I love to laugh and cook with my new husband being my Test Monkey. I improvise and tend to combine recipes ive collected that are similar to get the optinum results! Now I love my crock pot, and I hate cleaning my mess!!! I tend to simplify recipes for this reason.. My favorite cookbook is Fannie Farmers!!!! Absolutely love it. I usually will start there with an idea, wind myself up go for it!!! Its a great research tool!