Peckish Sister's Reviews
18 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 18Sort by: Title 
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Best Slow Cooker Cookbook Ever: Versatility and Inspiration for New Generation Machines
By Natalie Haughton
William Morrow Cookbooks - 1995
Barbequed Country Ribs : page 130
A reasonable slowcooker rib recipe that uses a cheap cut of meat. I don’t find it possible to trim the fat as they suggest. Instead after cooking and before adding the remaining barbeque sauce, I pour off the accumulated liquid and fat which is considerable. I like to use different barbeque sauces for a variety in taste.
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Beef and Vegetable Stew : page 59
This seemed like a fairly straightforward beef stew recipe with 1 cup dry red wine and a can of tomatoes. But it turned out too sour. Next time I would either try a different recipe, a different type of wine, or perhaps a teaspoon of sugar would have helped.
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Beef Stilfado : page 57
Beef Stilfado
P 57 *****
This is a very different rich type of stew with totally different spices. The recipe worked just fine. The only vegetable is onion and so the suggestion is to serve it with rice or noodles and greens. What really makes it spectacular however are the toppings of chopped walnuts and feta cheese.
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Candied Yams : page 173
I love this recipe with a finish of orange peel, brandy, mini marshmallows and chopped pecans. Roast the pecans first and you will like this even better. I like cooking the yams this way for thanksgiving as they are fancy for company and it gives you more room in the oven or microwave for something else.
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Chocolate Raspberry Strata : page 194
If you love bread pudding, this is the ultimate with chocolate chips and fresh raspberries. Don’t overdo the bread cubes or it will come out dry. It is best right out of the slowcooker and not as good the next day. The aromas of chocolate and raspberries as it gets to the end of cooking will almost make your knees buckle. Try to resist testing it until you are quite sure it is done, or it will take much longer to finish cooking.
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Coconut Thai shrimp and rice : page 137
Even though it used chicken broth, not coconut milk, this was still excellent. It is very convenient to make as everything is in one pot including the rice. Snow peas are thrown in at the end with pre-cooked shrimp after everything else has cooked. This is another recipe with a short cooking time (4 hours). The spices are intense and the fresh lime juice along with coconut, raisins, peppers and onions give a lot of flavor surprises as well as good variety in textures.
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Curried Ground Beef and Rice : page 117
This was a nice one pot meal with the rice thrown right in. I cut back on the curry powder, but added extra apple (large apples) and mango chutney (to finish the bottle). You have to brown the ground beef and onion, but other than that, easy to put together. This is one of their recipes that fits well in a regular (3 ½ quart) slow cooker. Their suggestion of a cucumber yogurt salad on the side is a good one.
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Easy Ham and Potato Hash : page 133
This sounded really good, like a dish to have for brunch (cooks in 5 to 6 hours). It was quite awful. It might have tasted better if I used a different type of frozen has brown potatoes or if it cooked longer. It also contains ham, bell peppers and a cream cheese topping. I hope to have the courage to try it again.
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Fisherman’s Stew : page 74
I usually cringe at the idea of cooking seafood in the slow cooker, but this is another recipe that has a short cook time. I used salmon for the fish and the shrimp and bay scallops as directed. I am not a fan of cooked green pepper and so substituted extra celery. It is in a tomato and wine based sauce and contains a lot of herbs. It was very good.
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This is quite a special pasta sauce. The 4 hours of cooking on low makes the meat very tender. When the kids first started table foods, this was great for that reason. The flavor is explosive with the Italian sausage and fresh basil; you can vary it by using hot or mild sausage. What I really love about it is when you add the fresh basil and cream at the end and it turns a very bright orange color.
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Ham and Pineapple Bean Pot : page 132
This nice variation on “baked beans” is quick to fix with 4 cans of beans. I like their choice of pinto (2 cans), black and barbeque beans, but you can mix it up. If I don’t have a can of barbeque beans, I double the barbeque sauce. I like the crunch of the green pepper and onion and the bright flavor surprise of the pineapple. It isn’t good for cooking while at work however as it cooks in only 5 ½ to 6 hours on low. But I still do and plug it into a timer.
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Italian-Style Beef Stew : page 55
This recipe sounds amazing with lean beef stew meat, prosciutto, a fennel bulb and other regular beef stew ingredients, but it was too salty! Omit the salt called for, and check the salt content of your canned tomatoes and kidney beans. To make it edible I boiled potatoes and added them and it helped. Maybe I should have followed their directions and served it over hot pasta.
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Picadillo : page 122
I like this flexible recipe as it takes either lean ground beef or turkey. It calls for dried apricots, but also says you can substitute raisins. It is very flavorful and I have used it in empanadas, soft tacos, and burritos and other recipes that call for picadillo. All the preparation is done at the beginning, so it is a good choice when you do not want to be tied to the stove around dinner time, and it is easy to serve the leftovers in a different way.
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Pork and Squash Stew : page 68
This flavorful stew is made with lean pork and is good with either the squash or with a substitution of sweet potato. It is somewhat sweet with raisins and brown sugar, but depending on which red wine you use, it balances the flavor and is savory with the addition of the Worcestershire sauce. Very nice for a cool fall day.
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Posole : page 69
Sometimes I am just in the mood for hominy, am this fills the bill. This is a very hearty stew with pork, chicken, and various chilies. It seems like too much meat to me, and I usually omit the chicken. I also reduce the chili powder and have always omitted the ancho chilies, but am becoming more adventurous and will include them next time. Serve with hot biscuits or cornbread.
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Red Bean Beef Chili : page 51
This is my favorite chili recipe. The red comes from small red beans, canned tomatoes, tomato sauce and canned pimentos. It is different from the standard fare with pinto beans, meat and some tomatoes. The pimentos give it more vegetable in a subtle way. I like that it takes dried beans and that they are not soaked overnight. It is also delicious with pinto beans, but takes longer to cook. I feel there is not enough liquid in the recipe to cook the beans properly, so I add 2.5 cups of water. I do not like a lot of heat so I really cut down on the spices.
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Red Cooked Ribs : page 131
This is a really excellent use of cheap country pork ribs with hoisin sauce, soy sherry, ginger: the usual Chinese spices, but also a nice sweetness from honey, a lot of garlic and grated orange rind for freshness. I am always a fan of cooked scallions and this has a whole bunch along with the crunch of water chestnuts. Great with rice and a green vegetable.
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Swiss Steak with Baby Onions : page 106
The most difficult part of this recipe is finding the 3 packages of Hunter sauce mix (they suggest Knorr) which is the basis for the rich and distinctive gravy in this dish. It takes frozen baby onions, but I prefer the taste of onion chunks. It also takes ½ pound of fresh mushrooms and I have used 1 pound and it still tasted great. My family loves it served over a large mound of mashed potatoes as recommended.
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