Make It Fast, Cook It Slow: The Big Book of Everyday Slow Cooking Book

A friend turned me onto Stephanie O'Dea, the creator of the popular blog Crockpot365, and subsequently this book (and the following book). I love my slow cooker. Not with quite the same fanatic devotion that O'Dea does, but I'm definitely getting there. I tried the BBQ Chicken and Cornbread recipe, which used up some leftover rotisserie chicken and added one of my favorite vices, bottled BBQ sauce. It was crazy-good! Next, I made a Blueberry Buckle. This was my first time making a dessert in a added container within the slow cooker and it ended up coming out perfectly.

One of my favorite things about this cookbook is that it uses a lot of staples. There aren't a ton of recipes with "weird" ingredients and the directions are very simple to follow. The "Fake-Out" recipes were another favorite. As a member of a family trying to spend less on food, this is a great way to make dinner more interesting and enjoyable. Slow cooking is also a way to take some of the evening pressure of the home's cook and have something ready to go just in time. Also, both books are made with gluten-free recipes (with non-gluten-free substitutions), which was a really nice touch. Again, nothing too fancy or out of the ordinary.