Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I use my baker in the same manner as chiffO. It does the hard work (I used to call it therapy...) and then I "handle" through the final stages in a regular loaf pan. One thing you might confirm is the order you add ingredients. My machine requires all of the liquids to start on the bottom and then work up into the dry during the kneeding cycles. One thing I do is open the machine early in the first knead and poke my finger into the dough to get a feel for the moisture content. If it needs more, I add it on the spot, a spoonful at a time. You should ome to love your new tool. It does take some personalizing so start approaching this as an artistic hobby instead of a scientific formula.

My mom was not an accomplished cook but she did have the goods on making a killer cornbread stuffing and giblet gravy for our Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners. Everyone of her four children inherited the secrets to those two sides. What none of us can rival is her fried chicken and potato salad. As much as all of us try, the secret to those two dished went to the grave with her ;~(
Every time I eat either of those two dishes, they are measured by her standard. Never to be forgotten...

With a beautiful baby of the size you've discribed, I'd find out what they've been eating and stay the course. It seems to have been working very well! Congratulations G-Ma...

I must admit I've only eaten them once and that was decades ago so no expert here but I am wondering, does variety/species make a difference? You frog lovers, are there desirable and undesirable types? Does size or age make a difference? Skin on or skin off? are they as versatile as the poultry they are compared to? Better fried, grilled, stewed, steamed or baked...? Teach us something, please.

I'm not too much of a melon expert so I tend to stay with the basics. My favorite is a well ripened, sweet cantaloupe. As a child, a neighbor introduced me to the part of heaven occupied by this treat with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream nested in its hollowed out center! While traveling in Latin America, I became accustomed to squeezing a lime or lemon over wedges of cantaloupe. It is one of my favored methods when I remember to buy both at the same time. Second place goes to the sweet honeydew. No particular reason, I just like its taste and texture. In the summertime, I often eat my weight in watermelon. From day one, I have always sprinkled my ample wedge with a dusting of salt. I get lots of reactions out of this practice but for me, watermelon is naked without it. I ascribe it to my southern roots since I learned this at my father's knee but really don't know if this is a common practice there or not as I've always lived in the North.

I read it after I posted....and after years in food service...can I just saw ew?
I feel better about my wood now and the plastic one I do have may hit the trash or get used for some other non-food purpose.

Not telling the hubby though, he will use it as an excuse to not wash the dishes til next day..;-)

^5 Wookie - spread the word! :D

@chiff - yep, I read it, and found it fascinating...it also made me happy because I don't own a single poly board:-).

@chiff; I did read the article and although I have an entire cabinet of varying types of cutting boards, I am wood all the way.

I loved my wooden cutting board, but I began having slivers of wood in my food due to 10 years of heavy and reckless use. I started to feel weird bleaching my wood board, so when I finally threw my board out, I got a poly board. I don't know why, but I feel safer using bleach on something like that than wood. Any board I have has to have a channel for liquid since we eat/cut beef every day.