Yes I Have Been Here Before

WHY I FELT THE NEED TO WRITE A SECOND REVIEW ON THIS PRODUCT

Yes I have been here before. I wrote a review on this crock pot back in December. It was my very first review. When I wrote that review I didn't really know what Epinions was really all about. I had signed up with Epinions through MY POINTS just to get some points. And Epinions was offering $10.00 to sign up. I figured I had to write something so I wrote a quick little ditty about how much I liked my crock pot. I didn't put much thought into it. I kind of just rattled it off. And left the site and didn't even come back to Epinions for a little while. Then one day I decided to come back and check to see if anything had happened to that little ditty I wrote. And Wow people were reading it and rating it. I had more than $10.00 in my account. Ok I have to admit this got me a bit excited. Of course the Epinion did no justice to the product. So I figured now that I am an experienced Epinions writer that I would write another more detailed review on this product.

WHY I LOVE CROCK POTS

I love Crock Pots. If you don't believe me just go through my cabinets you will find that I own two of them as well as a slow cooker. The reason for this is my extreme need to entertain. I have done several parties where I have had over 50 people and I always do all of the cooking myself. I am also proud to say that I had a party where I had 97 people in attendance and no one went home hungry. No I am not a caterer (although thoughts have crossed my mind about becoming one). I am just a wife and a mother who loves to throw parties.

There is no better way to keep food hot or warm for hours on end than by using a crock pot. I also find that everything comes out more tender and flavorful when you slow cook it. The ingredients have a lot of time to blend together and really get into your meat dishes. Crock pots are perfect for parties because lets face it. No one arrives at the same time. So people are eating at all different times of the day. And of course you want everyone to have a nice hot meal in their bellies. And at our parties people tend to stay from early afternoon to late into the evening. So after the main service all I have to do is turn the crock pot down to the keep warm setting and everyone can eat again hours later. I don't have to worry about putting it all away and dragging it back out again later.

Crock pots are not only convenient for parties but, for general every day use too. As I said before the flavors and tenderness of slow cooked foods in my opinion are un-matched. Also if you have a family that comes in at all different times. All you have to do is set it on warm and they can feed their selves whenever they come home. And if you don't feel like cleaning it you can just add some water to it and let it set overnight.

Crock pot cookery is also the best way to make stews, soups and chili, when you prepare a home made batch of any of these items and you are cooking them in a sauce pan. You have to pay constant attention to them or the soup will burn. Once soup has been burned it is pretty difficult to get the taste of burn out of it. It is pretty much ruined. This disaster will not happen if you are using a crock pot on the correct setting. You can actually leave the house all day long and never even check it. And when it is time to eat your stew, soup or chili will be perfect.

PRODUCT FEATURES:

· Removable 6.5 quart oval stone ware cooking pot - This pot can cook a chicken up to 8 lbs. And will cook 4 pound roast with no problem
· Wrap around even heat: This crock pot is built to cook your food evenly because it gets heated through out every part of the inner surface. You will not get food that feels hot on the top and and cold on the bottom. Or not cooked all the way through but burnt on the bottom. You get even cooking every time (provided you follow the proper cooking instructions for your particular dish). Let me see a microwave or sauce pan do that.
· Portable Design handles: This crock pot comes with ver sturdy attached handles. Which are for the most part heat resistant but, you can not always count on that.
· Keep warm setting: I think I plugged this feature sufficiently above.
· Tempered glass lid: This lid is made of very sturdy thick glass. I am a klutz and I have never managed to break it. It also does not shatter from extreme heat.

CONS:

The only two complaints I would have are: One as I stated before you can not always count on the handles to not be hot. And my second complaint would be the size of the cord. I wish it were a bit longer. I think it would be great to have a cordless crock pot. If they did I bet more people would be willing to use them while they are at work. Of course it would have to have more energy than a lot of the cordless products that are out today. You wouldn't want your crock pot battery to go dead in the middle of cooking a pot of roast with potatoes. You would have to call your meal; Roast Tarter with Rock Potatoes. Mmmmm. Ha Ha. Well maybe someday. Do you think I should copy right that idea?

SUMMARY:

The Hamilton Beach 6.5 quart Crock Pot is an excellent Crock Pot. This was the first Crock Pot I ever owned. I have had it for many years and have used it quite a bit over those years. I even left it on for about 18 hours on high one time (It was New Years Eve, before children so I think I passed out or something). I'll admit I had to scrub it a bit but it was still in tip top shape. Even after treating it like this my crock pot has continued to serve me in a desirable manner.

Other than two very small issues I have to say that I am completely in love with my Hamilton Beach Crock Pot. It has with stood time, my un-intentional abuse, and many large parties and home cooked meals. It has served me faithfully and if it were to die out on me tomorrow I would let it go with no regrets of having owned it. Then I would go out and by another one. I honestly don't understand why more busy people don't slow cook. It's a lot healthier than fast food.