Miss Cupcake test-drove a chicken-and-dumplings recipe in the slow cooker during the week. She wasn't comfortable stowing the hot end result directly to the fridge; I'm not confortable ;eaving it out for hours to cool to room temp. Also, the slow cooker doesn't seem to get hot enough to set the Bisquick dumpling stage to bready consistency; it just kind of disintegrated back into the chx stew. Which, I'm not complaining, did not detract at all, but we wanted dumplings.

Because of the stupid spotty way Google indexes Phosphoros, here's a dry bean quick soak method restated:

Sort and rinse your dry beans. Your 12oz bag is around 2.5 cups, package calls for about 4.5 cups water but that's probabky more than necessary. Doesn't matter because you're going to want to rinse between the soak and cook stages anyway. Cover and let cool 1 hour. Rinse before you store or cook.