Crockpot Cooking in France

By moving to France 17 years ago, I kind of missed out on the crockpot craze going on in the US. I happily cooked away for years not knowing what I was missing out on, like this super easy crockpot lemon chicken recipe.

Then we moved to French Guyana in South America. Ninety degrees Fahrenheit and ninety percent humidity can damper anybody's enthusiasm in the kitchen. I was cooking in the evening and sweating profusely at the dinner table as a result. I quickly got fed up and started looking for alternatives.

Of course, a slow cooker was what I needed! I'd put it on early in the day and in the evening I'd slide up to the table cool as a cucumber.

Trying to find a crockpot in Guyana was an adventure in itself. The French have not entirely caught on to the beauties of the mijoteuse, and finding one in South America was a real stretch. I finally located one in a truck trailer - a sort of traveling jungle hardware store - and I've been using it happily ever since.

If you have a family to cook for and you don't have a crockpot, you need one! It's not just good for hot weather, it can be a real life saver for working parents. (Hey, do you know any non-working parents?)