Well ain't that the Canadian way!!!!
Actually, I can settle the dispute - everybody knows we Americans are tacky. After all, Donald Trump and Paris Hilton have their own tv shows here.
The simpler the better is my motto re: crockpots. I throw in a tough old roast w/ a can of mushroom soup and a packet of onion soup mix and cook it until it's almost indistinguishable. The whole idea is to make it easy, right? In fact, I read somewhere you can use those roasting bags inside the crockpot to save on cleanup.