Life around my house is lived as though someone stepped on the accelerator—going 80 miles an hour, everything and everyone in constant motion (that happens when you have five kids). Lots of running around.

Last month is a good example—getting everyone ready to go back to school is a balancing act… no, a juggling act, beyond compare. Clothes to pack. Doctor appointments. School supplies. Planes to catch. Trains to catch.

And no real time for meals.

So, it’s kind of ironic that my salvation during all this activity isn’t something that moves fast. Just the opposite…it moves slowly. Methodically. It’s my slow cooker…and it’s a life-saver. Uh, make that a time-saver.

My good friends at Hamilton Beach sent me their Set & Forget 6-Quart Programmable Slow Cooker to try out. What do I think? In three words: I. Love. It.

What’s really great is that I’m able to prep meals the night before… like this Slow Cooker Pork Roast with Green Salsa recipe. First I sliced an onion really thick and put the slices in the bottom of the Slow Cooker’s crock. I rubbed the pork shoulder with spices and set it on top of the onions… and then put the crock in the fridge.

The next morning I added the chicken stock and programmed the Slow Cooker to be ready by the time I got home. The salsa is so easy to prepare, I made it while I got the rest of dinner ready, but you can also prepare it in advance.

I shredded the pork, stirred in half of the salsa and served it with warm tortillas so everyone could make their own tacos as we all sat down for dinner… and put on the brakes for a little while.

And if you have any salsa leftover, it goes great with eggs the next morning!

One other cool thing is that this slow cooker comes with a temperature probe so that you can cook large cuts of meat, whole chickens or even turkey breasts by relying on the internal food temperature to test for doneness.

I used the probe to cook a 4-pound chicken on High in about 4 hours (internal temperature 180°F in the chicken’s thigh). The skin didn’t crisp up and brown the way I like it, so I but it in a roasting pan under the broiler for about 5 minutes… beautiful!

One more thing… head on over to my friend, Miz Helen’s Country Cottage, to find more delicious recipes… just like this one!

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George Jetson’s “smart” kitchen is finally here.

You remember George, don’t you? The Saturday morning cartoon character whose housekeeper, Rosie, would put a block into an oven and, seconds later, a fully cooked meal would pop out?

copyright Hanna-Barbera

It’s not quite that easy yet, but we’re well on our way to a Jetson’s-like smart kitchen.

We’ve been able to connect the care and maintenance of our homes through the Internet for a few years now… thermostats, lights, sprinklers, security systems, televisions, etc. But now, even our small, everyday kitchen appliances can be programed and operated from our phones or tablets.

Here’s what I found at the recent International Home and Housewares Show:

Before you start cooking, you’ll need the Orange Chef Company’s Prep Pad, the smart kitchen food scale that connects over Bluetooth to your iPad. It uses an app to show you the nutrition in the food based on weight, not labels. Here’s a demo:

The app-enabled iDevices Kitchen Thermometerlets you program the cooking time and temperature on your smart device and then monitors the temperature of whatever you’re preparing. The thermometer sends that info via Bluetooth to your smartphone or tablet as it cooks and when it’s ready. iDevices has a whole range of thermometers… I’ll tell you about those in the coming months.

The Crock-Pot is probably one of the first programmable kitchen appliances. Now, no matter where you are, you can turn on the Crock-Pot and adjust the programmable cook time and temperature from your smart phone or tablet.

Finished cooking… but forgot to sweep the kitchen floor? Send a message to Ecovacs Robotics’ Deebot D9 and it will clean your kitchen floors… or all of the floors in your house for that matter. It even returns to the charging dock and empties its own bin when it’s through cleaning!

But by far, the best “smart” device I saw at the show was the Famibot… which really reminded me of Rosie (the Jetson’s housekeeper).

Ecovac’s Famibot is an air purifier, entertainment center, security guard and home network connector. This little guy can even roam around your house and take photos and videos inside and send it to your phone or tablet.

Having a smart home seems like it would be really cool… but with all the bad guys out there, what if they find a way to reprogram my pot roast?