Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

At first glance, this cookbook seems like a bad crockpot joke. Almost every recipe I flipped to requires cream of mushroom soup or a packet of dried onion soup. Seriously. Two of the five recipes for Sloppy Joes call for cream of mushroom soup. Then it dawned on me. Two of FIVE recipes for Sloppy Joes. I started looking more closely and realized that most recipes in the book offer several different versions. Sometimes it's the ingredients that vary, sometimes it's the amount of preparation, sometimes it's both. You're bound to find at least one version of each recipe that works for your tastes and cooking style. You may find other versions that you're willing to try. The recipes are arranged by type, and a small icon at the top corner of each page makes it easy to flip through the book and find the chapter you're looking for. There are also clear icons to indicate if a recipe is considered light, or if it's meatless. The book is in the style of a hometown fundraiser cookbook. Each recipe includes the name and town of the person who submitted it, and some include a brief comment from the cook about how you might want to serve it, or to whom. The author also scatters random little kitchen tips throughout the book. The recipes are well organized, with cooking times and recommended crockpot sizes clearly indicated at the top. Any recipe marked "light" includes nutrition information at the end. I'm giving this four stars instead of five because: (1) I don't love the binding. It's a large cloth-bound volume (think big dictionary) that is awkward to use in the kitchen. (2) The organization is a little loose. For instance, all hot dog recipes are listed in the pork section, even those calling for all-beef franks. (3) The definition of "light" isn't really fair. The nutrition analysis assumes you use the smaller amounts in any range and leave off anything listed as optional. This seems reasonable, until you notice that the light recipe for chicken and dumplings indicates that the dumplings are optional. I plan to try many of the recipes, and to use this cookbook for inspiration for my own creations. The sheer variety of options for each recipe makes me want to experiment with ingredients and combinations I may not have come up with on my own.