For the other posts in this series please go here. And if you live in Chicago I hope you check out Funny Ha-Ha.)

Hi Catherine:

So what have you been cooking? I can't wait to hear how your french toast recipe went for the royal wedding sleepover you had.

I made the next recipe you selected for me, the slow cooker chicken curry. I wasn't so sure about this recipe to be honest. First off, it was the only recipe I would be making so far that didn't have the quick prep work promise that the others had been marked with. I was worried it would stink up the house for nothing, basically. I enjoy the taste of curry but it seems like whenever I cook it it wafts through the whole house for days and it drives me crazy.

On top of this, I am kind of done with chicken unless it's bad for you (IE roast chicken from the grocery store or fried chicken.) The boneless, skinless chicken breast frequently repulses me with its blandness. But this recipe did not have chicken breasts nor even roast chicken from the grocery store (those are my favorite chicken recipes, where you just buy the precooked chicken and take off the meat.) It used chicken thighs, which I'd never used.

The instructions said to trim the chicken and I was too lazy to look up how to do this precisely so I just guessed and cut off big hunks of fat wherever I saw them, which was practically everywhere. I must have thrown away a pound in fat for the 3 pounds of chicken I had. I hate raw chicken and I hate chicken fat most of all, so there's something that makes me squeamish.

Anyway, long story short, I had nothing to worry about. The prep was nothing more complicated than pre-sauteeing some onions with curry and garam masala and adding coconut milk. I did this the night before and put in the raw chicken as instructed.

When I came home from work the next day the house was fragrant but not reeking of curry and the chicken thighs were falling-apart-tender in the cooker. I added some instant rice, microwaved cauliflower and frozen peas and topped it with cilantro and sliced almonds (I didn't toast them; so sue me.)

The shredded dark meat and the rice made the dish hearty but the veggies bulked it up in a way that it was filling but in that way where you feel sated, not stuffed. And it was the first ATK slow-cooker recipe I made that got a "Yum. Yum-yum" from my husband who also got seconds for himself. So this was a winner.