I am a 40 something wife, mother, and teacher. I have a 24 year old daughter who teaches music and a 21 year old son. My husband (the love of my life) and I are raising his son from his first marriage, which is a challenge. We live in Greeley, Colorado and both commute to teach. I spend 2 hours on the road to teach 3rd grade in Cheyenne, Wyoming, and his commute is about 2 1/2 hours each day to teach PE in Denver. We love to cook together, which fueled my long-time ability into a new passion. We have perfected a spaghetti sauce recipe we make each summer with our home grown tomatoes. That means long afternoons in the kitchen peeling tomatoes and simmering sauce, but we love it. I also make killer chicken stock that my husband uses to make a green chili recipe to die for. Other than those recipes listed above, my friends enjoy me sharing my favorite easy slow cooker recipes. With all the time my husband and I spend on the road, there isn't much time for cooking, so the slow cooker seems to be our new solution. Each week, I try to come up with a different recipe with 5 or less ingredients. Most are great, which proves my theory: It doesn't have to be hard to be good. My parents were depression-era children so they were always very frugal about meals. However, my mom was a great cook and we were always impressed by the flavor and heartiness of what she cooked. Our Sunday ritual was that my mom put a roast in the oven to slow cook during church. Then we ate our big meal at noon on Sunday and had popcorn and other snackish goodies in the evening while we watched Wonderful World of Disney or Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Thanksgiving and Christmas was always a grand affair! My mother spent weeks and sometimes a month planning, preparing, freezing, and cooking before the big event. One year, she made so much home made candy, she decided to turn the heat off in one room and make it her cool storage. Wow! That was fun...having so much candy around Christmas. I always make big meals at holidays, like my mom. Our kids are always there and request their favorite foods, which makes me happy. My biggest triumph would have to be our home made spaghetti sauce. My friends all tell me mine is the best they have ever tasted. We love Mexican food, especially great green chili. Recently, our favorite Mexican restaurant closed without warning. We are very choosy about our green chili and could not find a suitable substitute. So, we spent the entire summer making green chili until we came up with a favorite recipe. It took a lot of patience, creativity, and innovation, but I think we finally have a real winner recipe. I use the slow cooker at least twice a week. One problem, for us, is we are gone for at least 12 hours each day, so we have to be creative about how to put food on for that long. One tired morning, I followed the recipe exactly instead of adjusting it to account for the long day. When I returned home, the charred smell of a formerly great piece of meat hit me at the door! What use to be chunks of meat and onions were pulverized into a black powdery mess! That will teach me to follow my instincts!