300 Slow Cooker Favorites
Cookbook Review

I am so excited with my new crock pot cookbook that I just had to share this great “find.” Since I cook so much and since I have oodles of cookbooks, it’s rare when I find one that really gets me pumped up.

300 Slow Cooker Favorites

“300 Slow Cooker Favorites” by Donna-Marie Pye is the crock pot cookbook that I’ve been looking for. It goes way beyond tossing chicken in the crock and pouring on the barbecue sauce (though that’s good too). And, it’s not so exotic that I have to shop all over town for ingredients or risk the boys saying, “Yuck. What’s that?”

Great Crock Pot Potatoes Last Night

Last night, at the last minute, I decided to make potatoes in the crock pot. The electric bill had arrived, and it was close $200 for one month. Ouch. The oven really heats up my old house, so I thought I’d better cancel the oven roasted potatoes I’d planned to make. I didn’t really have an all-time favorite slow cooker potato recipe, so I checked the fabulous index in “300 Slow Cooker Favorites.” Yes. Donna-Marie had a great cheese with potatoes recipe that I put together in minutes. The kitchen smelled great and stayed cool.

Had to Get in Touch

I’ve enjoyed this cookbook so much that I had to get in touch with the author. Yes. I am a nerd.

I thought Donna-Marie had to be Southern. But, no. She’s from up close Toronto. That’s OK. She’d fit right in down here.
Donna-Marie said that crock pot cooking probably did originate here in the South. Cooking low and slow with tougher cuts of meat is traditional south of the Mason/Dixon line. Also, the slow cooker was originally designed as a bean cooker. Now, who cooks beans? Southerners. You bet.

When Donna-Marie was in college, she asked for a slow cooker for Christmas. She said that her “mum” got her one. Donna-Marie was off-campus and didn’t really like to eat the typical college junk foods like pizza, so she would put together stews and soups in her crock pot and eat good all week.

After Donna-Marie got married and had kids, she was commuting an hour to work and back. She made lots of family meals in the slow cooker. That was really the only way to have good healthy and tasty meals at night.

When her kids were ages 2 and 5, she decided to freelance. I know a lot of mothers with young kids can sure relate to that. It’s so hard to do it all especially with a long commute. Donna-Marie is a nutritionist, and she does all kind so of great projects now like teaching cooking to children through a local grocery store. That sounds like great fun. She also writes cookbooks. Fun too – but a lot of hard work.

Real Crock Pot Cookbook for Real People

The original idea for the cookbook was to put together one with a “chef” slant. Donna-Marie suggested that it would be more beneficial to compile one that would be more family friendly. After all, a lot of mothers (and dads) depend on slow cookers to feed growing families. The publisher looked over her recipes and saw that she did have great dishes that went way beyond what you’d find in so many crock pot cookbooks.

Donna-Marie’s collection is truly diverse. She has favorite slow cooker dishes like roasts and chilies, but she also has ethnic dishes (but easy to make). She even tells readers how to roast nuts in the crock pot, how to make pineapple upside down cake and cornbread.
There are so many terrific tips in “300 Slow Cooker Favorites.” I use mine all the time, but Donna-Marie had ideas that I’d never heard before. She places a tea towel right under the lid to absorb moisture in items like breads, explains how to use tin foil to make little handles to pull items out cooked in dishes and has a super rubber band trick to keep the lid on steady when you’re carrying the crock pot to pot luck dinners.

Tried, Tested and Truly Terrific

Donna-Marie tried every recipe in this book. She made them several times to get steps, cooking times and so on just perfect. I think some readers assume that this is the case with all cookbooks. Trust me. It isn’t. I’ve spoken with authors who put recipes in books based on neighbors telling them the dishes were yummy. No wonder some don’t turn out. Donna-Marie did her book the right way.
With so many recipes, I did wonder if her family ate crock pot dishes meal after meal after meal. She laughed about that. The family ate most of them, but she also hauled her slow cookers across the road to neighbors and down the street to share. Now, I really wish I lived near Donna-Marie.

Donna-Marie said that her family’s favorite crock pot meals are Mom’s Old-Fashioned Beef Stew and Chicken Stew with Rosemary Dumplings. The stew is one that she has been making for years. The chicken stew was one of her new creations for the cookbook. I can’t wait to try both of those.

The dessert section was the most challenging and most fun for Donna-Marie. She said she had a great time taking traditional desserts and adapting them for the crock pot. Her favorites there are the bread puddings.

Dishing About Food – What Fun

Talking with Donna-Marie made my day. I always love to talk food and cooking, and I was really thrilled to speak with someone who had put together such a terrific collection of crock pot recipes. I’ve already made several dishes and have stick-em notes all over the book marking the ones I want to try next. This is, by far, the best crock pot cookbook I’ve ever owned. Some of the others are good too, but they don’t have the volume and variety that Donna-Marie offers. She is certainly a creative cook and a warm person who understands how others cook, eat and think.

If You Enjoy Crock Pot Recipes, Check Out Some of Mine Here at Yes You Can Cook:

Crock Pot Turkey Breast