Moist Slow Cooker Meals

When you are cooking with a slow cooker, remember that cheaper cuts of
meat do much better (such as chuck roasts or chuck steaks). Very lean
cuts of beef come out very dry. Chicken legs or thighs generally will
give a more moist end result than chicken breast. If you do use chicken
breast, use the whole breasts, not the boneless skinless breasts, since
they will remain moister. Remove the bones and skin after cooking.

Also, remember to use enough liquid to cook over a long period of time.
Liquids like chicken or beef broth or cream soups diluted with water
make very good gravies in the slow cooker.
Linda

Home prices in the Dallas area were up about 5 percent at midyear compared with second quarter 2006 in the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight’s quarterly report released Thursday.

The federal report was the second this week to show Dallas home prices still rising.

Dallas’ increase compares with a 3.2 percent one-year nationwide gain for the same period - the lowest such increase since in 10 years.

U.S. home prices were up only 0.1 percent from the first quarter.

“House prices were basically flat in the second quarter despite tightening credit policies, rising foreclosure rates, and weakening buyer sentiment,” Federal Housing Office Director James Lockhart said in a statement.

Dallas is one of the few cities in the nation where home prices are still rising slightly, according to a national housing survey released Tuesday.

While U.S. home prices fell 3.2 percent in the second quarter, Standard & Poor’s quarterly housing index reports that the Dallas metropolitan area was one of only five markets in the country with price gains.

Of the 20 cities it surveys, only Dallas, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., had annual gains in home prices in the second quarter.

But it’s hard to say whether the 1.6 percent gain in Dallas home prices is sustainable, industry experts say.

Dr. David Westerberg had the chance to buy into a cosmetic dentistry practice in Palm Desert but found that the credit crunch had chipped away his ability to find money through conventional small-business loans or by tapping his home equity.

Although his house value had gone up, the appraiser was having a tough time finding comparable houses that also had become more valuable.
“The market has changed,” said Westerberg, who already burnishes smiles at a San Bernardino practice. “I found that [bankers] weren’t as willing to lend and it had become much more stringent.”

Long-term mortgage rates slid further this week on cooler July home sales and waning consumer confidence, Freddie Mac and Bankrate.com reported today.

In Freddie Mac’s survey, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage dropped to an average 6.45 percent from last week’s 6.52 percent, and the 15-year fixed was down to 6.12 percent from 6.18 percent. Points, which are fees lenders charge for loan processing expressed as a percent of the loan, averaged 0.5 on the 30- and 15-year loans.

The story was a bit different for adjustable-rate mortgages (ARMs), however, on which rates this week rose by about “a quarter of a percent,” Freddie Mac Vice President and Chief Economist Frank Nothaft said in a statement.