3.5 stars would be more accurate. The recipes are decent, but they are not work friendly. Very very few of the recipes can be put in the slow cooker in the morning and served at dinner time.

I learned a lot from the introduction but the few recipes I tried (corn chowder and sweet and sour chicken) were just okay. I'll try a few more and see how they turn out...

When I originally checked this book out of the library, my life was very different. Like many reviewers I used only the recipes that took eight or more hours to cook. Three years later, what I want in a recipe is to do all or most of the prep work in the morning. Because in the evening my children will be nearing total meltdown. And we will be returning to the house after hours of activity, hungry.

After checking the book out a second time, I decided to buy a copy of it. And I use it regularly.

Some pros and cons:

--Most recipes do require browning or some effort. So this isn't a just pour it in the pot book. I like that because there aren't a lot of processed food ingredients.
--There are many recipes that I do not use because they require attention just prior to serving, rather than at the beginning of the process. The ones I've tried do taste good. But I don't typically have time to cook those recipes.
--The tips for food safety, and make ahead advice are very helpful.
--No pictures.

This is a great cookbook for people who have time to cook early in the day. But, probably not those who intend to be out of the house for eight to twelve hours at a time.

I was excited to get this book but it didn't live up to my expectations.

I use the slow-cooker a lot when I'm working during the week so I've mainly only tried the recipes that take 8+ hours. There are some interesting ideas in the book - I had no idea you could make ribs in the slow cooker and they actually turned out pretty good! However, most of the recipes I tried were just not that good and there are only two that I would repeat. As many others have pointed out, there are no pictures but I think that's because most food is not that appetizing looking when it gets out of the slow-cooker. My biggest problem with the book is that there are so many recipes I would never use. If i want oatmeal, I'll make it on the stove, not in the slow cooker. Real oatmeal (not instant) cooks pretty fast anyway (~20 minutes?) so why use the slow cooker? Why cook hotdogs in the slow-cooker for 2 hours when you can cook them other ways in 10 minutes? There are too many similar recipes overall. I don't need 10 recipes for oatmeal, 5 chili recipes, 2 french onion soup recipes and 2-3 corned beef recipes.One really good recipe for each would be better than several mediocre ones. Too many recipes in this book are just not useful. I think the authors were aiming to show what you can do with a slow cooker but they didn't think about why most people use the slow cooker in the first place. I can make a grill cheese with an iron but that doesn't mean I want to.

This book was life-changing! I have had a slow cooker for a few years but never put it to much use until I got this book. During the winter/spring, I was using my slow cooker (and recipes from this book), once a week!

I value this cookbook as much as it’s explanations and demonstrations of cooking techniques as for the recipes themselves. I find some of the recipes a little to new cuisine or fancy for my families tastes, but the techniques demonstrated in the recipes help me create new recipes of my own.

I am experimenting with it now. I think it works well --good explanations. It's obvious the writers experimented a lot with the recipes.

One of the best. I constantly use this cookbook, and have given away the 5 other slow cooker cookbooks. Innovative.

Great recipes, wonderful variations. I love the snippets of info and food history at the beginning of each chapter and before each recipe.

I don't really even remember looking through this book, so I must not have liked it too much. If I remember correctly, there were very few photos, and the recipes didn't really seem like things I would want to make.

http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/1...

Will rate once I've made a few of the recipes!