I like to cook. And to be honest, I like to eat. What I don't enjoy is the clean up involved after having cooked a terrific meal. So like so many people I know, I thought cooking in a crockpot would be a great idea. My grandmother gave me one a few years back. I used it a few times and then stuck in a cabinet. Typical I know. Recently I've thought about dusting it off and putting it to use. But what to make in it? That is why I decided to give The Great American Slow Cooker Book a try.
As a member of Blogging for Books, I am given a chance to read books and review them. While thumbing through their selection I came across The Great American Slow Cooker Book by Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough. I thought is was kismet. I wanted to use the crockpot and here was a book that promised "500 easy recipes for every day and every machine". And that leads me to this review.
The book is quiet large with about 500 pages of recipes. I like how the recipes are set up. Easy to understand and the charts that show how the recipes vary for different sized cookers is so helpful. There are helpful tips and tidbits in the "Tester's Notes", "All-American Know-How" and "Ingredients Explained" sections after most of the recipes. The book is immense and has recipes of every variety. From chicken to beans. From pork to puddings. There is even a vegetarian section. Some of the recipes sound quite yummy while some of the recipes I wouldn't even fathom trying.
The book is great. My only problem with it is it didn't live up to my expectations. With wording like "500 easy recipes for every day" I was expecting simpler foods. I was expecting like crockpot potato soup and a few different varieties of easy macaroni and cheese. Instead there are recipes like "Rabbit with whiskey and lima beans" and "osso buco with coffee and chiles". I wanted recipes that used ingredients that I always have on hand. Unfortunately that is not what this book contains. Don't get me wrong. This book has some amazing sounding recipes that most likely produce delicious food. But not for me. I need simpler (and cheaper) foods. There are a few breakfast/desserts that I'm going to try.
Would I recommend this book? Definitely. It was a well written book full of great recipes. Just not what I was looking for.
**"I received this book for free from Blogging for Books for this review."**
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