"I feel so accomplished when I get up early in the morning, throw something in the slow cooker, then come home and have a nice hot meal for my kids. I have conquered the day!" says Patrice Keller Kononchek, a mother of three. The project she did with her sister-in-law, Lauren Malone Keller, will help other busy parents conquer the day, too.

The two are authors of the just-released "In a While, Crocodile: New Orleans Slow Cooker Recipes," fromPelican Publishing($21.95).

Both are native New Orleanians, as the recipes attest: Corn and Crab Bayou Bisque; Royal Street Red Beans; Steamboat Stuffed Artichoke, Calliope Corn Grits. And king cake. Recipes for turtle soup and bruscialoni are hard to find anywhere, much less in a slow cooker cookbook.

Lauren Keller is married to Patrice Kononchek's brother, Rob, and she left the workforce after having her child, now 17 month old. Kononchek works full-time in sales, and both their husbands are in graduate school evening programs.

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