Gadget Rave: Helllllllo, Pretty Thing!

So I had a love/hate relationship with my old slow cooker. I loved the convenience and ease of placing food into it before I left for work, and a fully-cooked and warm meal waiting for me when I returned home. The problem? Whenever I would return home, my food was burnt. Inedibly burnt. It wasn't until much later I learned that you needed to fill the slow cooker 1/2-2/3 full for it to cook evenly- any less would burn your food. Since it was just the 2 of us, I knew I would never fill it to its (6-qt) requirement... thus the search for a new (and smaller) slow cooker began.

While I still have my old 6-qt slow cooker, it only gets brought out from the basement for large parties where I can fill it up nicely. But for the majority of the time, it's just my DB and I, and I had to find something smaller. I was very specific in what I was looking for- I wanted a stainless steel exterior, 4-qt capacity (enough for the 2 of us plus leftovers), programmable, and kicked into a "warm" feature after it finished cooking. I had a challenging time looking for all of these requirements in a 4-qt capacity... the only one I could find was this Cuisinart model. It had been running approximately $80, but one day I was randomly looking it up and saw it listed for $63.96- SCORE!



I just got it in the mail last night and I am so excited! The stainless steel looks beautiful and classy. I can easily read the time control/countdown (which is also backlit), the crockpot itself came with a cooking rack, which allows me to use a 1-qt souffle pan in my slow
cooker. It also has a retractable cord. Here are some pics!

Here is a close-up of the timer/countdown function:

Here is its backside with retractable cord:

Here is the cooking rack that fits inside the slow cooker pot:

The only downfall is that the picture online looks like it is an oval shape, but it's actually a round, but I can handle.

It takes up minimal counter space... and b/c it's so pretty, I may just leave it on the counter throughout winter (since I foresee myself using it consistently). I have been collecting and reading through slow cooker recipes and cookbooks, so stay tuned for some delicious and easy slow cooker recipes!