OK, I came late to the game when it comes to slow cookers.  As a person who's home and in the kitchen most of the time anyway, I didn't need a device that could do the cooking by itself for hours and hours.  I was the slow cooker, you know? Until last Wednesday, that is.

I got the slow cooker for an assignment reviewing a multitude of slow-cooker cookbooks--they are legion, but I was only looking at 7 or 8 newish ones. After the first day, I could see it was going to turn the 4:30 rush to dinner on its head.

Of the many cookbooks I looked at, perhaps the most transformative was the newest--just published last week: Slow Cooker Revolution, from the editors of Cooks Illustrated.  It's got technical solutions galore; instant tapioca for a slow-dissolving thickener, pre-microwaving the aromatics--basically, anything that will help you avoid lighting a burner on the stove.

So for the last week, my cooking schedule has been topsy-turvy: Make the kids' lunch (and my husband's), cook the dinner, make my breakfast.  Alternately work and chillax for several hours, then eat dinner.  I'm not sure I'll ever quite give up on heating a skillet to sauté an onion at 5 pm, but getting to have a relaxed drink with my husband at 5 pm for a change is one awfully persuasive argument.  Thanks, slow cooker!  Nice to meet you.