Thanks, tmac and bellarosa! tmac, I have been out of town for the last few days, and I just came back home. On my way back from the airport, I stopped by Lowe's and found the 1 gallon pot of F&E RED! I thought that I must come and post this for you, only to see this post! I guess Lowe's has a better deal then, at $14.99! However, I was hoping to get a larger plant though... sigh... let me wait a little bit... bellarosa - please post a pic! I am dying to see that red bloom!

I just got back from looking at the 30" model. It was hooked up, so I saw the burners in action, but there was no hood so I couldn't actually try it out to cook anything. I have attached a link to some pics of the burners, drip pans/tray, etc. My initial thoughts, in no specific order... 1. As with all the American Range ranges, it is very well put together. Seams and corners are finished nicely. Understated look, less industrial by far than bluestar but not overly softened...just really straightforward pro-look. 2. The approach is a little different than bluestar, there is both a drip tray under everything and also separate drip pans under/around each set of two burners. More like the Bluestar drop-in cooktop, less like the range. Reminded me a bit of the Jade residential open burner ranges. 3. The drip pans are black enameled steel, and are very deep - seems like the likelihood of things actually making it to the drip tray is pretty slim. They also, however, don't seem to have any obvious way to get a grip on them to remove them...it was a bit fussy when I did it. 4. All the burners click when you ignite any single burner. 5. The center area on the 30" is a removable stainless steel piece...I don't know if they are going to offer an optional grate, but it seems like it would be really simple to get something to work even if they don't. 6. Unlike the other American Range ranges, the grates are free-floating...there are no "dents' for the feet to rest in and hold them in place. AS a result, the grates move around a bit more, and are noisier...this is especially noticeable because of the other "moving parts" (i.e., the drip pans and tray)...its a little "clanky." 7. My big reservation...the grates are really, really high. Pots are going to end up really far above the flames, which kind of seems to defeat the purpose of having super-powerful burners. I would be concerned that in the real world a lot less heat would be transferred to the pan on this than on, say, a bluestar (or probably a culinarian, but I haven't actually seen one of those in person yet). I may be wrong about this, but it worries me...I hope somebody does do some real world comparison testing soon. That's it for my iniitial thoughts. If anybody has any specific questions, feel free to ask and if I can answer it based on my look today I will. Here is a link that might be useful: pics

Artemis, you helped me so much around this time last year, when I was considering the F&P fridges, too! Thank you. We, too, put off buying the fridge until we'd saved up more money. Now I am ready to order the french door RF201ADUX model, but lo and behold, there's a new model on the market. The RF195ADUX1 looks almost exactly the same but is $200 more expensive, and it's not clear what I'd be getting for the extra money. The newer model actually has .8 cu.ft less storage space in the fridge section (14.6 versus 13.8) so it seems like I'd be getting less. I have to decide by tomorrow because the only place I can buy it from -- the only store in this area that will replace the fridge if it's damaged during delivery -- has just one older model left in stock and F&P won't accept orders for it anymore. Should I buy the new one or the old one? Does anyone know what is better about the new one?

Yes, it is a grand show, with his mature movie star looks, his delivery, and his dramatization of the subject. Very slick. But, actually, Kathy, we may well be aware of basic nutrition, but what hits you is when you see the choices side by side. You see that you can eat tons of delicious, nutritional and healthy foods and watch the calories. Perhaps, we should not readily accept simple choices like a chicken caesar salad for lunch, and think about other fine choices that have a quarter of the calories. It's easy for us to rationalize that two cookies would not hurt as a snack, but when you see the tableful of healthy foods which is equal calories-wise to those cookies, it strikes home. We would be better off to eat a quarter of what's on the table. I'm as guilty as anyone else. There are times, when I have probably had a 5,000+ calories day, because I've eaten a bag of Lay's chips (not in several months), plus three squares. Really, that is unnecessary.