This one's right down my alley! I'm happiest when I'm in my kitchen cooking and/or baking! TRI-TIP ROAST 2 lb. Tri-tip sirloin ⅓ cup white wine (I used Pinot Grigio) 1 jar sundried tomatoes, oil drained 8.5 oz. package feta cheese Place roast in crockpot. Place drained tomatoes over top of roast. Sprinkle with crumbled feta cheese. Pour wine over all and cook on low for 6-10 hours. Note: We all really like this! Its different and has a good flavor. Leftovers are very good on buns! Here's one for game. SLOW COOKER VENISON ROAST Very good! 3 lbs. boneless venison roast 1 large onion, sliced 1 tbsp. soy sauce 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 1 tbsp. garlic salt ¼ tsp. ground black pepper 1 (1 oz.) package dry onion soup mix 1 (10.75 oz.) can condensed cream of mushroom soup Put cleaned meat in slow cooker and cover with onion. Sprinkle with soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt and pepper. In a small bowl, combine the soup mix and the soup and pour mixture over the venison. Cook on low setting for 6 hours. And who doesn't like Cheese Danish?! CHEESE DANISH 2 pkgs. Crescent rolls 2 (8 oz.) pkgs. cream cheese 1 cup sugar 1 egg yolk, reserve the white 1 tsp. vanilla ½ cup sugar ¼ cup chopped walnuts 1 tsp. cinnamon 1 egg white, lightly beaten Preheat oven to 350˚. In a medium sized bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar, egg yolk and vanilla together. Set aside. Unroll 1 package of the crescent rolls on the bottom of a 9x13 in. baking pan. Pinch seams together. Bake for 5 minutes at 350˚. Spread the cream cheese filling on top of the baked crescent roll. Top with remaining crescent roll. Brush the top with egg white and sprinkle with walnuts and cinnamon. Bake at 350˚ for 30 minutes. ~Sandy~

Thought this might be a good time of year to resurrect this thread! :- ) I run my extra tomatoes through the food processor and then freeze them in 2-3 cup containers. No peeling, blanching or cooking. I really don't notice the peels when I dump it in a pot of chili - except that it tastes fresher than canned. As for recipes, I use one (modified) that I found online when I was looking for a way to use up ground turkey I found on sale. Turkey Pumpkin Chili Brown one pound ground turkey with one diced medium onion. Then add a can of beans (canelloni beans are my favorite), 2 cups diced tomatoes, 2 cups of pumpkin puree, 1 1/2 T chili powder, salt, and a bay leaf. I add pumpkin pie spice and chopped cilantro to taste. Then serve topped with shredded cheese and sour cream. The pumpkin doesn't really add much flavor on its own, but thickens the soup and gives you extra veggies. (If you don't like pumpkin, I'd season with something different than pumpkin pie spice, though.) If you get the meat on sale and the veggies from your garden, this is a dirt cheap, hearty soup for fall or winter. Don't expect it to be spicy like regular chili - just a nice fall soup.

Great thread. I've made many mistakes over the years. When I needed drapes for 5 very tall and wide windows, I thought I would save money by making them myself. I ended up buying 30+ yards of a synthetic moire on sale at a chain fabric store, along with drapery lining, and after making up one panel, found that even with lining, the light coming through the fabric made the color brighter and kind of gaudy. The bolt is still in an upstairs closet, and I found 96" crushed voile panels online that I like very much for about $20 each. Lesson: keep it simple. A couple of years ago, I hired a local designer mainly to help me choose paint colors and advise on accessories/tweaking. In the master bedroom, I had some custom green silk drapes that I never liked that much, and she talked me into spending the money to have them interlined and a printed fabric border added, along with custom shams with the same fabric. I had already spent $2000 on the drapes, and now I spent another $1000, and I still didn't like them. I took them down, and they and the matching euro shams are in the closet in the guest room. I put up natural linen-look semi sheers from target, and I like them better. Lesson: keep it simple, and don't throw good money after bad. We weren't using our formal dining room much, and the same designer suggested moving the dining furniture into one end of our large living room, and making the old dining room into a den and the old den into a home office, which was really needed. Since I wanted to replace the old LR sofa anyway, I moved the den furniture into the living room and had a custom ($$$)sofa made for the new den. It was not a huge space, and we tried to keep the sofa scaled down. When it arrived, the fabric was gorgeous, the style just what I wanted, but the seat depth was so shallow that it was not very comfortable. I had also slipcovered the old den chairs to go with the new sofa ($$). I ended up moving the new sofa to the living room, where it was more appropriate for perching ladies than lounging TV viewers, and now none of the colors I had chosen (with help paid for by the hour) for the LR and new den would work. Plus, the newly slipcovered den chairs (on swivel rocker bases, I love them) don't work that well with the old sofa color. Fortunately, I hadn't painted yet. Lessons: Don't buy furniture without sitting on it. Choose paint colors after you are certain of your fabrics. Don't let your designer talk you into stuff you don't really need. Keep your major pieces fairly neutral. The worst was the master bath update. I had chosen tile for the walls and floor, and the tile vendor gave me a couple of names for the installation. The guy with the higher quote was very highly recommended but I went with the other guy because he said he could also do some other work I needed done. Even though I had a gut feeling I was making a mistake. He did a horrible job on the tile, broke my toilet, and disappeared. I had to buy more wall tile and pay another contractor to replace it, and I'm still stuck with a bad job on the floor. Between the cost of doing the job, redoing the job, and buying a new toilet, I could have had the better contractor do the job, and replaced the vanity and sink as well, and upgraded to a better tile. Lessons: A jack of all trades might be a master of none. Go with your gut. Ask contractors for their license numbers and CHECK IT online with your state to see if it's in effect. I've made more, but these are the recent highlights, LOL. I feel better having confessed them here.

Makes a great buffet dish! Serves 6 1/4 cup olive oil 3/4 cup finely chopped sweet onions 1/2 teaspoon sugar 1 1/2 cups long-grain white rice 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon white pepper 1 cup beef broth 1 cup water 1 tablespoon chopped pimento Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Add the onions and the sugar. Cook, stirring, until the onions are golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add the rice, salt and white pepper, and cook the mixture, stirring, until the rice begins to brown a little. Add the broth and water, and boil the mixture, uncovered, over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, covered, for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the rice is tender. Add the pimentos, fluff the rice, and let stand for a few minutes before serving.