Rival Crock Pot, the Original and #1 Brand Slow Cooker by Publications International Ltd, Rival Manufacturing Company (2007, Book, Illustrated)

Last Christmas I received a Slow Cooker as a gift. Oh, I had the original Rival Crockpot, of course. You know, the one that has the crock permanently affixed into the heating portion, sort of small and hard to clean… It sat around decades, unused, as Boston Baked Beans or Split Pea Soup didn’t really appeal to the family too often.

The new generation of Slow Cooker, whether from Rival or any of the other fine manufacturers, can now be found in many sizes, and the crock itself comes out for ease of cleaning… no more excuses not to use it.

That being said, I went on Ebay and bought every single crock or slow cooker cookbook I found… I have a dozen now, from the vintage Rival Cookbook to this one here: Slow Cooker Recipes for All Occasions. I like this book, as one of the best.

It has all my cookbook requirements: lots of full page color photos, easily-found ingredients, and fool-proof instructions. 95 pages long. Here are the categories: Impress Your Guests, World-Class Cuisine, Spectacular Sides, Sweet Endings, Everyday Favorites, Kids in the Kitchen, and there’s a nice index too.

Every time a holiday rolls around, the oven is already in service, my stovetop is crowded with last-minute sauces, and the microwave is busy reheating my pre-made items. Why didn’t it occur to me to use the Slow Cooker? In fact, it can be plugged in, out of the way, in nearly any room…

Heat the meatball appetizers, make the Breakfast Bake, a potato casserole side dish, and lemon loaf cake for dessert. I have my cooker sitting out on my dryer, always ready to lend a hand on dinner duty. My husband learned to make beef stew and chili, and now improvises on the basic recipes in the book. He thinks he’s a chef now. Uh-huh, yeah.

What’s great is that these recipes free up my time to sell more on eBay, and not worry about what’s for supper. A bit of pre-planning is all that’s required, and this is even great for a supervised child to help out with a meal. Let me show you one of the kids recipes here:

MOM’S TUNA CASSEROLE
Makes 8 servings

2 12 oz. cans tuna, drained and flaked
3 c. diced celery (watch those kids with the knife!)
3 c. crushed potato chips, divided
6 hard cooked eggs, chopped (parents, you boil the eggs)
1 10 ¾ oz. each condensed cream of mushroom soup & condensed cream of celery soup
1 c. mayonnaise
1 t. dried tarragon
1 t. black pepper

1. Combine tuna, celery, 2 ½ cups chips, eggs, soups, mayonnaise, tarragon, and pepper in Slow Cooker, stir well.

2. Cover, cook on LOW 5-8 hours or until done.

3. Sprinkle with remaining ½ cup chips before serving. YUM!

Wait until you see how excited your child is, telling everyone, “I cooked this dinner“… Totally worth the supervision time to see their pride of accomplishment. You’ll find many more easy to teach or make recipes, for all family members.

Get the Slow Cooker out, buy this book, and spend that cooking time with your loved ones instead.