Ever the cookbook junkie, I have been excitedly anticipating the release of the book Make it Fast, Cook it Slow.
Penned by the amazing blogger Stephanie O’dea, who is the genious (wow, how embarrassing! I’m obviously not one) genius behind the blog A Year of SlowCooking, this book is everything I hoped it would be and more! You know when you are constantly visiting a website for recipes that chances are you’ll enjoy the book!
The reasons that I love her book are many. For one, they all involve the slow cooker which makes life much easier. All the recipes are gluten free, which doesn’t always mean they all work for our diet, but there are certainly plenty of good choices. I also love the recipes because they are not your typical slow cooker recipes. She has a whole section called “Take Out Fake Out” where she has simple, frugal recipes for Thai, Indian, and Chinese takeout favorites. Her Inidan and Thai curries are amazing. Her Korean ribs and Chinese beef and broccoli look fabulous as well and I plan to try them as soon as I get rid of the frozen beef in my freezer (and can therefore justify buying ribs!).
For the generally gluten-free, you will be pleased with the diversity of pasta recipes (using rice pasta) including macaroni and cheese! She also manages to create enchilada casserole in the slowcooker (one of my favorites!). She has lots of great rice and bean recipes and fantastic soups, including a homemade broccoli and cheese soup!
If you’re eating a paleo/gaps type diet, you will enjoy the wide variety of tasty meat recipes, including lots of different ways to enjoy chicken and beef! She has a delicious rotissarie-chicken wannabe recipe that has the most amazing blend of spices that totally rivals store-bought rotisserie chicken!
Stephanie makes many nonconventional items in her crockpot, including Pumpkin Spice Lattes and Chai Tea, Dolmas, and even Falafel!!! She has a delicous recipe for gyros and that crispy lemon chicken like you get at the Chinese Restaurant! And to add to the fun, she has these simple, genious recipes for fancy cheese fondue and chocolate fondue! All of these recipes are entertainment-worthy, and I can’t think of a way to make having guests over easier than by slow-cooking! I’m really excited to try Stephanie’s creme brulee recipe, the famous recipe that got her on the Rachael Ray show!
These recipes are thrifty and kid-friendly, and very simple. They are just my style because I think Stephanie and have the same taste in food. There are lots of ethnic food recipes (I love Indian and Thai food and this book has lots of unique restaurant-food quality recipes!) including Peking Duck!! We don’t eat out often, but when we do we love to go to Indian or Thai food. I am excited to save even more money by cooking these dishes at home!
A Few Caveats
A few things must be mentioned about this book, even though I love it. There seem to be quite a few recipes with added sugar (particularly the beef recipes). I am interested to test these recipes using some honey, stevia, or simply leaving out the added sugar and seeing how it works. There are also several recipes calling for fat-free dairy, which I think is essentially a “non food”, so I simply will replace with whole milk, yogurt, cream, etc.
All in all, I highly reccommend this book and encourage anyone who’s looking to expand their reperatoire of slow cooker recipes to check this one out!
Thanks for the review! I like her site, too which I found through yours…. I’ve tried several slow-cooker recipe books, and her recipes are the only ones that I consistently like….
[...] Original post by carrie [...]
I have used a few of Stephanie’s recipes from her blog and one thing I’ve found is that the cook times don’t leave a whole lot of room for error. I work all day and usually when I make crock pot meals I have peace of mind because I can throw them in the pot in the morning and return at night to a cooked meal. I’ve never had a problem with anything burning or overcooking. However, every single one of the recipes I’ve tried from A Year of Slow Cooking have burned! I’m a little disappointed because it seems that the recipes are directed to people who are at home and can watch/check the crock pot. Which totally defeats the point of a slow cooker, in my opinion.
Tiffany,
That’s an excellent point; I have often thought the same thing, but I took it for granted because I am home all day. And yes, come to think of it, I have had many of her recipes cook much longer, like the fish chowder recipe. She calls for having the fish cook for 8 hours, and it really would have needed about two, maybe.
I wonder if a programmable, automatic start/finish crock pot would be helpful?
But yes, great point, thank you!!!
Carrie
Carrie, thank you for this wonderful write-up! I had an absolute ball with this project, and am so happy to be able to help you and your family in any way.
About the milk: I hear you. If you add the milk/cream at the very end of cooking time (for casseroles, soups, etc) you can use whatever fat content you’d like. The concern is the fat separating over a long and low cook time. Usually a quick stir remedies this problem, but many of my readers are weirded out by the lumps. :-0
xoxo steph
Tiffany, oh no! I’m so sorry that you’ve had this experience. It may be that your slow cooker is too big for the amount of food you’re putting in. In order for the food to cook properly and not risk over-cooking, the crock insert needs to be 2/3-3/4 of the way full. I’ve written a bit about this here: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/08/help-my-crock-pot-cooks-too-fast.html
and here: http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/2009/08/frequently-asked-year-of-slow-cooking.html
If you need further clarification or think something else is going on, please email me, and I’ll try my hardest to help.
crockpotlady@gmail.com
xoxo steph
Stephanie!!!!
I am so honored to have your input here!!!! As I write this, I am happy to say that dinner is cooking in my slow cooker right now (I am attempting to do the broccoli and cheese casserole!) Tomorrow I’m going to do lamb ribs….I have a purpose for all the frozen meat in my freezer finally!!! Thank you for being a new “fixture” in my kitchen and a source of so much new inspiration!
That totally makes sense about the reasoning for nonfat milk! Duh! I never got that. Of course it would help with the separation! Thanks for the clarification!
Hugs,
Carrie