Q: What appliance can make even the laziest, most frugal cooks look like pros?

A: The slow cooker.

Figuring out what to get friends and family can be a challenge, and the closer it gets to Christmas Eve, the greater the likelihood you’ll make panicked purchases that leave the giver and giftee in agreement on one thing: oh, you shouldn’t have.

But there is one thing that none of us seems to have enough of, and that’s time (well, technically, there are two things most of us feel we don’t have enough of; the other is money, which, of course, makes a great gift, too.)