Re: the beef

There will be enough fat to make the dish rich and tasty.

If beef is cooked in the slow cooker for a long time, a tough, burned-on ring will form all the way around. Both my slow cookers are quite heavy and awkward to handle. So I use a liner.

A few years ago I decided that after fifty years of cooking I could spend a little money making cleanup easier. So I buy the following:

slow-cooker and oven-roasting bags
parchment paper for under roasting meats
disposable gloves for really icky jobs
non-stick spray as necessary

I don't want to be a person who gets too old and tired and quits cooking.