Rating: 
Summary: Can't believe it!!
Review: My freind recomended this book and so I got it.
WOW! What a change from the norm. The flavors were wonderful, everything was seasoned just perfectly!
I like doing more than just throwing everything all together and letting it go. That usually makes everything taste the same but not true with these recipies!
The wide range of flavors and variety is amazing!
Buy this book!!!! You won't be disapointed and you WILL be recomending it to your freinds and loved ones!
Rating: 
Summary: Slow Cooker deluxe!!!
Review: Probably not for everyone....although saying that I love this book. This has some fantastic recipes in it, amazing tastes. If you have a slow cooker just to throw things into and turn it on this isn't for you... However if like me, you enjoy cooking and don't mind a little extra time to make a simply succulent dish this is the one.
Rating:
Summary: For the gourmet or foodie with a slow cooker
Review: The slow cooker is another kitchen tool. I noted that several of the previous reviewers criticized this book for being too difficult and requiring too much work. I disagree. Delicious, richly-flavored food will take some effort. In the case of Mr. Rodgers' recipes, the effort is minimal and definitely worth it when you taste the results. This was a wonderful cookbook for me because it provided many ways to use the slow cooker as a tool to maximize flavor and minimize prep time. I learned how to use the slow cooker as a bain marie from this book. This book is NOT for those who want to throw all the ingredients into the slow cooker, plug it in, and then return to the resulting gruel.
Rating:
Summary: This is not for the "throw it in and forget it" crowd
Review: There are two kinds of cooks: those who love food and will use whatever tool best serves the taste;and those who use food to satisfy their biological needs. This book is for the former. This book gets the most out of traditional dishes by using the slow cooker what it's best at, mostly braises and stews. Anyone who expects a gourmet meal simply by dumping ingredients into a slow cooker for 10 hours is fooling themselves. Yes, the recipes do require such backbreaking chores such as browning the chicken first, but to coin a phrase, you enjoy what you prep for.
Rating:
Summary: the perfect slow-cooker companion
Review: This is a terrific cookbook for all of us who were seriously traumatized by slow-cooked slabs of gray meat in 1972. Unlike other crock pot cookbooks, the emphasis here is on taste first and then convenience. Yes, you'll probably spend a bit more time prepping ingredients (though not more than 30 minutes), but the payoff comes in great tasting meals that don't look as if they came from a penitentiary cafeteria.
Rating:
Summary: FINALLY![.] Thank You Rick Rodgers![.]
Review: Well thank you. FINALLY a cookbook with recipes and techniques for the slow cooker that yields excellent vs. mediocre results. It is rare that I write a book review (despite buying most of my books through Amazon) and even rarer that I truly hope the author might sometimes log on and read his Amazon.com reviews, but I really hope Rick that you do! Just so I can say thank you. I cook a lot but I work long hours. I cook and bake and I have high expectations and most of what I do is from scratch, without skimping on prep or method. . . and the busier my workload has become this past year, the more desperately I wanted to be able to use my crock pots to make those "delicious one pot meals" that so many books and recipes and websites rave about . . only when I made them, they tasted .....strange...or bland....or just plain -- well, mediocre. Even when I tried to do some things like reduce/thicken the sauces, it just wasn't enough. After 20 years of cooking, creating and baking in my kitchen I can honestly say I believe the crock pot is the HARDEST appliance to get excellent results from - until I bought this book I had only five good recipes (all of them that I'd made up myself) for my crockpots and about 8 crockpot books - all of which had sounded great but yielded substandard results. This one is so different. It is about time. And if you're one of those cooks who wants to just do the minimum, throwing ingredients in at 7am and slopping them out at 7pm without regard to the basics of the cooking methods necessary to yield tasty good quality meals, you'll not want this book. It's like cookware - if you're more interested in how easy it is to cleanup your pots and pans vs. the actual results of the food that is cooked in them, then stick with the low budget teflon t-fal stuff.....same concept. If you're a frustrated semi-gourmet type cook wishing those darn slow cookers lived up to all they claim but never getting decent results, you'll love this book. I do think the book should be retitled though - to something that reflects that this book holds to a higher standard.
Rating:
Summary: Great introduction to technique; good recipes
Review: When I got my first slow cooker recently, I had no idea how to use it, so I set off to find a book to get me started. I had always looked down on slow cookers, primarily because I always associated them with Campbells "cream of" soup cooking. This book impressed me because the recipes are healthier and more sophisticated than the other books I looked at.
So far, I have made 6 recipes from the book. All have been good and some really delicious. I made very good veal stew and pot roast and some decent pasta sauce. Right now I have his beef chili simmering away and it smells fantastic. Here are some of the negatives:
*There is some minimal prep work involved in most of his dishes, such as browing the meat, sometimes sauteeing onions and vegetables, etc. This is not really a downside for me, as I think it is ridiculous to expect to be able to just toss things in a pot and have a dish come out well. The prep work doesn't usually take more than 15 minutes or so, and that is time that I will gladly put in to improving the quality of my meal.
*Many of the dishes are, to my tastes, underseasoned. The spicy dishes are not hot enough, garlicy dishes need more garlic, etc. If you have a bolder palate, you will need to learn to adjust the seasonings. I don't consider this a real downside to the book either, as I bought the book more to learn slow cooker technique.
*Almost all of the recipes in the book are geared to a 3 1/2 quart cooker. Most cookers sold these days are larger-- mine, and the ones I mostly see in the stores, are 6 quart. So the timing he uses in the book will ususally have to be adjusted for a larger cooker, sometimes as much as a few additional hours in my case.
But despite these drawbacks, I like the book and would recommend it to anyone who is looking for some tasty slow cooker recipes or pointers on technique, and won't freak out spending a few minutes on prep work. If you are new to slow cooking like me, after trying a few of these recipes and understanding the methods involved, you will be much better equipped to branch out on your own and become creative with your own recipes, too.
Rating:
Summary: A winner!
Review: Yes, some of the recipes DO take some time, and others take less, but there's plenty of variety here for everyone. Rodgers often recommends taking certain additional preparation steps, and that's what makes his recipes SOOOOOOO much better than some of the awful things that a few of the manufacturers have published. I especially like Hot Fudge Spooncake, and prepare it regularly--it's great to come home to the smell of of freshly baked dessert! For those recipes that require a precise cooking time, I just use a $4 lamp and appliance timer that I picked up at my local hardware store to turn the pot on while I'm at work--problem solved! Now that I have this book, my slow cooker stays on top of the counter and gets a regular work out.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect Winter Food
Review: Yesterday I made the good woman's chicken pot roast and we are still licking our lips. This is not a basic slow cooker book but it does allow your to adapt classic dishes to the slow cooker, I would never go to the library and leave a stew simmering but I will go out and leave the crockpot on. I recommond this book to those who are ready to do more with the slow cooker and to those cooks who still want classic braises and stews but a little freedom too. Everything I have made has been delicious.
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