast in a slow cooker.
In a medium bowl, combine soy sauce, bouillon, bay leaf, peppercorns, rosemary, thyme, and garlic powder. Pour mixture over roast, and add enough water to almost cover roast. Cover, and cook on Low heat for 10 to 12 hours, or until meat is very tender.
Remove meat from broth, reserving broth. Shred meat with a fork, and distribute on bread for sandwiches. Used reserved broth for dipping.

Proverbs heard today

Had a talk with my friend Chris who is in the restaurant industry. He repeated what his mentor had said to him on how to run a profitable restaurant and I think it has applications to all businesses. That is "Feed the rich and you'll eat with the poor. Feed the poor and you'll eat with the rich."

Southern-Style Pork Barbecue Recipe

INGREDIENTS:
4 to 5 pound pork shoulder (butt) roast
2 large onions, sliced
4 to 6 whole cloves
2 cups water
1 bottle (16 oz) barbecue sauce, your choice
1 large onion, chopped, about 1 cup
large split buns, toasted or warmed

PREPARATION:
Place half the sliced onion in the bottom of a slow cooker. Add pork roastt, cloves, and water. Add the remaining sliced onion. Cover and cook 8 to 12 hours on LOW. Remove bone and fat from meat. Discard onions, cloves and water. Shred the meat and put it back in the pot. Add chopped onion and the barbecue sauce. Cook another 2 1/2 to 4 hours on LOW, stirring frequently to prevent scorching.
Serve on large split buns.
Makes about 12 to 16 servings.

Sausage Barley Soup

INGREDIENTS:
1 pound Italian sausage
1/2 cup diced onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning
1 (48 fluid ounce) can chicken broth
1 large carrot, sliced
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach
1/4 cup uncooked pearl barley
DIRECTIONS:
In a skillet over medium heat, cook the sausage, onion, and garlic until the sausage is evenly brown. Season with Italian seasoning. Remove from heat, and drain.
In a slow cooker, mix the sausage mixture, chicken broth, carrot, spinach, and barley.
Cover, and cook 4 hours on High or 6 to 8 hours on Low.

one red paperclip and other schemes

one red paperclip

Too funny that this guy is making it... people will give money too anyone. Maybe I should start a money making site like the Million Dollar Homepage. Now to get the brain working... for those that don't know my buddy Norm has given up his life to you and now you can Choose you Normadventure. Is a Cafepress shirt far behind Norm? How about an eBaying (or better yet feeless Craigslisting) of some busted gear from your trip?

Harvest Pork Stew with Apple Juice - Crockpot Pork Stew Recipe With Apple Juice and Vegetables

This pork stew contains apples and apple juice, along with vegetables and cubed pork shoulder.

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 to 2 pounds pork shoulder, trimmed of fat and cut in 1-inch cubes
2 to 3 cups cubed potatoes, about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds
2 medium to large carrots, sliced about 1/2-inch thick
1 cup chopped onions
1 large tart apple, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored, and chopped
1/2 cup chopped celery
3 tablespoons quick-cooking tapioca
2 cups apple juice
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

PREPARATION:
Combine all ingredients in slow cooker. Cover and cook on LOW setting for 9 to 10 hours, or on HIGH for 4 1/2 to 5 hours.
Serves 6.

Creamy Chicken Crock Pot

INGREDIENTS:
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
or 8 skinless, boneless thighs
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of celery soup
1 large Green Pepper - sliced
1 large Onion - sliced or diced
equal mount Brocolli
1 or 2 Carrots
Basil
Garlic Salt
Thyme
Parsley
2 Bayleaves
some fresh peppercorns

DIRECTIONS:
Place chicken breasts and vegetables in a slow cooker. In a medium bowl, mix the cream of chicken soup and cream of celery soup until smooth Pour over the chicken, making sure it is well coated.
Cover, and cook on Low heat for 7 to 8 hours.

Serve over Mashed Potatoes or Egg Noodles.

I'm the cook

So Yukiko is pregnant and today we heard the little One's heartbeat for the first time! I guess I have much to catch many people up on.
OK. First we've known that we're expecting for the past couple of months. It was pretty obvious with the increasingly more frequent nausea attacks Yukiko would have when faced with any smell... I mean ANY smell. So, I've taken over cooking duties. I started back a about a month ago and have decided that I should keep track of what recipes I use (box-top instructions excluded ;) ). Course, I did all the holiday cooking as is our family's tradition (heck, she grew up without an oven and deserves a break a couple of times a year, eh?).
I'll keep everyone posted on the details of our lives... and my indecision of who to vote for as the election comes (Jan 23rd - Do I vote for Potentially Crooked Patriots, Economically Unsound Zealots, Wolves in Turtle Necks, or Not Ready for Prime Time Wanabes? If you don't know which is which then you need to pay more attention).

Crock Pot Split Pea Soup Recipe

INGREDIENTS:
1 (16 oz.) pkg. dried green split peas, rinsed
1 meaty hambone, 2 ham hocks, or 2 cups diced ham
3 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup chopped onion
2 ribs of celery plus leaves, chopped
1 or 2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped, or 2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
1 tbsp. seasoned salt (or to taste)
1/2 tsp. fresh pepper
1 1/2 qts. hot water

PREPARATION:
Layer ingredients in slow cooker in the order given; pour in water. Do not stir ingredients. Cover and cook on HIGH 4 to 5 hours or on low 8 to 10 hours until peas are very soft and ham falls off bone.

Remove bones and bay leaf. Mash peas to thicken more, if desired. Serve garnished with croutons. Freezes well.
Serves 8.

Crock-pot Turkey Soup

8 c. water
4 chicken bouillon cubes or Chicken broth
1 (10 oz.) can or fresh tomatoes (cut up)
1 c. celery, diced
1/2 c. carrots, diced
1/2 c. onions
1/4 c. fresh parsley
1 tsp. salt
1 bay leaf
1 turkey carcass

Place everything in crock pot. (Don't bother picking the meat off of the carcass, it will cook off in the pot.) Cook 7-9 hours on low setting.

savory spaghetti sauce recipe

1 to 2 pounds ground beef or turkey
4 cloves garlic, finely minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 large carrots, grated
3 medium onions, minced or grated
10 cup tomato juice
6 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 (16 ounce) cans whole tomatoes, cut up, but no drained
4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 teaspoons ground oregano
1 1/2 teaspoons ground basil
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons butter or margarine

Brown meat over low heat and drain excess fat. Add garlic, olive oil, carrots, onion and 3 tablespoons of water to beef. Saut�over low heat for 30 minutes, covered (checking to ensure there is enough liquid so the mixture doesn't burn).

In a large pan, combine saut�ed vegetables and beef with all remaining ingredients and simmer for 6 hours at the lowest heat setting.

When partially cooled, store sauce in the refrigerator in a tightly covered container. Extra sauce may be frozen at this point.

When you are ready to use the sauce, heat it slowly while you boil the spaghetti.

Starbucks Economics - Solving the mystery of the elusive "short" cappuccino. By Tim Harford

Note: I've been doing this for years... wel, not me specifically, but Yukiko has been ordering the "Short" coffees... and not because she's cheap or anything... more that she is caffeine sensitive and the "Tall" is just too much coffee for her. Also I'd like to note that I don't really like Starbucks and find their over-priced coffee high in acidity and bitterness. I much prefer Illy (nice independent chains serving the best mass-marketed espresso I've ever tasted). And may I add that Tim Hortons rocks and I will be buying stock in that company (given the opportunity to). But back to Starbucks, seems most don't know there is a "Short" option. This is an exerpt below from Slate.com.

Starbucks Economics - Solving the mystery of the elusive "short" cappuccino. By Tim Harford: "It's not hard to identify the price-blind customers in Starbucks. They're the ones buying enough latte to bathe Cleopatra. The major costs of staff time, space in the queue, and packaging are similar for any size of drink. So, larger drinks carry a substantially higher markup, according to Brian McManus, an assistant professor at the Olin School of Business who has studied the coffee market.

The difficulty is that if some of your products are cheap, you may lose money from customers who would willingly have paid more. So, businesses try to discourage their more lavish customers from trading down by making their cheap products look or sound unattractive, or, in the case of Starbucks, making the cheap product invisible. The British supermarket Tesco has a 'value' line of products with infamously ugly packaging, not because good designers are unavailable but because the supermarket wants to scare away customers who would willingly spend more. 'The bottom end of any market tends to get distorted,' says McManus. 'The more market power firms have, the less attractive they make the cheaper products.'

That observation is important. A firm in a perfectly competitive market would suffer if it sabotaged its cheapest products because rivals would jump at the opportunity to steal alienated customers. Starbucks, with its coffee supremacy, can afford this kind of price discrimination, thanks to loyal, or just plain lazy, customers.

The practice is hundreds of years old. The French economist Emile Dupuit wrote about the early days of the railways, when third-class carriages were built without roofs, even though roofs were cheap: 'What the company is trying to do is prevent the passengers who can pay the second-class fare from traveling third class; it hits the poor, not because it wants to hurt them, but to frighten the rich.'

The modern equivalent is the airport departure lounge. Airports could create nicer spaces, but that would frustrate the ability of airlines to charge substantial premiums for club-class departure lounges.

Starbucks' gambit is much simpler and more audacious: Offer the cheaper product but make sure that it is available only to those customers who face the uncertainty and embarrassment of having to request it specifically. Fortunately, the tactic is easily circumvented: If you'd like a better coffee for less, just ask."