Hurry up, the bandwagon’s leaving

I’m not really what you would call an early adapter. I don’t usually have the beta version of the newest piece of software, I didn’t get an ipod for years after they came out, and I only JUST got a phone with a keyboard. I guess I just want to be sure that something really WORKS before I spend money on it, you know?

So that’s why I waited almost 4 decades to get a crockpot. You know, to be sure it wasn’t just a fad. But OHMIGOSH why didn’t I get one sooner? Good lord, I can’t believe I’m just catching on to the wonders of this thing.

The name’s Pot. Crock Pot.

Confession: I had a crockpot for almost two years. Never used it. Not once, not ever. When I moved a few months ago, we agreed that the crockpot had been carted around one too many times, so we donated it to the local thrift store. Ordinarily I would call that a mistake, but this one is actually a much nicer model than the one we gave up, so I’m ok with spending a little extra money.

This one, for instance, has a timer! To time things! Wow! And I can cook a roast for up to 6 people! You know, for all those dinner parties I host.

We had some pork in the freezer that we really needed to use, and some quick searching lead me to this gem of a recipe: Cider Pork Roast. This week’s recipe (what you see in the picture above is slow cooker beef stew, found on allrecipe.com, my new favorite site.

Mmmm. It was amazing, and the best part is that it took 15 minutes from start to finish for the prep work! Set the timer for four hours, and boom, there’s dinner!

Everyone else who regularly uses their slow cooker is probably rolling their eyes and going, “Mmm-hmm, honey, you do know that that’s the whole POINT of a crockpot, right?” Indulge me. I’m just a little bit excited about this right now.

Do you use a slow cooker? I think it’ll be great this winter – any great recipes that we should try? Share them in the comments!