Slow Cooker Pork Ribs with Apples

I often make these on a weekend, just leaving them to do their thing together in the slow cooker while I go about my day. They are DELISH. I just throw everything together into the pot, and cook 'em on low for the whole day. They're great served with mashed potatoes and coleslaw, or pickled red cabbage, but this time I had 'em with a celery and sweet corn casserole and sour cream mashed potatoes. (I'll be blogging the casserole separately)

What you need:
1 rack of baby ribs (cut to fit into your pot)
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1/4 cup brown sauce
1/2 cup tomato purée
1 tbsp dried mixed herbs
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1/2 tbsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup dark muscovado sugar
1/2 cup red wine (or water)
1/2 cup vinegar
2 eating apples, chopped
( I don't use salt, as I don't feel it needs it, and I have salt on everything usually, but you decide!)

What to do:
Mix everything together and pour over the ribs. Place in slow cooker pot and put lid on. Turn slow cooker onto Low setting. Put your feet up/go out/go to bed/whatever. Approx 8 hours later you have a pot of deliciousness waiting for you! Eat it.

Blue Cheese Mushroom Stacks

I made these for dinner and they were scrum-diddly.
Can be served as a starter or serve two with a salad for a main course.
They also work with any other cheese but I am having a bit of a blue cheese obsession at the mo!

Make 'em:

Large mushrooms
Cherry tomatoes, halved
Red pepper, chopped
Blue cheese, sliced or crumbled
Oil
Bread, sliced
Garlic granules
Black pepper
Oregano

I haven't put quantities of anything as it's all up to you, also you can change up what veggies you use too. I used 2 cherry toms and about 1/4 of a small red pepper per 'shroom, and enough cheese to cover. I sliced my bread from the end of a crusty loaf to make my croutons but you could also use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes from a slice of bread.

Oven at 200'c (fan)

Lightly grease the bottom of your roasting tray and sit the mushrooms in cap-side down. If they have long stalks trim these first.
On each mushroom place the tomatoes and peppers and top with your cheese. Gently drizzle your pieces of bread with oil and sprinkle with the garlic, pepper and oregano. You shouldn't need any salt due to the cheese. Stack these on top of the mushrooms and cook for approx 20 minutes.
Remove from oven and transfer to plate. Then make lots of "mmmm" sounds as you chow down.

A little up-cycle project

Sometimes I see things in charity shop windows and decide that I need to buy them and make them into something better. I see potential in bedraggled looking old items that other people have seen fit to throw away. Often I don't actually follow up on my vision, but this time I did and bought a knackered old footstool from the charity shop near my work.

Anyway, in 2 afternoons I managed to turn this piece of 'junk' into something quite nice. Well, I like it anyway. I used an old duvet cover that had a tear in it to cover it, and used a tester pot of paint to paint the base with. Here's how it went in pictures....