Different cooking styles

Just so you know, most recipes for stews can be made either in a crock pot, cassarole dish, or large pot. You can even use a large frying pan. The effects will vary, and each method has pros and cons.

Crock pots are easy to use -- you need to have plenty of time (3-6 hours) to let things simmer, but once it's set up to go, you can pretty much leave it alone all day (although occasional stirring will help prevent stuff from sticking, but it's not strictly necessary). You can get an inexpensive crock pot if you just want to experiment with it, but the more expensive models have all kinds of bells and whistles - timers, several different temperatures, etc. To my experience, crock pots start at around 40 or 50 dollars.

A large cassarole dish should probably be lightly coated w/ oil before adding ingredients, and you'll want to make sure things are spread around evenly (more or less). A large cassarole dish with a lid might start at around 10 bucks, although those fancy ones can easily run a lot more (think 80-90 dollars). Things cook a lot faster in a large cassarole dish, and you can just leave it in the oven. If you wanted to go to an event of some sort and needed to just leave it to bake for a couple of hours, you can bake on a lower heat (around 300), but normally, I bake cassaroles at 350 and it takes about an hour.

A large cooking pot that stands about 9 inches tall and 9 to 10 inches in diameter, cooks on the stovetop, and comparatively fast (typically about 30-40 minutes). You should definitely start with some oil (or butter, yum!) in the bottom to prevent sticking and scorching. And you should pay closer attention with a stew made in a pot, than in the crock pot or cassarole - stirring to keep the bottom from scorching, unless there is a fair amount of fluid in there. You add ingredients according to how fast they cook, and you can sautee ingredients first (this is nice to help open up the flavor of spices, or to take the sharp flavor out of onions or garlic). Then add the rest of the ingredients: Meats generally need longest, then root veggies, then any other softer ingredients. A large cooking pot with a lid, like this will probably start at around 10 dollars, too.

And if you want to get even fancier, you can cook some ingredients separately, in a second pot, and add them to the stew just before serving. If you would like things to have more individual flavors, anyway. It's up to you! I'm just the messenger, here. Enjoy!