Hamilton Beach 33956 Slow Cooker

My previous slow cooker has served me well for more than 10 years. The only downside was that it didn't have a removable serving dish. It was a pain to wash out because I had to be careful not to immerse the base. But slow cookers were the usual way I prepared stewed meats. It was great setting it up, go to bed for the rest of the day after working a 12-hour night shift, and having something really good to eat that evening.

This Hamilton Beach cooker not only has a removable serving dish, but the unit is programmable, either by time/cooking temperature or by internal temperature via a meat thermometer. 

This one is also a lot bigger than my old one, and it is much wider to accommodate the usual size and shape of the meats we tend to slow cook (chuck roasts). Our old one didn't handle these bigger cuts of meat unless we cut them up.

I've used it once since Christmas, and we cheated, trying it out on a frozen Marie Callender's Crock Pot Meal (which, by the way, was not very good), and the cooking functions -- programming it for low heat and then having it automatically switch to warm -- worked well (although the room mate has turned his nose up to it, and since I made two big bags, that leaves a lot to go around, even giving some of it to the kitties). My next day off, I plan to give it a real test run making pot roast.

Comments

[Karen]

If you're looking for new stuff to cook in there, I highly recommend the Fix it and Forget It cookbook for slow cooking. Shawn isn't a huge cookbook fan but he loves the ideas he gets from this cookbook. Most the recipes are very simple and easy with few ingredients. Used some leftover honey baked ham from christmas for my chicken cordon bleu recipe I found, that kind of thing. The weekly grocery store specials dictate what meats we buy and store in the freezer, so sometimes you just need a new way of changing up plain ol' chicken breast you got for $1.99/lb the other week. I think there is even a "light" version, but we just have the regular version which is excellent.

Chili, barbeque ribs, and slow cooked brisket are some of our favorites.

Once you start slow cooking more, you'll find it fun trying to "perfect" your recipies.

[Eric]

We've let our diets slide these past several months, and I'm trying to move us away from fast food (I have finally stopped waking up, putting on a bathrobe and slippers, getting into the car, going through McD's drivethrough and paying with a debit card -- that was killing us). We're trying to be better about making a higher percentage of food and eating take-out less.

[Maria]

Holy moly -- you certainly are making up for absent time with your slew of posts!

Nice to see you writing again. Hope it doesn't cut too much into you cooking time. ;)