GIVEAWAY & Review : Celebrate Crock-tober with a brand new Crock-Pot!

It's that time of year. Crock-tober! When fall begins and you start wanting savory, comforting home-cooked meals. And one way to make those meals super easily is with your slow cooker! 

A few months ago a special friend helped me contact the folks at Crock-Pot because I hoped that they might be willing to work with me to provide some special giveaways for you, my dear readers! Especially since I used Crock-Pots extensively through the recipe testing for my new book. 

It wasn't actually because I loved the company at the time, it's simply that Crock-Pot was the brand of slow cookers I had in my kitchen... and after all that testing... I realized just how much I love these simple machines. The Crock-Pot brand is known for their high quality slow cookers and they like to call themselves, "The Original Slow Cooker." Which is fine by me considering I own 5 of them!  

My favorite size is actually a very simple, medium-sized 3.5 - 4 quart slow cooker. It works best for most of the items I make since I'm only cooking for two people (with the hopes of leftovers!)

Crock-Pot #1 - a 6-qt. Cook & Carry Slow Cooker
Retail Price: $39.99

After speaking with a Crock-Pot representative, they graciously offered to send me two slow cookers to test myself and review... ALONG WITH two brand new slow cookers to giveaway! I was thrilled at the offer... because you can never have TOO many slow cookers right?

The first one I tested was the 6 quart Cook & Carry manual slow cooker. A manual slow cooker is simply a slow cooker with a manual dial. It's very basic and the knob is the only thing you have to worry about setting. 

A few functions of this slow cooker include: 

• 6 quart capacity
• removable oval stoneware
• four convenient manual temperature settings
• the stoneware AND lid is dishwasher-safe (I really need a dishwasher!)
• several naturally gluten-free recipes are included in the instruction manual
• this model has a lid-mounted locking system for portability AND a gasket lid to keep the unit sealed to prevent spilling. 

This was my favorite of the two slow cookers.  One thing I REALLY loved about this new model is that the oval base of the slow cooker and the stoneware insert is wider than my old one. In my opinion, the wider the base of your slow cooker, the more versatile it can be. For instance I could make bread with this slow cooker because the base is wide enough to hold a small loaf pan. 

Another big plus? When the base is wider, you have MUCH more room to do big meals like roast a whole chicken or do a large beef or pork roast with plenty of room to spare for adding extra veggies or sauce, or if you want to make a big pot of soup, etc... 

I also loved the color of this slow cooker. I realize color has nothing to do with function... but when things are pretty it's not only nice to display in the kitchen but it's fun to take other places to show off! The red is a very metallic, deep red which went beautifully with my black kitchen appliances. (And doesn't food that is presented in a beautiful dish/carrier taste better anyway?) 

One more bonus: fantastic carrying handles! Big, wide handles so the slow cooker can be picked up easily and transported without worry of dropping it due to the handles being too small or getting too hot. My husband often complains about how small the handles are on a few of my smaller slow cookers, so he was very impressed his hands fit this model perfectly. 

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Crock-Pot #2 - 7-qt. Smart-Pot Slow Cooker
Retail Price: $49.99

Slow cooker number 2 that we are giving away and that I tried was a 7-quart Smart-Pot Slow Cooker (winners may receive EITHER a 6 or 7 quart version of this model). This slow cooker is a little bit larger than the Cook & Carry and functions a little bit differently. 

A few functions that this slow cooker includes are: 

• 6 or 7-quart capacity
• removable oval stoneware
• four convenient timer settings
• automatically shifts to warm when cooking is done
• stainless-steel finish
• dishwasher safe stoneware & lid
• several naturally gluten-free recipes are included in the instruction manual

This slow cooker is the largest one I have and it's perfect for roasting a large chicken, a Christmas ham, and making a loaf of gluten-free bread (with wiggle room!) It's also great for cooking a HUGE pot of pinto beans or green beans, or soup! This newer model also contains the wider base than my older slow cookers and of course the awesome digital time settings. My favorite thing about the digital time settings is having an indicator light telling you the machine is on!  There have been countless times I've forgotten to turn on my slow cooker and realized 4 hours later nothing was cooking!

This slow cooker doesn't have the cool carry and leak-proof features, but the digital timer is very nice. However if you make a lot of recipes from my cookbook, you'll have to remember to set your own timer because MOST of my recipes cook for 3 hours on high or 6 hours on low... I feel the traditional 4/6 hour HIGH settings and 8/10 hour LOW settings are WAY too long for most slow cooker recipes... because newer slow cookers cook hotter than old ones due to government food safety regulations, you don't need to cook foods as long in nearly ANY newer slow cooker.

Both of these slow cookers worked really well in my opinion on both low, high, and warm settings. To top it all off, both of these models are really beautiful and will match a huge variety of kitchen counters and appliances!

Now for the good stuff! Do you want to win one of these beautiful and functional slow cookers? My giveaways are easy peasy... please read the details below and enter to win! Good Luck! 

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THIS CONTEST IS NOW OVER! 

CONGRATULATIONS TO: 

KELLY W.
MICAELA M. 

The Giveaway:

• TWO Crock-Pot slow cookers are up for grabs through this giveaway. The brand new slow cookers are being provided by Crock-Pot.com. 
• This giveaway is limited to residents of the 48 contiguous United States aged 18 and older.
• One entry per person. There will be TWO winners. Winners do not get to choose which slow cooker they will receive. 
• Enter by leaving a comment on this post AND please include a way for me to contact you -- Your email address preferably.
• The giveaway begins October 22, 2012 and ends on October 26, 2012  at 11:00 pm eastern time.
• No purchase is necessary.  Odds of winning are based on the number of entries.  
• The winners will be randomly chosen and will be contacted by email.  The winners will have 24 hours to respond.  If the winner does not respond, a new winner will be randomly chosen.

Disclaimer:  The brand new "Crock-Pot" slow cookers being given away will be provided by Crock-Pot.com. Crock-Pot.com also provided me with one of each of these slow cookers for testing & review purposes for free, but I was NOT paid to write a review and/or do a giveaway. The opinions in this post are solely my own.