This is going to be a semi-crazy and very fun week for me. I’m heading out for a week filled with book signings. I’ll be beginning tonight in my hometown of Huntsville, Alabama, and then going to Oxford, Jackson, and Memphis. Click here for more information about where I’ll be traveling over the next few weeks. I’d love to meet you! *A lot of stores are selling out of our book.If you are planning on attending a book signing, you might want to go ahead and visit that store to pick up your copy of the book to ensure they have enough. You can also help ensure they have enough by clicking on the city names above of the ones you plan on attending to RSVP on FB.

My AMAZING Mother in Law has come to stay and take my place this week so the kids will be well taken care of but I’ve been trying to teach Ricky how to make a few slow cooker meals so supper won’t be a hassle for any of them. Let me tell you a little about my husband – he is an Engineer. He is one of the most intelligent people I know, can design entire space stations and such on his own, but when it comes to cooking his intelligence kinda gets in the way a bit. Just to show you how smart he is, below is something he designed from start to finish in CAD program called SolidWorks (we are sooooooo a SolidWorks Family. Even my eleven year old has been learning the software).

See? Takes a smart fella to make that. Can he cook supper though? We’ll be finding out this week!

His past cooking ventures have been kind of interesting. The perfect example of this is shortly after we were married. He said he was going to cook a special dish for me, a recipe he made up in college called “Beef Rice”. Beef Rice consists of beef flavored Rice-A-Roni and cooked ground beef stirred together. Now, don’t get me wrong, we still eat Beef Rice to this day, but it was how he went about cooking it that made me realize I was destined to be the cook in this family.

Apparently, he had always cooked the beef first and then washed and dried that pan before getting out a pot for the rice and cooking it next. Well, on this fateful day he had a brilliant idea!

What if he cooked the Beef in the skillet AND the rice in a pot AT THE SAME TIME!?

As this groundbreaking idea hit him he called me into the kitchen by yelling “Baby come here!  You aren’t going to believe this!” I came into the kitchen half expecting to see the image of Jesus on his toast by the tone in his voice only to find him beaming like a school kid from the stove as he declared “I’m cooking SIMULTANEOUSLY!”

~blinks~

I had to wonder if he thought we started cooking our suppers first thing in the morning in order to have all of it done by dinner time but didn’t say anything. Instead, I congratulated him on his new found skill, went into the bedroom, and called Mama to tell her.

We still get a giggle out of that today. So in my attempt to expand Ricky’s cooking repertoire beyond PB&J and Beef Rice, here are some slow cooker recipes I’ve been trying to teach him.

P.S. There is no earthly way I could have spelled “repertoire” without spell check. I’m jes sayin…

Slow Cooker Chicken and Wild Rice

Ricky has been having cow fits over this stuff lately and has assured me he WILL be making it this week.

Tender Roast And Veggies

Ever make a pot roast and have it turn out dry? Dry roasts will be forever behind you now!

One Slow Cooker Recipe: 2 Different Meals

This is a great way to cook a roast and get two nights worth of suppers out of it!

Ricky’s Favorite Slow Cooker Pork Roast and Veggies

I can get ANYTHING I want just by offering to make this for my husband! This post includes the entire menu pictured.

Rustic Tomato-less Beef Stew

I just love a good and hearty stew!

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork BBQ

This is the type of BBQ we have in North Alabama with a tender and flavorful pork and a nice clear sauce to pour over it. YUM!

Cheesy Chicken And Rice

I think this one is my personal favorite 🙂

Valerie, thank you so much for today’s quote! I just love it!!!

If you wish to make an apple pie truly from scratch,

you must first invent the universe.

~Carl Sagan

Submit your quote to our collection by clicking here. Don’t worry if it has been submitted already, that just means it bears repeating 🙂