I've finally caught on to the concept of the Crock-Pot. What took me so long? Supposedly something like 80% of American households have a slow cooker, but my mom never used one. Maybe it was because my dad has an absolute phobia about wasting electricity; the very notion of an appliance you have to leave on all day would drive him nuts.

But my friends kept raving about their Crock-Pots. I caved in to peer pressure and put “slow cooker” on my Christmas wish list. And so my two brothers-in-law got me a gleaming, stainless steel state-of-the-art All-Clad slow cooker complete with digital display (ah, the perks of marrying into a family whose motto is “buy only the best”).

Not Ariel de Guzman. The former U.S. Navy cook, who has catered to the culinary demands of George and Barbara Bush for more than twenty years, has just published “The Bush Family Cookbook. Mr. Guzman believes that “canned or frozen vegetables have more nutrition than fresh vegetables. It’s added from the companies, the manufacturer.