SLOW AND EASY: Sara Freeman, right, a nutrition educator with the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service, shows her class how to prepare simple, healthy meals with a slow cooker. Attendees, including from left, Shirley Stiles, Delores Ownby, Delona Sewell, Liz Galloway, Georgia Henkhaus and Pauline Nicholson, received a new Crock-Pot slow cooker. Photo by Bill Harrah