Slow Cooking a month or so on

So, we've found a place for the slow cooker to live, nestled in a big deep drawer with the pasta maker and a selection of ice cube trays and I think we're getting the hang of it. We also seemed to have started a bit of a localised Stafford based slow cooker revolution but it seem people get a bit obsessed and cultish about them. My mum described it in a lovely way, like "having a mam in the kitchen leaving your dinner on the stove".

We've found it excellent for tomato based things, chillis and pasta sauces,  Pete did a slow cooked Spanish omelet after a tip off from a friend at work, I've used it to cook a stewed fruit crumble filling, loving the fact that it frees up the rings on the cooker for more immediate things. I think I'll keep an eye out in charity shops for a more general slow cooker cookbook - The veggie one is good, if a little limited - but we're getting there on adapting recipes where we need to. I'm keen to try it as a Bain-Marie to make El Flan...

A Flan, like this one from the film Volver - I've got a mould and everything

I've also been collecting exciting slow cooker related pins here

The problem remains we still work silly hours, so it's a bit tricky to plan ahead sometimes. We  might dig out the lights timer we have kicking about to see if we cam rig a timer setting but I think it's more then proven it's worth so far - and more so I'm guessing as the nights draw in and the full force of winter approaches.