• If you're entertaining this Memorial Day weekend, set-it-and-forget-it dishes can be a lifesaver.
• From ribs to pulled pork, these slow-cooker recipes are perfect for summer gatherings.
• You can also make sides like potato salad and dips in a slow cooker.

Sizzling burgers, blistered corn on the cob, and sweat dripping from your brow as you man the grill — this is how many mark the start of summer.

Fifty-eight percent of Americans plan to barbecue this Memorial Day weekend, according to a new WalletHub report, and the average cost of a cookout is expected to be about $31, a 4% increase from last year.

However, while grilling certainly captures the spirit of Memorial Day weekend, slow cookers can make preparing sides and meats much easier, with minimal cleanup and no need to bother with gas or charcoal.

Or at the very least, having a couple of set-it-and-forget-it dishes can help you focus on your grill.

From mouthwatering barbecue ribs to savory pulled-pork sandwiches, these slow-cooker recipes are perfect for any Memorial Day cookout.

For your Memorial Day cookout this year, try making the potato salad using your slow cooker.

You might not know that you can parboil potatoes in a slow cooker. To do so, chop and cover the potatoes with water, a little salt, pepper, and butter, and cook them until they're fork-tender, usually about six hours on low.

Then, mix the dressing for your potato salad as you normally would, such as mayonnaise, dill, whole grain mustard, and a splash of red wine vinegar. 

You can also make a German-style potato salad with bacon, light dressing, and baby potatoes.

Dips, such as this spinach-and-artichoke dip, are also easily made in a slow cooker.

"I love to make spinach-and-artichoke dip in my slow cooker," Chungah Rhee, the author of the blog Damn Delicious, told Business Insider. 

"You can just free up so much of your time by using a slow cooker and hang out with your guests instead of laboring in the kitchen," Rhee continued. "Especially for side dishes or dips. You put it all together, set the time, and it comes out ready to go."

This set-it-and-forget-it corn-and-jalapeño dip is creamy and easy to make.

"Another favorite of mine is this corn-and-jalapeño dip," Rhee told Insider. 

The recipe combines many of the summer's best ingredients, from fresh and vibrant jalapeños to sweet corn.

Buffalo-chicken dip is another quick and easy favorite you can make in a slow cooker.

One of the benefits of making a slow-cooker Buffalo-chicken dip, like this recipe on Rhee's blog — or any other side dish in a slow cooker — is that it can be prepared well ahead of time and reheated when you're ready to eat.

Rhee's advice for someone using a slow cooker for the first time for entertaining is actually to start out with a dip or side dish. 

"If for some reason it doesn't turn out, because we all know that can happen using an appliance for the first time, it's not detrimental to your dinner party being a success," she said.

Queso can serve a whole party when made in a slow cooker.

This creamy queso dip from Martha Stewart uses ingredients like American cheese and pepper jack cheese, a can of evaporated milk, diced tomatoes with chilies, sliced jalapeños, red onion, and cilantro. 

Brisket is perfect for feeding a larger family and can easily be made in a slow cooker.

"Brisket is a natural partner for the slow cooker, as a gentle braise renders it meltingly tender," Kim Laidlaw writes in her cookbook, "Everyday Slow Cooking: Modern Recipes for Delicious Meals."

Laidlaw's recipe for slow-cooked braised brisket includes garlic, onion, dry red wine, carrot, and chicken or beef stock, with a chimichurri sauce.

Pulled-pork sliders are another great way to use your slow cooker for a cookout.

One of the best ways to use braised and slow-cooked pork shoulder is to make pulled-pork sliders, like this Damn Delicious recipe, with all that tender meat.

To elevate the dish, top the meat with barbecue sauce and slaw before sandwiching it between two fluffy brioche buns or potato rolls. You can also use the carnitas to make tacos.

You can also make barbecue ribs in a slow cooker.

Nothing screams an end-of-summer cookout like sauce-covered ribs, like Laidlaw's recipe as shared on Cooking by the Book. After cooking them in the slow cooker, place them on a baking sheet in your oven and broil them until they're slightly crispy.

To save space on your grill, you can also make slow-cooked sausages and beer brats in the slow cooker.

Brats with onions, peppers, and garlic simmered in the slow cooker with beer — like this recipe by The Magical Slow Cooker — are one way to use your slow cooker on Memorial Day.

Top your brats with a bit of sauerkraut and put them on buns for an easy summer dish.

Mac and cheese can also easily be made in a slow cooker.

If you're looking to add some carbs to your menu, look no further than a piping hot pot of mac and cheese. Martha Stewart's recipe for mac and cheese in a slow cooker calls for evaporated milk, three kinds of cheese, and homemade breadcrumbs.

Garlic-and-herb mushrooms are a delicious side dish but can also be used as a burger topping.

"The recipe for slow-cooker garlic-herb mushrooms is divine and so easy," Rhee said. "Mushrooms made in a slow cooker are truly the best."

Shredded Buffalo chicken goes great on top of salads.

One of the best — and easiest — ways to use your Crock-Pot or slow cooker is by making shredded Buffalo chicken, such as this recipe by The Magical Slow Cooker.

Add seasoned chicken breasts to the slow cooker and cover with your preferred Buffalo sauce. Then add a splash of ranch dressing and a cube of butter, toss your chicken breasts in the mixture to coat fully, and cook until the chicken is shreddable. You can use it for Buffalo-chicken sliders, salads, or tacos.

You can even make Buffalo or barbecue chicken wings using a slow cooker.

You can make any style of wings in a slow cooker, from Asian-style to barbecue and Buffalo wings. Add your wings to the slow cooker, add in your sauce of choice, toss to combine, and let them cook for a couple of hours on high.

To make them crisp up, add a cornstarch and water mixture to your slow cooker. After they're cooked through, broil them for a few minutes in the oven.

Meatballs make a great appetizer for guests and don't require cooking over a hot stove.

Meatballs make the perfect appetizer for parties big and small and are easy to make in a slow cooker. 

Place your seasoned, raw meatballs into the slow cooker, top with sauce, and let the slow cooker finish them off, says one recipe by Spend With Pennies. Serve them on their own with toothpicks or stuff them inside toasted sub rolls for a meatball sandwich.

The U.S. government is spending far more than it takes in as revenue, causing ever-rising debt — and there is no sign that will change anytime soon.

The big picture: Those facts are well-known to anybody who has taken a cursory look at the government's books. But Moody's decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating Friday is the latest reminder that this precarious fiscal standing comes with real risks.

• Moody's — the last of the three major raters to downgrade the U.S. from its once-pristine credit rating — is acknowledging that U.S. policymakers may have less room to maneuver in future recessions or crises, in light of the massive existing pile of debt.
• It is one more sign that an era in which the U.S. government could borrow seemingly limitless amounts, without experiencing the cost of higher interest rates and inflation, may have come to an end.

Zoom out: Ratings from firms like Moody's help determine how much companies, municipalities, and even sovereign nations must pay to borrow money.

• The downgrade implies that the U.S. government is a bigger credit risk than it seemed, which in theory could make some investors demand higher interest payments to buy government bonds.
• That would ripple through into higher borrowing costs across the economy, including for home and auto loans.
• In practice, most buyers of Treasury bonds aren't doing so based on credit rating firms' assessment, so the direct impact on markets was limited Monday.

State of play: The downgrade came as congressional Republicans move forward on their plan for major tax cuts, which independent fiscal watchdogs believe would increase the deficit by trillions over the coming decade.

• Compared to past episodes when the government has taken on deficit-widening initiatives, the new budget bill arrives at a moment of higher debt and higher interest rates.
• And it comes after global investors have already seemed jittery about the safety of U.S. assets amid the trade war, resulting in higher interest rates and more risk to the ability to continue financing debts.

White House officials emphasize that they inherited sky-high deficits from the Biden administration and say that their policy mix — including deregulation, tariffs, DOGE spending cuts, and pro-growth aspects of the budget bill — will help bring them down.

• "I do want to assure everyone that the deficit is a very significant concern for this administration," top White House economist Stephen Miran told reporters Monday.
• "We're determined to bring it down and to undo the damage to the fiscal health of the United States that was wrought by the Biden administration and its reckless policies."

What they're saying: "Yes, this Moody's action is largely symbolic, and it reflects information we already know," notes Callie Cox, chief market strategist at Ritholtz Wealth Management.

• "But it's a headline that came at a wildly inopportune time for the fixed-income market," which is to say the multi-trillion dollar market for government bonds.
• "Moody's picked a moment when the world is second-guessing U.S. debt, Congress is arguing over government budget proposals, and the policy uncertainty" around long-term Treasuries is the highest in years, she adds.

The bottom line: "The government deficit isn't a problem until investors think it is," says Cox. "And they're increasingly telling us that the deficit is a problem."