Product Description

Wouldn't it be nice if dinner could be ready when you are? It can be with a slow cooker and one of the 120 delicious recipes from Semi-Homemade Slow Cooking 2. Keeping to her formula of simple and quick, Sandra Lee presents recipes that taste like you spent hours in the kitchen. From traditional slow cooker menus that cover hearty soups, stews and chilis, Sandra introduces One-Pot Meals, 5-Ingredient Dishes, Poultry, Meat, and Desserts that all can be slow cooked to perfection.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #175000 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-19
• Released on: 2007-11-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 237 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780696238154
• BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed

From Publishers Weekly
The seemingly unstoppable Lee returns with a second helping of slow cooker recipes that come together in minutes with just a handful of ingredients-in most cases, all the cook has to do is open a couple cans and pour the contents into a cooker with some meat. Like previous Semi-Homemade books (Semi-Homemade Cooking, Semi-Homemade Desserts, etc.), Lee's brand-name suggestions for virtually every ingredient-up to and including Christopher Ranch crushed garlic and ReaLemon lemon juice-border on the comedic and beg the question, who's writing her checks? As for the dishes themselves, most emphasize cuts of meat that benefit from low and slow cooking-pork shoulder for Asian Pulled Pork, brisket and lamb shanks among them-though some are head-scratchers, like a meatloaf and a brownie recipe that only gain hours of cooking time from these unconventional incarnations. Rounded out with recipes for soups, stews and chilis, this is a colorful, serviceable guide for slow cooker owners bereft of ideas, though there's little in the way of accompaniments or serving suggestions, and no explanation of unusual choices like the chocolate in her beef stew. Fans of Lee's semi-homemade approach will undoubtedly snap this up, but novices would better be served by whatever complimentary recipe book came with their cooker.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Sandra Lee is an internationally acclaimed Lifestylist and New York Times best-selling author. She is the premier authority of Semi-Homemade cooking—a quick and easy method of food preparation where nothing is made from scratch, but everything tastes homemade.
“My first book, Semi-Homemade Cooking, was not just a labor of love for me, but an expansion of my philosophy.… I feel fortunate that it has been so embraced by the public.”—Sandra Lee

Customer Reviews

Not a hit.
I borrowed this cookbook from a friend because I <3 the crock pot. What's not to love--you throw stuff in, walk away, and come back to a finished meal. Apparently, however, I do NOT <3 semi-homemade.

This could be my fault. See, I am cheap, so when a recipe in this book called for "bacon crumbles, Hormel," I'd think, "doubtful" and just make some bacon and crumble it myself. Or when I was supposed to use diced frozen onions, I'd just dice an onion instead. Maybe that contributed to my disapointment in these recipes. But I think the main issue is that I like food that tastes good (and fresh). And you can't do BOTH "semi" homemade and fresh in the crock pot.

I'm not accustomed to drowning my chicken in cream-of-whatever soup. And you know, I don't care for the flavor of cream-of-whatever soup. I was surprised by that, because I ate plenty of chicken doused with cream-of-whatever soup growing up. But now, it's just not my thing.

The first recipe I tried was for red beans and rice with Andouille sausage. It actually tasted pretty good, although I ended up with red beans and mush. This, though, was most likely my fault for two reasons. First of all, the recipe called for "converted" rice. I foolishly used REAL rice. Second, I let it cook for WAY longer than it was supposed to, because that's how things worked out that day. Still, it tasted good even if the texture of the rice was WAAAY off. I have to say I'll try this again on the stove without any particular recipe.

The second I tried was tukey cutlets with green chili scalloped potatoes. I know, right? Sounds good. However, my grocery store didn't have the cream-of-chicken verde soup that was needed. I tried to improvise by using cream-of-chicken and then tossing in a bit of salsa verde. Either that didn't work out or the recipe sucked, because the potatoes are still in my fridge a week later. I tried to throw them away last night, but they are glued to the container and I'd already started the dishwasher and didn't want to dirty another utensil. Maybe tonight.

At this point I should have given up. But I'd already purchased ingredients for another dish, cheddar beer chicken. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good. The recipe used a prepared cheese soup, but would have been better with actual cheese. Also, there was FAR too much liquid in the pot after it cooked. But the chicken was very tender and I liked the beer flavor (even though I don't like beer--go figure).

The most annoying thing for me was the way she tacks a specific brand onto every damned ingredient. I realize you don't really have to use that brand, but still--someone BOUGHT the cookbook, do you have to advertise in it, too? If you're going to use your cookbook to sell endorsements, you should give it away for free.

In addition, the cook times were not good for most crock pot cooks. Most people using the crock pot want to put stuff in before they go to work (or start their day), and then not come back for 8-10 hours. This book contains a lot of recipes that only cook for 3-4 hours, plus (and this is SUPER inconvenient), ones that cook for an hour, then need more ingredients, or have to rest, or change from "high" to "low" or whatever. If I'm going to have to be that involved with my crock pot, I'll just use the stove or oven.

I know a lot of people like Sandra Lee, and I appreciate that many cooks are busy and just want to do things quickly. But really, buying so many "convenience" items is super-expensive, and it would probably cost about the same amount (and taste much better) if you just went out to dinner. I'm giving this one back to my friend.

to many cans of soup
There are so many recipes that involve condensed soup that it makes me feel bad to feed it to my family, but overall not a bad book.

Sandra Lee to the rescue
There are a ton of slow cooker receipe books on the market, but this one is the very best. I think it is even better than her first book of slow cooker recipes. I had borrowed a copy of the book from my library before buying it and already knew I was going to be crazy about it. I loved it so much I bought an extra copy for my neice who was pregnant with her third child. I figured she needed a good slow cooker recipe book more than another receiving blanket.

Not all of the brand names she calls for in her recipes are available at my supermarket, but it is hardly rocket science to make substitutions. I also think buying all of the convenience foods she calls for makes the recipes more expensive, but I recognize she includes them to make things easier. I have successfully made substitutes for some of the convenience items (i.e. regular bacon for pre-cooked bacon).

I love the twists she puts on tried-and-true recipes. When you feel you can't possibly think of another way of cooking chicken,Sandra Lee is there with a new, tasty, easy-to-make recipe. My family loved the Bourbon-Mustard Brisket, Smothered Meatloaf, Borracho Chicken (made with Jose Cuervo) and Cajun Red Beans with Andouille Sausage.

I'll be using some of the party foods and warm-up drinks receipes for the holidays.