I am giving this book five stars not because of the wonderfulness of the recipes, but for its usefulness and its reliance on fresh ingredients. I must have cooked out of this book once a week when my kids were smaller. Some of the recipes didn't work out so well, and I had to do some tweaking (e.g. sautéing all the vegetables before adding them to the pot), but once I got things right the leftovers never languished in the fridge, uneaten.

I have a couple of other slow cooker books, and I checked a few out of the library, but they were either impractical--e.g. cook for three hours, then add something, then cook some more--which defeats the purpose of the appliance; or were too ghastly to consider. (I just don't use ingredients such as powdered onion soup.) ( )