Slow Cooker Ready & Waiting: 160 Sumptuous Meals That Cook Themselves Paperback – January 21, 1998

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.

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.

I love my crockpot and this cookbook. I am a very busy working mother and new to crockpot cooking. I received one from my mother for Christmas 2 years ago, but it has really transformed my meals. I mostly cook on Sundays and using the crockpot (I have a 5-1/2 to 6 quart one) has allowed my family to have a good meal all week from just a little preparation.Rick Rogers provides great recipes that are basically variations on the standard American crockpot recipes - so they aren't too intimidating to someone like me who is not a big gourmet cook and doesn't have time to search all over town for special ingredients. At the same time his recipes do require more prep time then the usual crockpot recipe. I also have the Big Book of Crockpot Recipes - which is mostly dump it and forget recipes. Which brings me to the best thing about Rick Roger's book - he actually helps you make better meals from other crockpot recipes with his simple suggestions on how to seal in the flavor of meats (browning before placing in the crockpot) and how to make the often watery juice left over in many crockpot recipes into great sauces.My only suggestion is that he could have included some recipes for larger crockpots like mine. All of his recipes were tested on 3-1/2 quart crockpots. Its always a little tricky for me to make the adjustments for my crockpot. In addition, I recommend periodically checking and stirring the dishes while they are cooking. My crockpot seems to cook hotter than the tested crockpots and my meals are often done 1 hour sooner than the recipe. Checking the dish while cooking helps me prevent the meat from getting too mushy - the crockpot equivalent of burning the meal and I adjust seasonings if necessary.

I received a nice, 6 quart slow cooker for Christmas, and ordered this book for it as I wanted recipes a bit more than "dump in one pot." Well, I wish the description had mentioned that nearly all recipes in this book are for a 3.5 quart slow cooker! And it emphasizes how using the right size pot is important. As I'm not going out to buy yet another slow cooker, this book is a big disappointment for me.

I grew up in the 1970s eating dinners from the Crock Pot prepared in the morning to be ready when my parents came home from work. My mother was picky, she had only a handful of recipes she liked, because back then far too many recipes called for raw meat dumped in with a can of whatever soup and combined with frozen vegetables. But there were a few, a very few, that with some extra effort yielded wonderful results.This cookbook takes my mom's view on Crock Pot cooking & makes it a real art. If you like those super simple stews with canned soup, then this is not the book for you. But if you like tasty soups, stews and dinners, then this is one of the best out there. This book has earned a place on my "use it all the time shelf." Sure, as some people have pointed out, it does take more time. Typically, it takes me 20-30 minutes to prepare the meal & put it on to cook. But the results are fantastic and the variety is wonderful.Finally, I read with surprise the reviews that said that for their "meat and potatoes" families there was nothing here. My family loves the Pot Roast, Good Woman's Chicken, and chili recipes. Yes, there are many other recipes that are more ethnic or unusual, but the basics are here also & they are better than ever before.