One Pot

A review by Abi

Using just one pan, you can stew, steam saute', simmer, braise, or roast your way to a fuss-free meal.

This selection of recipes provides easy to prepare, tasty, nutritious meals—all in one pot—whether it be a slow cooker, a baking pan, roaster, or one of the many things included in this book. Yes, the book even explains what each type of cooking utensil is and what it should be used for. To top it off, you don't make a huge mess while preparing these recipes.

Think of the dishes you won’t have to wash! That alone is a reason to purchase this book. But ultimately, it’s the delicious meals that use simple ingredients to fill your family’s belly.

I especially liked the recipe for Roasted Tilefish with Potatoes and Capers on page 160 (I omitted the capers because I was too lazy to go out and buy some.) However, the dish was delish! My whole family raved about how great it was. I pretended I slaved over it, but in all honesty, it was simple. From the first bite, the burst of flavors made everyone happy.

For any lazy busy cook, this is a perfect book.

Publisher: Clarkson Potter

Page Count: 256

Purchase Link: Amazon

Book Rating:

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One Pot

A review by Spencer

Simplify dinnertime (and cleanup) with one-pot recipes everyone will love.

In my opinion, the worst thing about cooking is the cleanup. Well, voilà! This book offers a solution. Easy prep, easy recipe, and easy peasy cleanup.

One Pot has several sections devoted to different types of pots—Dutch Oven, Slow Cooker, Skillet & Sauté Pan, Roasting Pan & Baking Dish, Pressure Cooker, and Stockpot. It also has a segment dedicated to Desserts.

Now, I don’t eat beef, so sometimes it can be difficult to find a recipe book that has enough non-beef recipes to make me happy. I’m pleased with One Pot’s variety. The Braised Chicken with Potatoes and Lemon is delicious and easy, and the Classic Chicken Soup is the perfect pick-me-up for the winter blahs.

Two recipes on my soon-to-make list are the Skillet Macaroni and Cheese (with lots of cheese—yum) and Stuffed Tomatoes (without the tuna—yuck.) I promise you, the photo illustrating the stuffed tomatoes is enough to make your taste buds explode.

I haven’t prepared any of the desserts—yet, but I’ve probably gained a few pounds by thumbing through that section. Chocolate Mousse in a blender? Raspberry Sorbet? No-Churn Coffee Chocolate-Chip Ice Cream?

Oh. Em. Gee.

I want.

Needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway, this book is a keeper. The recipes are practical, the ingredients are typical pantry dwellers, and the photos are incredibly inspiring. I even learned that there are slow cookers that brown meats! Cool. I’ve already added one of those babies to my Christmas list.

Publisher: Clarkson Potter

Page Count: 256

Purchase Link: Amazon

Book Rating:

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Disclosure of Material Connection in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: BloggingForBooks has provided me a copy of this book in exchange for a review.

The Great American Slow Cooker Book

A review by Abi

          What's a girl to do when everyone groans each time she pulls out the trusty slow cooker? Find a cook book with 500 new recipes! 

           I love using a slow cooker, and I'll be the first to admit, I make the same few things all the time. They're yummy, but I am looking for something new to eat. And whoa, this book is chock-full of new stuff. I'm sure, after trying a few; my go-to recipe list will grow with this great cook book. Thus, nixing the groans emitting from the people I feed.

Here are a few things I like about The Great American Slow Cooker Book:

           I like the easy-to-follow recipes, and everyday ingredients. It’s annoying when I look up recipes, only to find they include a zillion off-the-wall ingredients or spices only professional chefs have on hand.

           The cook book is well organized. This makes finding the type of recipe I’m looking for easy to find. That is important to me when I'm in a hurry to throw something together before I head off to work.

            Slow cookers come in different sizes, and so do the recipes in this book! That scored big points with me.

            Talking about recipes…I thought Goldilocks and the three bears were the only ones who ate porridge, but the variations of porridge recipes in this book make me want to try them all! There are some other breakfast choices in this cook book too. I never cooked a morning meal in a crock pot before, but I will now! Any hot breakfast that doesn't include instant crud makes me happy.

            Though I like this book, my review wouldn't be complete without stating what I think could be improved.

            Some of the recipes, namely, Biscuits and Gravy, would just as easily be made without using the slow cooker. Preparing it in a frying pan, browning the liquid with the flour, and pouring it into the cooker doesn’t make this recipe appealing. It makes more pans dirty, more prep time, and more time consuming than it’s worth. Plus, why the heck would I wait even longer when I've already prepared the gravy? I'm frickin' starving after frying up sausage and making gravy from scratch, so why pour them in the slow cooker? Biscuits are simple in the oven, and to tell the truth, I don't think I'll ever cook them in a slow cooker.

            Why are all the photos in the center of the book? (And even then, there's only a few.) I don’t want to flip back and forth through the cookbook to find what a particular recipe will look like. And why aren’t there photos for each (or even most) recipes? I like to see what the end product looks like. Call me crazy.

            Despite the things I just mentioned, this is a good cook book. The Great American Slow Cooker Book could easily become my favorite slow cooker recipe book. It's a keeper.

Publisher: Clarkson Potter (sold by Random House LLC)

Page Count: 512

Purchase Link: Amazon

Book Rating:

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The Great American Slow Cooker Book

A review by Spencer

By Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough

500 Easy Recipes for Every Day and Every Size Machine.    

First of all, I was surprised on the thickness of this cookbook. I’ve ordered other crock-pot cookbooks that were magazine style, or contained only a handful of recipes. This book has 512 pages and the ‘Great American’ red-white-and-blue appearance looks attractive on my kitchen shelf.

Unlike many other cookbooks I own, I actually enjoyed reading the introduction. It contains a lot of interesting and valuable information, such as the range of slow cooker models, problem solving, kitchen tips and shortcuts, etc.

The Great American Slow Cooker Book is comprised of 7 sections: Breakfast, Soups, Meat, Poultry, Fish & Shellfish, Vegetables & Side Dishes, and Desserts & Party Drinks--Each section having a 2-4 page introduction (of sorts) pertaining to the particular meals at hand.

I’ve only tried one section so far (Desserts), because (1) I love my sweets, (2) I didn’t have to purchase any of the ingredients, and (3) The recipes were simple. 

Of the recipes I’ve tried, The Apple Walnut Crisp (pg. 490) is my favorite. I basically mixed the filling ingredients (with little preparation time), poured it in the crock-pot and covered it with the mixed topping ingredients. Easy peasy. (I didn’t understand the suggestion of placing paper towels over the top, so I didn’t follow that step.) Due to personal preference, I only made one ingredient modification, replacing the walnuts with pecans. The dessert was easy to prepare and tasted delicious. I plan to use this same recipe for a peach crisp, and might roast the pecans before adding them to the topping.

The few cons of this book are:

• Some of the recipes include preparing some of the ingredients on the stovetop, i.e. Biscuits and Gravy on pg. 41, calls for you to prepare the gravy on the stovetop and pouring the mixture into the crock pot. Then you prepare your biscuit dough and place on top of the gravy mixture. This kind of defeats the purpose of using a slow cooker, in my opinion. When I use my crock-pot, I want to avoid dirtying additional pans and adding to my prep time. The biscuits and gravy could just as easily be prepared without the crock-pot.
• There aren’t enough photos, and the photos that are included are placed in the center of the book, rather than with the corresponding recipe, so I had to flip back and forth looking for the recipe that went with each photo.
• I don’t eat red meat or seafood, so I wish there were more chicken recipes or vegetarian meals. There are 10 recipes using chicken breasts, (my favorite cut of the chicken) but I wish there were more.

Overall, I like The Great American Slow Cooker Book, and plan to make recipes from more than just the dessert section. If it included vegetarian, and alternative recipes, such as gluten free, etc., and contained more strategically placed photos, I would’ve given a higher rating.

Publisher: Clarkson Potter (sold by Random House LLC)

Page Count: 512

Purchase Link: Amazon

Book Rating: 

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Disclosure of Material Connection in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: BloggingForBooks has provided me a copy of this book in exchange for a review.