Cooking made slow & easy

When the Rival Crock-Pot slow cooker came on the market in 1971, it was poised to take over the kitchen. Women liked coming home to a meal that had been simmering all day. The energy crunch was on, and slow cookers used less electricity than ovens or stove tops. Just about all newlyweds in the '70s could expect a wedding gift of at least one Rival Crock-Pot, or a generic knockoff, in either Harvest Gold or Avocado Green.

"When they came out, they were going to be the new thing in cooking," said Pauline Williams, a home economist with Utah State University Extension in Salt Lake County. "But a few years later the microwave came out."

And the quick-cooking microwave soon short-circuited the slow cooker's popularity.

But more than 30 years later, the slow cooker is alive and well; some folks never stopped using them. And, like fondue and hip-hugger jeans, they're making a comeback. So if yours has been stashed in the gadget graveyard of your basement, it's time to haul it out.

Williams has been teaching slow cooker classes at local cooking stores and in the Salt Lake County Extension office. Two Utahns, Stephanie Ashcraft of Provo and Janet Eyring of Heber, co-authored a new cookbook, "101 Things to Do With a Slow Cooker," published by Gibbs Smith of Layton. Eyring teaches a popular monthly cooking class, "Slow Cooker Sensations," at Macey's stores in Pleasant Grove, Orem and Provo. Ashcraft wrote "101 Things to Do With a Cake Mix" that sold over 130,000 copies since it was published in 2000. She also teaches cooking classes at Macey's.

Their book is geared toward the beginner, with a lot of what Ashcraft calls "throw-and-go" recipes. Put a few ingredients together in the morning and let the slow cooker take it from there. That's why many of the recipes rely on a can of cream-of-something soup or dry onion soup mix.

"The (creamed soups) do really welI in the slow cooker, they're fast to use and most people have it in the cupboard. That's a benefit of the book is that it uses simple ingredients, and there's not much pre-preparation. If people don't like the fat content, they can use the Healthy Request soups and the recipes will turn out fine," she said.

Besides the usual casseroles, the book includes cakes, cobblers, rolls, fondue and drinks such as hot chocolate.

"I was amazed at how much you can do," Ashcraft said. She especially likes the lasagna recipe, because you don't have to pre-cook the noodles. "The hardest part is browning the ground beef. I never make lasagna in my oven anymore."

If you've already mastered the basics, you may want to look at other books such as "The Crockery Cook" by Mable Hoffman (Fisher Books) or "Ready and Waiting," by Rick Rodgers, which offer more sophisticated fare. You can also adapt some of your favorite recipes to a slow cooker. But if you have only 15 minutes in the morning for prep time, you will want to keep it simple.

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