Slow Cooking

What to take away from this contest: Sometimes to enter properly, you simply must lie about personal details.

The Assignment: What do YOU love most about slow cooking? Is it the aroma it creates in your home, the convenience, your memories as a child? Whatever the reason, send us your ode -- a poem or essay -- that tells us why you love slow cooking. Whether they are heart-warming or humorous, winning entries will be 500 words or less and contain the phrases "helping hand" and "slow cooker."

The Prize: A full day of pampering at a local spa, a slow cooker, a years supply of slow cooker instant meals and a recipe booklet.

The Entry:

"The kids are screaming and my husband’s late. It’s been a thousand years since we had a date. Sometimes when evenings go like this, I get nostalgic for life when I was known as “Miss.” My eyes scan the kitchen, they bump past the floor; the children’s toys are poised for war. What I need now is a helping hand, a dinner marvel that’s truly grand. But I hardly have time to sleep and bathe, let alone to stand and sauté. Until I spy upon the shelf, a squat and metal electric elf. A slow cooker, of course! I shout and I sway. My children get excited and ask me to play. No problem, I tell them. No trouble at all. Let me tear open dinner and I’ll jump when you call. Because that’s what I like best about slow cooked food, the time it gives me to hang with my brood."