I use the crock pot as a warmer to keep things like mashed potatoes warm while I finish the rest of the dinner for big family dinners.They don't get scorched like they would on the stove. I also use it to keep baked beans warm that I cooked on the stove. They are great for keeping rolls and corn muffins warm when you making a lot for a big family dinner.If they get too moist then place a paper towel or napkin over the top. I rarely use it for cooking. We don't care for way the meat and vegetables turn out for stews.It does a good job on spaghetti sauce because you don't have to worry about it burning with a long cooking time. I like my dutch oven for stews.It does a great job on tough meat.After slow cooking it for hours, it will be tinder. I like to make chicken stews as well. A small dutch oven is great as a deep fryer.You don't need so much oil and it holds it's temperature well.You can deep fry donuts or tempera with great results.You don't need a deep fryer that you might only use once a month.

I've posted this a dozen times or so--please forgive me, regulars--but it really IS foolproof and delicious. Here's one of my favorite cold weather recipes that would do great in your new pot: There is a French bistro dish called "Gigot de sept heures"--yes, that's "Seven hour leg of lamb". I first ran across this in Anthony Bourdain's "Les Halles Cookbook". The first time I fixed it there were two teenagers in my house who claimed they didn't like lamb. Suffice it to say there were no leftovers. Bourdain makes the comment that when it's done, you should be able to cut it with a spoon. Like all common recipes, there are variations: but it's basically a braise in a heavy casserole dish. I used a deep cast iron Dutch oven with a tight fitting lid, and it worked great. Season the lamb with slivers of garlic, sear it, add liquid and vegetables, cover the pot, put it in a slow oven and DON'T PEEK for seven hours. Omigod, is it good--and easy!! This is a perfect dish for a day when you have a lot of laundry or housework to do. You gotta be in the house anyway, so may as well have a no-stress supper cooking while you're doing other work. You put it in the oven after brunch, then do whatever you need to do, and after seven hours you have some juicy and scrumptious lamb. A half hour before serving, cook up some noodles or something to catch the juices. Here's Bourdain's version. The only liberties I take with it is to brown the meat prior to putting in the other goodies, and since I have a very tight fitting casserole I don't bother with the flour seal. You can also use a little more wine if you want. The garlic cooks down so its not overpowering; do use at least the amount it calls for. GIGOT DE SEPT HEURES 1 leg of lamb, about 6# 4 garlic cloves, sliced, plus 20 whole garlic cloves 1/4 cup olive oil salt & pepper 2 small onions, thinly sliced 4 carrots, peeled 1 bouquet garni 1 cup dry white wine 1 cup flour, 1 cup water Preheat oven to 300 F. Make many small incisions in lamb, place slivers of garlic in each incision. Rub lamb well with olive oil, season with salt & pepper. (At this point I would brown the lamb on all sidesÂbut thatÂs not necessary.) Place it in Dutch oven and add onions, carrots, bouquet garni, garlic, wine. Put lid on Dutch oven. Combine flour and water, make a 'caulk' and use it to seal the lid to the dutch oven. Place it in the 300 degree oven and cook for 7 hours. Yes, 7 hours. NO PEEKING--leave it alone. Remove the Dutch oven and break the seal. You don't eat the cooked flour paste. That's it. About a half hour to an hour of prep, then you leave it the heck alone for 7 hours. It's nearly foolproof. Serve it with whatever else you want, and a medium bodied red wine goes quite well with this (say, a nice Zinfandel) but a dry white (such as the remainder of the bottle you opened to get the cup of wine in the recipe) is fine as well if that's your preference. Bon appetit!

DC, I do something similar with our corned beef. My husband is on a salt-restricted diet, but he & I dearly love corned beef. So when it's on sale for St. Patrick's Day, I get a hunk and soak it for two days, changing the water at least 2 times a day. Then I cook it in fresh water in my slow cooker. Once the water comes to a simmer/boil in the slow cooker, I change the water again. I know I'm losing flavor, but these are necessary steps for his health's sake. Yet in spite of all that water, the corned beef tastes pretty good -- much milder than regular but tasty nonetheless. So we can enjoy a corned beef & cabbage dinner and corned beef sandwiches for lunch the next day. And no swollen, painful feet or congested lungs from over indulging.

I agee that your dutch oven is going to be kind of crowded with that much steak, but I think it will be OK if you let it cook for a longer period of time. I also think that all that canned and dried soup is going to add a lot of salt, although I do like the idea of adding onions and mushrooms and worchestershire sauce to it. My youngest daughter, Ashley, loves Cream of Mushroom soup, eats it right out of the can without even adding water. I cringe, because my blood pressure is a bit high and I don't need the salt. I think if I used one of the kinds of soup, I wouldn't use the other, and you could easily substitute one kind of soup for another, for instance, using french onion instead of the dry packet and the golden mushroom. Like Tami, though, I don't use the soup at all. I dredge the steak in flour, salt and pepper it, brown it in some hot oil and put it into the dutch oven with the onions. Mushrooms would be nice too. I make a gravy much like Tami does, but I use beef broth instead of water and be sure to scrape up all the goodness that has stuck to the bottom of that pan when I browned the steak. It's something I make when I don't have much of anything on hand except meat and onions because as long as you have flour/salt/pepper you're pretty much good to go. With some mashed potatoes, that would be comfort food at its best, and I'd sure want to double the recipe, because leftovers would make awesome "hot beef" sandwiches. Annie