Crock Pot recommendations?

Oh all-knowing and culinarily savvy hive-mind...

I need to buy a crock pot as a gift and was wondering if anyone has any recommendations.

So hit me with your best crock.
(under $100, ideally)

Thanks in advance!

I'm in love with my little Proctor Silex 1.5 qt crock pot....but that's because I am cooking for myself.

How many people does the gift recipient cook for? Are things like timers important (so you can change the temperature automatically if they are out all day)?

As a general rule, most people I know are satisfied with their Rival crock pots - they were the original and seem to last for a long time

Thanks for the input..good things to factor in.

It'd be cooking for 4-6 people.

The timer idea sounds like a winner.

Ok, that narrows it down. Consensus also seems to be to go with an oval one rather than round. Ovals are more convenient for things like chickens and turkeys.

I love this lady's blog - so many of the recipes are simple to make. She also has a book out, if you feel like adding to the gift. My friend is a book indexer and did the index for the book, which led me to the blog

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

Here's one that looks promising:

http://www.amazon.com/Hamilton-Beach-33967-6-Quart-Programmable/dp/B001AO2PXK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=home-garden&qid=1260132160&sr=8-1

It looks oval, but I was too lazy to verify.

GREAT book/blog idea and the reviews on the Hamilton Beach found at the link above sound right on target.

$49 for that, free shipping?

NICE.

Thanks moocho!

***edited to correct stoooopid mobile browser typo.

whew. I was going to keep talking to myself if you didn't come back :-)

you're welcome. I hope it's a big hit. The book can be bought through Amazon as well

Checking the above links and posting back here is considerably slower on a mobile, thanks for bearing with me (hey, was that a turtle that just passed me lol).

Thx

We've had our basic, manual Rival crock pot for 10 years. Here's the slightly updated version. No timer, dishwasher safe, works great and cheap.
http://www.crock-pot.com/Product.aspx?cid=113&pid=6945

No one told me that these things were so cool. What the hell. Thanks, ros!

^I love it. It's like a science experiment. I'm never quite sure what will happen :-)

I'm not a great cook. I bought stewing beef, a bunch of veggies, turkey broth and mushroom broth. Threw 'em all in the crock pot and proudly announced to Laurie that I had made beef stew. She informed me I had made beef soup. It was still good. You can't go wrong with a crock pot.

The recap:

THIS THING IS AWESOME.

And this person's blog and book are fantastic references:

Flexichick wrote: I love this lady's blog - so many of the recipes are simple to make. She also has a book out, if you feel like adding to the gift. My friend is a book indexer and did the index for the book, which led me to the blog

http://crockpot365.blogspot.com/

On a related note: Flexi, this wouldn't happen to be one of yours, would it?





Thanks, all!

Which one did you get, Jeffrey?

Yesterday I made awesome potato soup. Onions,bacon,potatoes,stock,salt, pepper,chives,cheddar cheese. It was delicious!

If any of my cats did that, it would be Stella Maria.She's all about the drama and being goofy