One of the greatest memories of my childhood is the aroma of my aunt's delicious food. She cooked for a big family, so she used to specialize in the "big easy" dishes, as she called them -- roasts, pot roasts, soups and stews. They were just fabulous, and they filled the whole house with such a great smell!

But my uncle always complained about the house smelling like food. And now that I'm grown up, I kinda know what he means. I don't really appreciate heading off to work in the morning with my clothes reeking of lamb stew.

My aunt is the one who taught me how to cook, and the first dishes I learned were those big easy ones - the stews, soups, roasts and pot roasts. I've learned a lot since then, but those early dishes eventually became my favorites. Of course I now slow-cook them with a crock pot instead of a stove-top pot, with better results and less energy.

Not only that, I can throw everything into the crock pot at the same time, instead of waiting around while some of the ingredients cook partially before I can add the rest. With a crock pot, somehow everything comes out at the same time, perfectly done. (Don't ask me to explain that - I'm no scientist).

Okay, so I've quickly thrown all the ingredients into the pot, and switched it on. Now I can leave it to cook all day while I'm at work, and it will be absolutely perfect when I get home - even if I'm an hour late! How forgiving is that!

Naturally, crock pot recipes are different to recipes for conventional pots, mainly because the cooking time is so much longer, and also because the heat comes from the sides of the pot, not the bottom. It's a totally forgiving system, for people like me who sometimes leave things go too long.

I think that's mainly what's hooked me on this style of cooking, and why I use it so much. In fact, I could say that my crock pot and I are, in culinary terms, inseparable.

Even my aunt has similarly upgraded her equipment! And wow, does she know how to use her crock pot! She's got all the right instincts, all the right moves, and she's still my mentor. But I must admit that I have the same problem my uncle did with the house smelling like food all the time. So my solution is to leave the crock pot going all day, but out in the garage, or else in the laundry room, where I can open the windows and then keep the smell out of the house just by closing the door.

That's the beauty of a crock pot - you can use it anywhere that you can plug it in! And the cooking time isn't critical - you can be off by an hour, and it will be just as good! (Don't be more than an hour late, though, because eventually the food will be overcooked)

That suits my style, because what I like to do is to quickly throw everything in a pot in the morning, and then go about my day, and have a perfectly cooked meal ready to serve as soon as I get home.

And it's great, at the end of the day, to walk into that wonderful smelling garage or laundry room, where the air's thick with it. That's the best appetizer in the world!

Soups are usually the quickest and easiest of all my meals, and among the best. Out of all the crock pot soup recipes I've tried, my favorite is Russian Borscht, with beets, cabbage and sour cream. My aunt used to make this when I was a kid, but it wasn't slow cooked, so the crock pot version she makes now exceeds even that great Borscht of old!

And regarding soups, a really great ingredient for any spicy or meaty soup is the rind from a strong tasting cheese, like a sharp Parmesan.

Speaking of cabbage & borscht reminds me of one of my favorite traditional beef crock pot recipes, which is Corned Beef & Cabbage, with whole carrots, whole onions, whole potatoes, plus some apple cider vinegar and brown sugar added to the water, to taste. Wow!

As with any crock pot roast recipe, you don't have to brown the meat first to keep it from drying, out as you do with conventional roasts. You can also trim the skin off poultry, if you like, and it won't dry out in the crock pot. And you don't even have to skin the onions - just drop them in as is! (It keeps getting easier and easier, doesn't it).

Also, with a crock pot you only need to add a tiny bit of liquid. Unlike a conventional pot roast, you put the un-cut carrots, potatoes, onions etc on the bottom, with the meat on top.

Of all the vegetarian crock pot recipes I've tried, my favorites are Vegan Crockpot Chilli, French Onion soup, and Indian Vegetable Curry - yum!

My favorite choice of main course is chicken. My three favorite chicken crock pot recipes (for soup, stew and pot roast) all have the following common ingredients: garlic, onion, chili, fresh tomato and fresh coriander. I prefer to get garlic that's "fresh" (green) with the full soft and tasty stalk, as opposed to the usual dried cloves.

For chicken soup I add carrots and parsnip to this list, for a total of 7 flavorings.

However, I usually try to cook with no more than 6 distinct flavorings, but I don't count ingredients like potato for thickening, or oil and salt to bring out the flavors more strongly.

Using about 6 or less flavorings not only gives a better result, to my palate, but it also makes the easy dishes become even easier!

Remember that with a crock pot, the heat comes from the sides of the pot, not the bottom, so nothing will stick or burn, and it will never boil over! The only negative thing I can think of to say is that sometimes slow cooking takes some of the natural color out of the food. But this can be remedied by serving it with a nice garnish.

Well, it's been 8 hours since I switched on my miso-minestrone soup with cheese rind, and it's smelling great!

So you'll have to excuse me now, I must be with my crock pot.

Ah, soon I will be in Crock pot Heaven!