I like to make pies and have several pie cookbooks plus a binder of favorite pie recipes. Also, one summer I brought a pie a week to work so I have some pie credentials. My advice is find a crust recipe that works for you. The first crust recipe that I tried did not work then I tried Basic Flaky Crust from Rose Levy Beranbaum’s book, The Pie Bible, and it was great. I highly recommend this book for a new pie baker.

I prefer to use a rolling pin cover and pastry cloth so I do not add too much flour to my crust. Slip the rolling pin cover on and flour it lightly then lightly flour the pastry cloth. My secret shame is that I make my crust in my food processor.

I lived in a private dorm in Austin when I was in graduate school and every Asian woman living there had their own rice cooker so I figure that if they had one then I needed one. I bought mine at a thrift store and it works great and I would never cook rice in a pan ever.

I remember my mother cooking tongue a long time ago and vaguely recall her boiling it and then slicing it thinly and we had it on sandwiches. I liked it then and recently was thinking about trying to make it myself so now maybe I will.

I like my slow cooker and I learned two great tips from using some Cooks Illustrated recipes---always brown the meat before putting it in the crock pot and cook wine before adding it. Also, I have made and really like the Chicken Cacciatore recipe from Food Made Fast: Slow Cooker from Williams Sonoma. The crock pot doesn’t really reduce the work that is required to make dinner but it can be nice to come home to a warm dinner after a long day and all you have to do is serve it up.