If you’ve read much of my cooking blog, you know the crock pot is probably my favorite small appliance.  Sadly, I did not know all crock pots were not created equal until I bought a new brand crock pot (Hamilton Beach, oval 4-5 quart size with vented lid) and used it the first time for my O-Week dinner (Team Wiess!) last Wednesday.  I followed all my standard instructions for black beans but when I arrived home about an hour before my guests, the beans were still hard in the center.  We hurriedly transferred the warm contents to a large pot and tried to finish them off by boiling in a covered soup pot and constantly adding water to prevent sticking.  No luck.  The good news: for the first  time, I had no vegetarians in my O-Week group.  The black beans were just the veggie option for soft tacos.  All the 0ther TexMex food was ready to go and we had a great night.  I’m trying my black beans in the same crock pot on high today, so we’ll see if that change will cook the beans all the way through while I’m at work.

Moral: Know your crock pot cooking temperatures before you plan to use it for a time-sensitive meal. All my recipes use a Rival 4-5 quart crock pot with a round, removable ceramic bowl and a glass lid with no vent holes.  This brand, style and size of crock pot works perfectly every time for all the recipes in this blog.  If you choose another style, type or size of crock pot, you may have to extend cooking times or use high heat when my recipe calls for low heat.  Good luck!