Crockpot

I sort of re-discovered our crockpot. We were given one for a wedding present, nine years ago, and I can count on both hands how many times I have used it. Well, last week I was feeling crazy and I decided to bust it out and try a recipe. I cooked my meal, which was supposed to have taken 8 hours on low, in 3 hours on low. Um, I don't think low is supposed to do that. Regardless, the meal rocked, and since something was clearly wrong with the cooking setting on my crockpot, I went out and got a new one, along with a crockpot cookbook. If I managed one meal with a crockpot, think what I could do with a whole recipe book! For my next shot, I tried chicken with cabbage and mushrooms, plus tomato sauce. It doesn't sound real classy, I know, but it did taste awesome. Only problem was, half of my family got the farts like crazy from the cabbage, and we were stuck in the van together for 4 hours of driving! Still, my plan is to use it a lot, especially when we get the new additions to our family. I have loved just chucking all the stuff in and letting it do its thing! The cookbook I got is "Fix it and Forget it", and it has a whopping 800 recipes in it. You can do all sorts of crazy things in a crockpot that I never knew were even possible. The only problem is, and I will admit that I haven't looked at the book enough to give it it's fair chance, but a LOT of the recipes call for a can of cream of mushroom soup, cream of chicken, insert your cream of soup of choice into the blank, which I am not exactly a huge fan of. (I think it has something to do with the fact that if you live in the Northern part of the United States, cream of _____, will inevitably find its way into your food on a consistent basis, especially at holidays.) So anyway, if anyone out there has a great crockpot cookbook they know of, or a recipe that totally rocks, let me know. I would absolutely love it. I think I have found my new BFF forever in the kitchen. (gotta love the terms you learn from your kids!)