According to the dictionary consistency is:
I cook it, Amoeba eats it. Â Lately I have been cooking two crock pots at a time! Â That doesn’t mean we have been eating twice as much, but we have been eating twice as good!
When my schedule gets busy I’ve always relied on a a couple of favorite crock pot soup recipes.  I also have crock pot recipes I prefer for roasting beef, pork and chicken, but until I discovered Cheryl Moeller’s cookbook, Creative Slow-Cooker Meals: Use Two Slow Cookers for Tasty and Easy Dinners, I only used multiple crock pots on my holiday buffet table.
Many of the recipes in Moeller’s book are actually brilliant suggestions.  Do you have trouble keeping enough tortillas warm and at hand when you’re serving your favorite Mexican dish?  Then check out page 175 and marvel at how easy the solution is.  If  you’re like my sister-in-law and don’t care to eat food that’s been simmering in a pot all day, this cook book is still for you.  Many of the recipes have 2 to 4 hour cook times.  Some even cook in an hour or less.
And did you know you can bake homemade bread in your crock pot? This weekend I will be baking whole wheat bread using the recipe on page 180. Â I’ll let Amoeba pick dessert, Apple Upside Down Cake (p. 246), Â Caramel Baked Apples (p.224) or maybe the Molten Lava Pudding (p. 253) from the gluten free section.
My new favorite crock pot recipe can be found on page 228. Â It is Hungarian Goulash, and we scarfed it down with crock pot baked biscuits. Â I was also pleasantly surprised by the Spaghetti recipe on page 138. Â I guess what I am trying to say is, this isn’t a recipe book that will spend a lot of time languishing on the shelf. Â It’ll be working in the kitchen.
~*~
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!
You never know when I might play a wild card on you!
***Special thanks to Karri James, Marketing Assistant, Harvest House Publishers for sending me a review copy.***
Cheryl Moeller is a seasoned mother and a standup comic. She is also a syndicated columnist with her own blog (www.momlaughs.blogspot.com) and contributes monthly to several online parent websites. Cheryl has coauthored two books on marriage with her husband and has written for www.mops.org and Marriage Partnership. Cheryl does comedy for parenting classes, MOPS groups, wedding or baby showers, church retreats, women’s conferences, and those in line at the grocery store.
Visit the author’s website.
From the celebrated coauthor of The Marriage Miracle comes a new kind of cookbook and a new attitude toward planning meals. With an eye toward the whole menu, not just part of it, columnist Cheryl Moeller teaches cooks to use two crockpots to easily create healthy, homemade dinners.
Don’t worry about your dinner being reduced to a mushy stew. Each of the more than 200 recipes has been taste-tested at Cheryl’s table. Join the Moeller family as you dig into:
… and many more! Perfect for the frazzled mom who never has enough time in the day, Creative Slow-Cooker Meals gives readers more time around the table with delicious, healthy, frugal, and easy meals!
Product Details:
List Price: $14.99
Spiral-bound: 272 pages
Publisher: Harvest House Publishers; Spi edition (February 1, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0736944915
ISBN-13: 978-0736944915
AND NOW…THE FIFTH CHAPTER (click on pages to enlarge):
They sat down to a lovely roast pork dinner She had cooked.
He:  “Mmmmm, Kalua Pig!  I’m afraid I am getting to the age where meals like this are going to have to be a rare occurrence.  Time to start watching my cholesterol and blood pressure.”
She, pausing with her fork half way to her mouth: Â “Is this an ‘in general’ thing, or do we have specific cause for concern?”
He: “Last time we checked everything was within normal bounds for a man my age. Â I’m just saying we should work at keeping it that way.”
She, relaxing: Â “Okay. Â And really, we should both be eating more fish and chicken anyway.”
He: “I totally agree.”
She: “But when I feed you only fish and chicken for a week, you complain.”
He: Â “I know, but I guess I am just going to have to get used to it.”
She: Â “All right. Â I guess that leaves what I planned for tomorrow’s meal out. Â I wish we’d had this conversation before I shopped.”
He: “Why? Â What were you going to fix tomorrow?”
She waved her fork at the roast:  “Look at the size of this thing.  I planned on taking the meat off the bone and making enchiladas.”
He: “Enchiladas? Â Did I mention that my cholesterol and blood pressure are within the normal range for a man my age?”
She: “What if the enchiladas tip you over the edge?”
He: “You can serve chicken on Wednesday.”
Amoeba and the Quill are in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island. He gets to work everyday in a laboratory with his algae specimens and a microscope. She is having to enjoy the beaches, shoreline drives, and beautiful scenery. I know it seems unfair, but she is making do.
Kailua Bay
Humpy's Big Island Ale House
They went out to dinner the other night and walked back to the condo together along Ali’i Drive. She took a couple of photos of the sunset.
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