(To make actual tostadas, add cheese beans, lettuce, salsa, etc to a tostada shell along with the beef. The meat is also good in a variety of other applications…)

What you need:

1 1/2 lb. boneless beef round
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 cup lime juice
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 tbsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

What you do:

Sprinkle steak with salt and pepper. Place 3 tbls of the lime juice, the carlic, jalapeno, onion, chili powder, cumin, and cayenne in a slow cooker. Place beef on top and cook on HIGH for 6 hours or LOW for 8 hours.

Remove beef to a cutting board and when cool enough to handle, shred with fingers or using two forks. Place shredded beef in large bowl. Add remaining tbsp of lime juice and liquid from the slow cooker (along with solids –this is where I differ from the magazine – not a huge thing, but whatever.) to the shredded beef.

At this point, you can use the beef in tostadas, tacos, burritos, salad, whatever.

While you don’t strictly need to brown ingredients before adding them to a slow-cooker, doing so brings a richer flavor to this dish.

One note about wine: Don’t cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink. Cooking will intensify the flavors in the wine. If you use a cheap wine that you don’t really like the flavor of, you won’t be happy with the final dish.

What you need:

• 1 3/4 to 2 lbs (about eight) boneless skinless chicken thighs.
• salt, to taste (course-ground sea salt or kosher salt both work well)
• fresh ground black pepper, to taste
• about 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 5 slices of bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1 1/2 tbs unsalted butter (or extra virgin olive oil)
• 12 oz of crimini mushrooms, quartered. (White button mushrooms would work too.)
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 in. pieces
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, chopped. (If you like garlic, as I do, you can bump this up.)
• 2/3 cup chicken broth. (If using store-bought, make sure its low-sodium)
• 1 1/2 cups Merlot wine
• 3 to 4 sprigs of fresh thyme.

What you do:

In a medium dish, (an 8 inch glass baking dish, for example) season the flour with salt and pepper. Lightly coat the chicken in the seasoned flour and set aside.

Heat a large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the bacon and cook until the bacon is just crisp and the fat has rendered out. Keep the drippings in the pan, but drain the bacon on paper towels and set aside.

Add the chicken to the sauté pan and cook in the rendered bacon drippings until lightly browned. (About 3 minutes per side.) Set chicken aside.

Add the mushrooms to the remainder of the rendered bacon drippings and sauté until the edges begin to brown. (They will probably soak up the rest of the drippings.) Add the butter, carrots, onions, garlic and a large pinch of salt. Cook until the vegetables just begin to soften. Transfer the vegetables to the slow-cooker.

Use the the chicken broth to deglaze the sauté pan, then add it to the slow-cooker. Arrange the browned chicken on top. Sprinkle the bacon over the chicken. Add the wine and the thyme sprigs.

Cover and cook on low for 6 to 7 hours, or on high for about 3.5 hours. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if desired. Remove thyme sprigs before serving.

I’ve done a braised chicken, a roast beef, (well braised beef, really) Coq Au Vin, chicken and dumplings, and 2 batches of chili (I did a test batch before my final entry for the contest as I was adapting a pressure-cooker recipe, and wanted to make a couple of other changes, too.) So far, I think my favorite was the Coq Au Vin. Tonight I’ve got corned beef (sans cabbage) lined up.

The thing I like best about cooking with a crock-pot: Throwing everything in to it in the morning, and basically forgetting about it until dinner time.

The thing I like least about cooking with a crock-pot: Having to wait 7 more hours to eat dinner when it smells SO GOOD right now.