I talk about my Aunt Annie quite a bit, and for good reason. This little lady was brilliant at economy-of-effort enterprises. She’d figure out how to save some time here and there and then she’d devote any time saved to baking from scratch—one of her favorite past times.

Anyway, Aunt Annie got one of the very first crock pots ever made, and developed its use to an art form. Long before it was published in cookbooks or on any website, she was doing things in crock pots no one ever thought of.


For instance, she would cook cracked wheat cereal in the crock pot overnight so she’d have a hot breakfast waiting for her on an especially busy morning. And when she discovered how much easier it was to cook up a batch of hot cocoa in the slow cooker, rather than on the stove top, a surge of creativity rushed through her veins!

One of my favorite memories is the hot cocoa bar she set up for all of us. Clustered around her crock pot of simmering hot cocoa were glass containers filled with all sorts of clever and scrumptious add-ins (besides the traditional mini marshmallows): chopped Reese’s candy bars, chopped Snickers bars, chopped malted milk balls, little frozen ice cream balls, frozen whipped cream cubes (she made these in ice cube trays), Twixt Bars (for use as swizzle sticks), candy canes (also to be used as swizzle sticks), unwrapped Kraft Caramels, and roughly chopped graham crackers, just to name a few.


Her overall idea was, “Why do you have to just DRINK cocoa? Why not spoon it up?” Oh, she was so much fun!

Anyway, back to her slow cooker brilliance. We thought one of her most brilliant ideas was cooking enchiladas in the crock pot. Back then, who’d of thought? Now everyone is savvy to this idea. But she was way ahead of her time. To this day we still talk about that amazing dinner—the night she proudly hauled her crockpot from the kitchen to the dining table and showed us what she’d done.

She didn’t stop with enchiladas, though. She developed a beef and potato casserole, a cabbage casserole, tamale pie, cheesy tortellini, chicken stuffing casserole, tuna noodle casserole, jambalya, berry cobbler, apple butter, fresh applesauce, apple butter yeast rolls, sausage lasagna, loaded baked potatoes, and even pizza!


After a year or so of using her crock pots several times a week, she discovered slow cooker liners. She said that little addition saved her even more time and energy. “Oh goodie,” we thought, “she’ll have even MORE time for her experiments!”

It would be fun to know what YOU cook in your crock pot or other creative ways you’ve experimented with it. Meanwhile, in case you haven’t discovered this super time-saver (and when would this be more appropriate than during what can turn into a frantic holiday rush), here is Aunt Annie’s amazing crockpot enchiladas recipe: