Previous visitors to my Hubs here at Hubpages might recall a Hub that i recently published in which I described my Wife's impressions of the recently released Rival Crock Pot Elume. She was quite impressed with the Elume's functionality and ease of use. An even more recent experience for her was the chance to try out another new Rival kitchen appliance, the Rival Crock Pot Trio Cook & Serve. She had the opportunity to try this when she went back home again and - you guessed it - hung out with another one of her sisters who likes to cook, and who had just recently purchased this new Crock Pot to use for future family gatherings. Basically, this Crock-Pot is three smaller Crocks in one; My wife thinks that it is really probably mostly desirable for people who expect to be cooking for larger groups although it is not far-fetched to imagine it being used to conveniently prepare an entire meal for just one smaller family. It is actually something that makes me wonder how it is expected to be used: with its offering of three 2.5-Quart stonewar crocks you don't have alot of space per crock to cook in. I wonder if it is expected that you would just cook multiples of the same thing in the three pots if cooking for alarge group or instead be simultaneously preparing different dishes with them?

The unit comes with the three afforementioned three black 2.5-quart crocks and each one comes with its own cooking controls. You can use one. two or all three of them at the same time. I believe that the unit also comes with a set of serving spoons. When my wife used it she says it worked pretty well. (her and her sister used it to make chili as well as to prepare a vegetable dish) Her sister told her that they had not yet used it to prepare an entire meal by using all three crocks at once, because they have not yet had to prepare three things at once that would make use of a slow-cooker. Her sister did plan on using it to prepare a hot drink beverage sometime when the weather gets cooler. The Trio is apparently not programmable which means you wouldn't be leaving it to turn itself off after it has finished cooking the length of time that you needed it to.

Apparently, the Crock Pot Trio is easy enough to clean up; the crock liners and the crockcpot lids are all dishwasher safe and the base unit and the outer crock pot casings are easy enough to wipe up as well. A final thing to consider is that if you find that your home's kitchen is pressed for space then this might not be the crockpot for you: at a length of over 30 inches, you are probably going to want to store this appliance out of the way when you are not using it and if you don't have the storage space handy to do this then it could be somewhat cumbersom in your kitchen.