My Dad and sister Gangi visit us from Kathmandu every year.  Last year Gangi and I decided we really should sort through the vast collection of recipes I had accumulated from family, friends, magazines and other concoctions of my own.

Gangi surveyed the boxes askance. "We’re going to sort through those recipes and we are going to use them or lose them," she said with an air of command.

Gangi is a super-organized person.  She means what she says!

By the end of it, the "overnight" project stretched out to months! We ended up looking through some very sepia toned recipes that belonged to Dan’s grandmother, some I had brought from back in Nepal and India, others from our logging camp days, my collection of easy slow cooker recipes, and on and on.

We talked of memories from our travels and by-gone days; of good times with family and friends.

We finally opted to be practical and sort by categories based on who the recipes were meant for.

Dan has celiac disease so there was a pile for him.

I am lactose intolerant so I had my pile.

My Dad has arthritis so he had his own.

Gangi is a vegetarian so there was one for her.

Then we said, "Now what do we do with the easy slow cooker recipes, the pressure cooker recipes, the holiday recipes, the various ethnic recipes, the gourmet recipes?" 

We set them aside on a separate pile to convert them for each individual.

We joked about publishing cookbooks and opening a restaurant.  At one time my younger sister, Vidhea had encouraged Gangi to put an Indo Nepali cookbook together.  And Dan and I had owned and operated a restaurant in Alaska. So these ideas did not sound too far reaching.

I started transferring the recipes to a database.  I naturally started with my easy slow cooker recipes.

The slow cooker is indispensable in my kitchen.

When my husband and I decided to move to the country, we bought a home next-door to my in-laws in Washington State. To enjoy country life to the full we tried to find employment close to home. Instead we found good employment albeit in the city, which entailed a rather long commute.

The first Christmas we spent with them in the country, my mother-in-law wisely gave me a gift that ensured Dan and I would both continue enjoying the most convenient of all cooking methods for our fast paced life-style - a slow-cooker, along with some of her own easy slow cooker recipes.

Her invaluable gift inspired me to get my own crock pot out of storage and start us on the road to fixing some of the best tasting slow cooked meals.

Now on week-days, in the evenings, we had time to enjoy our country living to enjoy long walks in the woods; time to tend our prolific garden; time for Dan to chop wood and potter around the wood-shed.

As the recipe data base started taking shape; I modified and added to the many recipes I used during my busy work-a-day world days. These I share with you.

Some of the criteria I have used:

Almost all the recipes are cooked in the Medium sized slow cooker.  By Medium size I mean 3, 3 ½- to 4, and 4 ½ quart capacity unless otherwise noted.

Serving portions are all between 6 to 7 depending on whether you are serving a large or small eater and whether the meal includes a large variety of other items.

I use non stick cooking spray to prevent food from sticking to the slow cooker and also to cut down on fat.  I prefer using Kroger brand olive oil spray.

I use garlic and ginger paste for most of my easy slow cooker recipes.  You can always substitute fresh.

In recipes that call for unbrowned meats I prefer to preheat the slow cooker to 140 degrees F (out of the bacteria “danger zone”.)

At the moment I am very involved with Passage Project for International Education.   Whenever I have extra time, I try to work on my cook book of memories from Kathmandu to Ketchikan- Recipes and Stories from A Life-long Culinary Sojourn.