Erin in CR's Profile

Ooh, that avocado necklace reminds me of this great spice-inspired jewelry I found on Etsy! The artisan already has a star anise ring (http://www.etsy.com/listing/45700109/star-anise-ring-in-sterling-silver) and clove earrings (http://www.etsy.com/listing/45695694/sterling-silver-clove-earrings), and I think she said she's planning more. I love foodie jewelry!

My first piece of advice for Desiree is that she should determine her slow-cooker style: are you of the type that wants to throw a bunch of ingredients in and come back 6-10 hours later to a delicious, if somewhat homogenous-looking meal, or are you willing to go "crock pot gourmet" and add things in incrementally?

There are a ton of slow cooker cookbooks on Amazon, and some of them are really, really great. When I moved out of my parents' house years ago, the crock pot was my best friend. (I think I used it 4-5 times per week.) I was a poor student, and I had two cookbooks that were my lifeline (their current editions are http://www.amazon.com/Fix-Forget-Big-Cookbook-Recipes/dp/156148640X/ and http://www.amazon.com/Crazy-About-Crockery-Inexpensive-Crockpots/dp/1891400126/) - I can still remember the beef "roast" I made with a cheap cut of beef, onions and tomato sauce... so delicious!

I'd definitely recommend scouring Amazon for a good slow cooker cookbook. Make sure to determine your style first, since most books are either throw-it-together or incremental (read the comments, you'll always find people commenting about one or the other). Important: read the introduction! A good slow cooker book will explain to how the machine works, how to layer your food in the cooker, etc. This will be invaluable info when you need to substitute recipe ingredients or are creating your own recipes.

Allrecipes has a pretty decent slow cooker section, too: http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Main-Dish/Slow-Cooker/Main.aspx . You can learn a lot by reading through the user comments and then trying anything that tempts you. Good luck, and have a great time with your crock pot! :)

Mmm, sushi! I went to a sushi restaurant with my friends and ordered veggie tempura. They brought me mixed tempura, and at first, I ate just the veggies and avoided the delicious marlin. My non-vegetarian friend took a bite of the marlin, declared it delicious, and "traded me" for some sushi "she just wanted me to try." I ate the sushi and the rest of the marlin.

In my defense, I had just moved to a country where there are very few non-soy meat substitutes (I can't eat soy) and I was sick of eating beans & eggs. Ugh, I hate eggs.

I'm no longer vegetarian, but I still keep my meat intake down -- mostly seafood or chicken once or twice a week. I really dislike pork except for -- you guessed it! -- bacon. I don't know what it is, but crispy, juicy, salty bacon is one of the best, most indulgence-worthy foods I can imagine. I regulate my consumption of it by only allowing myself to eat it in restaurants. Since I go out to breakfast only a few times a year, it keeps my bacon addiction to a metabolism- and heart-friendly treat status.

With conceptual or very artsy furniture, I can usually understand how someone (even if not myself) might like it... this, I just find wholly unappealing and rather ugly, no matter how I try to look at it. Absolutely awful.

The only thing I can rationalize is that the designer got so wrapped up in his own creation that he couldn't see the fug for the trees. Or something like that. Pass!

My boyfriend is lactose-intolerant and has colitis, which means that in addition to dairy products, he can't eat beef, pork, broccoli, cauliflower, beans, anything spicy (and that includes black pepper!), anything very fatty (I have to use cooking oils very sparingly), cabbage, peas, and lots of other things I'm forgetting. When we met, he only ate boiled chicken, white rice, and pasta with store-bought sauce. It's been a journey to create foods that he likes & can eat (and convince him to try the dishes, that they wouldn't kill him), but I've had a great time with the challenge, and his diet now has a ton of variety to it. I'm proud, and he's healthy!

I generally find my inspiration on different magazines' websites, and then save the images to be printed out and stuck into my inspiration binder. When I'm out and in need of a treat, I'll help myself to a home magazine (they're all from Spain, so I won't even mention their names) for fun. I cut them out, too, usually within a week of purchase, and then hand them down to my neighbors, who go through them and then take them for recycling.

I sincerely hope that Sally's squirrel theory is correct, because it would take a very sinister, mean-spirited person to steal someone's entire fruit tree bounty.

I currently have lots & lots of outdoor space (I live in a small attached home), so I am the proud owner & user of a charcoal grill. However, when I lived in an apartment that disallowed gas or charcoal grills, I bought a Charbroil electric grill - it had charcoal "brickettes," to imbue the food with charcoal-y flavor, but was completely fireproof. It was fantastic, and the only reason I no longer have it is because I moved to another country... I still miss its convenience!