I've rediscovered how great pressure cooking is.  I can soak beans overnight and have a fresh pot of delicious beans in half an hour, including ten minutes to cool and depressurize.  The beans are soft and tender in a way that some beans never were after cooking a day in a crock pot.  The pressure cooker doesn't boil away a lot of water and flavor, and pressure cooking is not only twenty times faster, it uses much less energy.