With the onset of autumn, Nath brought home a book of slow cooker recipes from the library. Hurray! I love soups and stews that have been simmering all day in the slow cooker. Also, it's just about the only way that my poor nubby teeth can handle beef.

Unfortunately, this cookbook is not without its problems. In several places, a recipe will encourage you to "serve this with" some other side dish mentioned elsewhere in the book. The Chicken Cacciatore recipe suggests Roasted Potatoes as a side dish. Great, except that both recipes take hours to cook in the slow cooker (or am I expected to have two?). To be perfectly fair, I should say that I don't know exactly how long it takes to cook the roasted potatoes -- the page number you are directed to contains the recipe for Pork Chops With Winter Fruit, as does the entry for Roasted Potates in the index. I'm not sure what the deal is there.

Later, the recipe for Caramel Peaches (yum!) observes that it's "the perfect dish to whip together when unexpected guests arrive". Mind you, this is a dish that cooks on low heat for four to six hours. I can understand "whipping together" a batch of cookies or brownies. But if you have six hours to put together this dish for impending guests, they can scarcely be considered unexpected. On the other hand, making your guests wait six hours for dessert might be an appropriate way to punish them for arriving unexpectedly. Take that, guests!