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A question about the temperatures: I always assumed (and have read) that the 165° mark is about food safety, i.e. killing bacteria. While the turkey breast may appear 'done' at 145°, that's still a 20° margin.

Having had a bout of food poisoning (not from anything home-made, fortunately) that resulted in losing 10 lbs over Christmas one year and fever-induced hallucinations, you'll forgive me for be cautious about undercooked food.

My own preference is to either break up the turkey, or to flip it. I've never made a bird heaver than 15 lbs - and that's easy enough to flip.

You could also use a no-bake "cheesecake" filling, if you know a decent recipe that will firm up enough.. Bake your pie as chiffonade suggested above, but without unsnapping the pan. Once it's chilled mix the "cheesecake" filling and pour it on top. I also second chiffonade's suggestion about the chopped nuts.

Allagash (from Maine, I think) makes a pretty good Double as well. On the Belgian side, Corsendonk's Brown Ale is also nice.

I'd love to take a general pastry class - my stuff tastes good, but I can never get a flaky crust, or one of many things that goes slightly off (but never affects the taste).

Also - cake decorating. I can use a pastry bag. Sort of. And I can get a cake iced. Sort of. But beyond the basics, I know nothing.

It's a 970x66 banner, but it's sitting out to the right of the page, instead of its proper location underneath the orange logo section.

I know these new OPA pushdown units are popular (I've made a few at work) - and you can specifically require them to only open on interaction... not automatically.

As far as the people using adblockers... sites like this are free because of advertising. Please don't block the ads on your favorite free sites.

While charts aren't 100% accurate, I remember the chart you posted earlier accounted for various builds. Are you still 'overweight,' even if you add 10% on to the heaviest build for your size? As much as everyone like to say "I have a heavy build" or "I'm big boned," normal variations in bone density are only going to count for a couple percent of your total weight. And if you have enough muscle to really throw the chart off, you're probably not looking at the chart in the first place.

Also, the last 10-15 pounds ARE the hardest to lose. Part of it's mental - you're more prone to slacking/backsliding. Part is that, at his point especially, you need to spend as much time building muscle as doing fat burning aerobic exercising. Part is that you're probably in much better shape, and simply need to do more/harder exercise to get more benefit. The last part is the simple embedded imperative to always have a fat store against "lean times" - and you're fighting deeply imbedded behavior - even to the point of hormones telling you to eat more.

It's hard, but it's doable. But I think at this point the worst thing is to get frustrated and give up.

(Note: I am not a doctor. But I've talked with doctors and personal trainers and compiled the above information in my own quest for weight loss. Like Ed, I'm stuck... I'm at 200 lbs, down from 245 lbs, about 10 months ago. I'm 6'2", and it IS obvious that I should lose more weight. Do I need to? No. But I'm not going to stop working towards my college weight - 190 lbs).

They also make an excellent sleep aid if eating cold, late at night.

Greatest grilling success story? Smoking my own bacon, then smoking a pork butt for pulled pork a couple weeks later. The wife looked at me when I was discussing future smoking/grilling plans and said, "I may die weighing 300 lbs, and if I do, you are to blame. And I mean that in the best way possible, because I will die happy and full. And probably asleep from eating too much."

I'm pretty sure she meant it to be loving/romantic.

Ed - I'm 6'2", and am down to 210 lbs (from 235-240 in November) thanks to a martial arts class I started taking, and slightly more careful eating. Will I hit my 'ideal' weight of just south of 180 lbs? Probably not. My goal is to hit 200. If I hit 190 (my college weight), I'll be ecstatic.

But the important thing is to be happy with what I've accomplished... but to remember that I can still do better.

I actually use a recipe from a Williams-Sonoma book someone bought me as a gift (only adaptations have been increasing the butter and decreasing the cooking time for the crust). There are 4 packs of cheese (I think), in a 9" (I think) pan. I can't recall time/temp specifics either, but I believe it cooks @ 350 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes. As Jerzee said, it will jiggle, but will set once cooled. No foil tenting, water baths or temperature changes.

Puffing, I've found, is a sign of overmixing - make sure your cream cheese, eggs, and whatever else is being added to the filling is room temperature - otherwise, it will take longer to mix, and you'll incorporate more air, causing it to puff and/or crack. As soon as it's incorporated, stop mixing.

Also, take it slow when cooling - like Jerzee, I let mine cool to room temperature prior to wrapping it and putting it in the fridge.

Beer. Other than the occasional glass of wine (even then, I go for the semi-cheap stuff), it's the only alcohol in the house that we actually drink. The other stuff is basically for cooking only (and when drinking it, even the good stuff, all I taste is alcohol).

Fish. I tend to buy cheaper cuts of meat, and the organic chickens I can buy aren't THAT much more than the Perdue/Tyson chickens... but I've noticed a huge difference in fish with texture, flavor, etc... and as much as I love Wegmans, they have way too much 'colored' fish.

Otherwise... we've found 'good enough' olive oil, vinegars, canned tomatoes, canned tuna, etc in our local shops that don't break the budget.

Perky -

I will happily take reduntant frosting. Especially if it's cream cheese based. In fact, I think I will start requiring redundant amounts of frosting on cakes in the future.