I have decided the Crockpot Lady (alias Stephanie O'Dea, at crockpot365.blogspot.com/) is an absolute genius.

This time I tried her baked oatmeal recipe, which can be found here: crockpot365.blogspot.com/2008/11/crockpot-baked-oatmeal-recipe.html)  In my new round 5 quart crockpot which will hopefully not overcook every damn thing I cook in it.  To find and purchase it, I had to brave the Evil Demonic Hellpit of Horribleness (aka Walmart), but Target and Kohls only had 6 and 6.5 quart Smartpots and 4 quart Stupidpots (i.e. without the auto shut off, which is sort of nonnegotiable for me).  And I got it for only $20.

Now, every good scientist knows that when making alterations in a set way of doing things, the smart way is to only change one variable at a time.  That way if it blows up in your face, you know what caused the problem.  Change more than one variable, and there's no way to really know.

I, however, am nothing like a good scientist.  I'm a musician, much to the dismay of two generations of university-level chemistry teachers before me.  I changed lots and lots of variables, so it's hard to say what contributed to what.
( Here's my version of the recipe: )