There are plenty of slow cooker cookbooks out there, but the writing team of Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough hit upon a winning formula with their new book, "The Great American Slow Cooker Book" (Clarkson Potter, $25).

For every recipe in the book, they offer a list of ingredients in three sizes of slow cooker (2 to 3 ½ quarts, 4 to 5 ½ quarts or 6 to 8 quarts). It's the answer to the complaint of everyone who ever wanted to try a slow cooker recipe, only to discover their cooker was too big or too small.

There's a wide variety of recipes, too — more than 500 — including breakfast dishes, main dishes, soups (such as a Quinoa and Squash Soup) and stews (such as the Vegetarian Stew With Cheesy Drop Dumplings).