I'm a huge fan of my slow cooker and love books that deal exclusively with cooking in one. This book is particularly good because it lists "power ingredients" that will be used over and over throughout the recipes, giving you a good idea of what things to stock in your pantry. It also uses seasonal ingredients that are listed at the beginning of each chapter.

Prep time and cooking time are both given, as are serving suggestions. Practical tips such as converting the recipes to stovetop, adding flavor to your slow cooker meals, and how to peel pomegranates and stuff cuts of meat are scattered throughout the cookbook.

The recipes cover a wide variety of cuisines and styles and the photos are gorgeous. I'm sure I'm going to get a lot of use out of this cookbook.

(Provided by publisher) ( )

A great cookery book for meat lovers.
I have used a slow cooker before, but it has been neglected lately, so I thought I would request this recipe book from NetGalley (for an unbiased review) to inspire myself to start using it again.

I buy organic vegetables direct from a farm, so the first thing that appealed about this book was that it was organised by season. This means the correct vegetables are grouped together and I can make efficient use of my veg box.
On the downside, the majority of the recipes are not vegetarian, which reduces the number that I can use, although I'm generally pretty good at substituting alternatives, these are definitely heavy on the meat.

I did find a few delicious recipes to sample - lentils with garam masala, coconut, and pomegranate seeds (P22) and tartines with roasted garlic, white bean spread, fresh spinach, and radishes (P90). The deserts are also vegetarian, but I don't make a lot of deserts so I haven't tried any of these yet.

The advice at the beginning of the book applied to all slow cooking though. I was not previously aware that frozen food should not be added as it brings the temperature down into the danger zone, ditto opening the lid any more than necessary during cooking.
I was also interested to learn that slow cooker sauces need to be quite thick to allow for the liquid that comes out of the foods during cooking and for the lack of evaporation through the closed lid.

On balance, this is a great book for non-vegetarians who want inspiration to start using a slow cooker, sadly, it is less practical for those of us who prefer to eat vegetarian. ( )

I love my slow cooker - I love my slow cooker so much, I have four of them, from a tiny, personal sized one to a huge one big enough to fit a turkey in. I have a lot of cook books from the 50's on to current, so I have a lot of recipes for it (though I tend to always make the same sorts of thing in my slow cooker, despite my recipes).

The book has lots of great, beautiful, well photographed recipes, divided up by the season so you can use local produce - more and more important these days, and something I'm good at only in the summer & fall, when my own garden is in full swing. There's an interesting, eclectic range of recipes here - unfortunately a lot of them I can't eat because of food allergies/issues, and a lot more include ingredients I've never heard of before. I live on a tight, tight budget - I can't afford to buy ingredients I've never heard of before, that I may or may not like, on a recipe I may or may not like. There's a few recipes that are left, however, that I will probably try to make.

Cheney also includes great how-tos and hints and tricks for those new to using their slow cooker. Unfortunately nothing new for me here, but like I said, I use my slow cooker all the time.

The other major draw back for me is rather short cooking times - I'm gone for a good 9.5 hours a day, I need to leave my slow cooker unattended for ten hours at a stretch. Her times are really short, and she does explain her reasoning, but that doesn't help me any. ( )

Year-Round Slow Cooker is one of my favorite slow cooker cookbooks. Some cookbooks have recipes that require more time and attention that I want to give and goes against one of the main purpose of slow cookers: to throw ingredients in a pot and be able to come home to a tasty meal 10 hours later. Sometimes, however those 10 hour recipes result in meals that are bland and predictable. Year-Round Slow-Cooker is a perfect solution. While it does require some more time and attention than a standard slow-cooked meal, the instructions are easy and the results are anything but boring. I appreciate the seasonal theme and look forward to the delicious food I will enjoy this spring.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review. ( )

Excellent Choice!

We know the potential of slow cookers -- tender meats, meals filled with flavor, meals made easy without the microwave, the family coming together to sit and enjoy and cutting out the "fast food".

If you need help with the how and what for your meals and the wonder tool sitting on your kitchen counter, this is the book you should look into.

Thank you Dina Cheney and NetGalley for the opportunity of allowing me to browse this book. ( )