Dawn J. Ranck

This book certainly has many recipes. Many seem redundant, as if they took every recipe submitted and stuck them in the book. Sometimes this really works for me if I don't like exactly one recipe I can combine ideas. I am ambivalent about the usefulness of this book by itself. On one hand choice is good. On the other hand picking a recipe seems like a crap shoot.
My other quibble is the heavy usage of prepared food in the recipes. What is the point of a slow cooker if you use dried soup mix show more or canned vegis? Just throw an onion or carrot in for crying out loud!
There are no photos and the book is a paperback with glued binding, but it has stood up to the use. It is an OK book, but not the first book I would have bought for someone just starting to cook show less

Haven't tried everything, but what I have tried has been yummy and easy. Definitely a winner if you're looking for hearty meals with minimal prep that will take care of themselves all day while you're otherwise occupied.

My personal favorite? The Chicken Reuben Bake (p.195) - serve it with/on steak rolls. It might sound odd, but it's tasty.

While most of the recipes are good, this book is so poorly organized that it is a headache to use. For example, in the "Main Dishes" section, you might find 5 pot roast recipes, all scattered throughout, and 2 of them would be virtually identical save for one or two ingredients.

I find myself looking up all the recipes for what I want to make, and then mixing and matching between them to suit my tastes. I am still in the market for a good, easy to use slow cooker cookbook.

Overall full of great slow cooker recipes. You'll find everything here from the standard beef stew all the way through how to make corn bread in a slow cooker. The only reason I give it less than 5 stars is because the index is almost useless so it makes things hard to find. Recipes are indexed by recipe name (e.g. Martha's Beef Stew) rather than by ingredients or food type (Beef Stew). Overall the book is broken up by meal types, though, so you can flip through the pages and usually find show more what you are looking for eventually. show less