Hi @gringalicious! Yay for the slow cooker! I had to laugh at "I had this rice cooker that, let’s be honest, was a piece of crap, and I tried many times to trick it into thinking it was a crock-pot" :) I have a slow-cooker that is quite controversial in my house. I like it. My kids hate it. They see it out and scream, "You're not going through another vegetarian Indian food in the crock pot phase are you? That was terrible! Thank God the cookbook was from the library and you had to return it!" It probably would have gone better for me if my slow cooker food ended up looking like yours ;)