Can the rice cooker be used as a crock pot?
Most crockpot recipes cannot only be made in a rice cooker, they can be made much faster. I have both but I almost never use my crockpot. Apparently the crockpot, because it cooks so much longer, makes meat, etc, more tender than a rice cooker, but I normally use mine for soups and stews, and it does a great job. Also, crockpots don't make the best rice, and it take them 2 or 3 times as long to do it, whereas rice cookers make PERFECT rice. You can also fry and sautee things with a rice cooker in a pinch, or as the first step in a recipe. And most things you can make in a pot, like those noodle packages where you just add water or milk, etc, can be made in a rice cooker even easier, since they don't need to be stirred! I got my rice cooker as a present and used it only for occasional rice the first year. Then I started getting creative and it has never let me down. If I could pick only one cooking appliance to have for the rest of my life, it would probably be either the microwave (just for pure convenience sake, and popcorn. :P) or the rice cooker.