Crock Pot o' Gold Month (Part 3)

Welcome to the third installment of my slow cooker extravaganza month! With St. Fratboy's Day behind us, it's time to refocus and get away from soups and stews. You can use your Crock Pot for so much more! For those of you who remember the book porn from the first edition, you will be pleasantly surprised by this issue's cheap and simple book craft. Stay tuned, I've got one more slow cooker recipe up my sleeve before this month is over. 

Red Wine Pork Tenderloin

Obviously this is nothing new, my mom used to make pork tenderloin in the crock pot all the time, most recently on Christmas Eve. For some reason people have the idea that this is an expensive cut of meat. I find it to be very affordable by comparison. I've added a few bells and whistles to my mom's method. After you've eaten this, you'll never cook it any other way. And as always, it's heavy on the rosemary.

1-1.5 lb pork loin roast

1 packet dry vegetable soup mix

1/2 red onion (quartered)

3 cloves minced garlic 

2 tbsp chopped rosemary

3/4 c red wine

1 c water

salt & pepper

Step 1: Fill crock with water, soup mix, and onion. 

Step 2: Coat both sides of roast with rosemary and garlic. Slowly pour wine over roast and cover. 

Step 3: Set crock to LO and simmer 4 hours. Do not open lid! After 4 hours, toss in more fresh rosemary. 

Step 4: Take a picture of it before you eat and upload it to Facebook, people love that. 

Teacher's Pet Bookplate

There are only two things I won't do and one of those is loan out books. I have a very carefully selected library and it seems that whenever people come over and pluck books from my shelves, I never see them or my book again. It's always an awkward conversation when bringing up book negligence so I made these customized bookplates for the very rare occasion that I do loan one out. This way they never forget that my book is not theirs! There are about a million different ways to make these, but since I'm cheap I used the resources I had (fancy Silhouette cutter at work). You can also use stamps or follow my pattern with your own paper cutting tools. The point is, brand all your loanable possessions.

Get this stuff. 

Adhere with either double-sided tape or glue. The less glue the better so your pages don't crinkle. 

*On a less hostile note: These are a great idea for when giving books as gifts.