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.)

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”).