My New Best Friend

One of my Christmas presents - which consisted mainly of kitchen accoutrements - was a West Bend Slow Cooker. You know, a crockpot. I think those two terms are indigenous to your region. Well, down here ya'll, it's a crockpot. And this has been my new toy.

And I've made a really yummy taco stew, a not so great bean & barley stew, and then tonight...the piece de la resistance...(you are reading that in French, right?) was a Pork Tenderloin slow cooked in the CROCKPOT. And man, was it DELICIOSO. It called for a red wine and miscellaneous spices to be cooked on High for 4 hours. And then a suggestion was to add cornstarch to thicken up the sauce which drizzled just nicely over mashed potatoes. MAN OH MAN. MANNA FROM HEAVEN per James. This dish was simply amazing and really easy to prepare.

Now I know, most of you who read my blog, are wondering "Who is this person who has been cooking?" So I feel like I must explain myself. For most of you who know, I've been on Weight Watchers since April. And I've lost over 20 lbs. I'm 5 lbs away from my goal weight to become a Lifetime Member. And as many times as I've joined WW, this will be a huge accomplishment. So, for me to be successful, I've realized that incorporating different foods in my diet is the way to go. The best way to do that is to cook. And having the new house with a bigger kitchen is also helpful. And having James and my friends to cook for is great. So, it is really no surprise that I cook more than I used to. And I really like it - and it's even better when you come across a recipe that you say to yourself "This one is a keeper." And my best source for recipes is a site that is pretty nifty: www.allrecipes.com. It has numerous recipes - all free - plus comments by readers who have tried out the recipes. So when you find a 4.5 out of 5 star recipe, you can count on it to be good. Because not only do people rate the recipes, they also provide additional tips on what they did to make the recipe. And I've not found one to be wrong yet. And this is the same site I found the Pork Tenderloin recipe.

I've really enjoyed my crockpot which I'm also going to use for our upcoming Tuesday girl night.