Paula, Please forgive me, forgive me, forgive me for not posting my thanks sooner! I did receive your box on Friday, but I have been so busy in the garden for the last week, I don't know where the week has gone. (In fact, I don't know where the month of May has gone!) It's been almost a week since the box came, and I've been very remiss in not coming on here to let you know it got here. I loved the sun-dried tomatoes and the pine nuts, I use them in one of my favorite recipes, so thank you so much. I also received two herb plants -- a sage and an oregano -- Yum! Real plants, not seeds! The box also contained some bread dipping oil, we will have it this weekend with some crusty multi-grain bread rolls, I bet it's delish! I also received a great orange apron (which may end up being used in gardening), and finally, a great new KitchenAid handheld chopper. My old one is just about ready to give up the ghost, so it arrived just in time! Thank you so much, I loved everything! Alison

Here are a few simple recipes that taste good. Chili Cheese Cornbread 2 cans chili w/ beans (or 2-3 cups homemade chili) grated cheddar cheese, about 1 cup 1 box Jiffy cornbread (corn muffin) mix 1 egg 1/3 cup milk Spread chili in a greased 7 x 11 baking dish. Top with cheese. Stir milk and egg into cornbread mix and spread on top. Bake at 375 degrees until cornbread is golden brown and tests done with a toothpick. Easy Chicken Wraps 1 pkg. flour tortillas 2-3 fresh tomatoes 1 bottle ranch dressing 1 jar hot wing sauce (mild or hot) 1 pkg. frozen breaded or plain chicken breasts Cook chicken as directed on package then cut into slices. Heat tortillas in microwave just briefly to warm. Place a tortilla on a plate, add chicken slices, chopped tomatoes, wing sauce and ranch dressing drizzled on to taste. Ramen Vegetable Soup 1/4 to 1 pound leftover beef or poultry (ground or cubed) 1 bag frozen Oriental vegetables 2 pkg. Oriental Ramen soup noodles 3 cups water In a soup pot, cook meat until done if not already cooked. Add frozen veggies along with 3 cups of water and cook until vegetables are cooked through or as soft as desired. Add soup noodles (and seasoning packets, if desired) and cook 3 minutes more until noodles are done. Teriyaki Stir-fry 1/3 cup soy sauce 1/4 cup honey 1 t. grated onion 1 clove garlic (can sub garlic powder) 1 t. ground ginger Mix sauce ingredients together and add one pound thinly sliced chicken breast, sirloin beef steak, or pork. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or overnight. Stir fry in a little hot oil with any fresh vegetables you like or with a package of thawed Oriental vegetables. Serve over rice. Taco Soup 1-2 pounds ground beef (chuck or round) 1 large onion diced 1 envelope dry taco seasoning 1 envelope dry Hidden Valley Ranch dressing Original 1 can kidney beans with liquid 1 can pinto beans with liquid 1 can corn 1 can Rotel tomatoes with green chilies 2 cans stewed tomatoes (can be the Mexican stewed tomatoes) 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce 1 cup water Cook beef and onion until beef is browned. Spoon off excess grease. Add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 30-45 minutes. Serve with cornbread or corn muffins. Easy Jambalaya 2 16 oz. cans red kidney beans 2 16 oz. cans diced tomatoes 1 medium onion chopped 1/3 cup bell pepper diced 1-2 Hillshire Farm smoked sausage rings, sliced 1/4 cup fresh jalapenos, diced (to taste) A-1 steak sauce to taste Worcestershire sauce to taste 2 boxes Uncle Ben's roasted garlic long grain and wild rice (if not available, use regular long grain and wild rice) Mix all in a large pot and simmer on low heat for 1 hour. Add water if needed. You can also add cubed chicken breasts or boneless thighs. Fresh shrimp can be added the last few minutes of the cooking time. Burger Bundles 1 lb. ground beef 1/3 cup evaporated milk salt and pepper boxed stuffing mix 1 can cream of mushroom or golden mushroom soup 2 t. Worcestershire sauce 1 TB catsup Mix stuffing per directions. Mix milk, s&p, and beef together. For into 4 large hamburger patties; Place a spoonful of the stuffing in the center of each pattie. Fold patties in half, sealing the edges. Place in a baking dish; mix soup, sauce, and catsup and pour over the burger bundles. Bake at 350-375 for 1 hour. Mexican Beef 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef 1 yellow onion, finely chopped 3 TB vegetable oil 3-4 cloves garlic, minced 2 t. ground cumin 1 TB dried oregano 1 8 oz. can tomato sauce 1 1/2 t. salt 3/4 cup water Heat oil in a large frying pan. Add onion and cook 3-4 minutes. Add beef and salt. Cook over medium heat until almost done, no pink remaining. Spoon off excess fat if desired. Add garlic, cook on low 3 minutes. Add cumin, tomato sauce, oregano, and water. Cook all for 10-15 minutes. Use for enchiladas with corn or flour tortillas, quesadillas, tacos, or tostadas.

For some reason, my favorite show on Food Network is Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives. I do watch Chopped occasionally, but otherwise I don't watch FN and so I do not know about 'Man vs Food', No Reservations, and the bald guy who eats anything. I will watch cooking shows on PBS, but the FN shows are not very informative, except for DDD, which gives me a lot of inspiration for things to make and how to make them. Lars

I have a Gaggenau combi-steam and an Advantium, as well as a regular Gaggenau oven. All took some learning. For the reasons you state--having to learn the whole new way of thinking about cooking--was worth the bother to me for the combi-steam, but since I sort of lost my need for speed at about the time the Advantium was installed, I haven't put the effort into that. I do, however, sometimes have a good use for the speed feature, and have learned to approximate what I want done by drawing analogies to the size and density of something on one of the programs. I haven't had any issues with even cooking on the convection oven settings. There are things that do better on convection only heating, however, that's the same across all three ovens. I'm not a 1950's style cook (taking your meaning), but I do make pots of stuff. Stews, braises, and casseroles such as lasagna or the occasional kugel. I find anything that's meant to cook in a pot or dish does fine in convection only, but things that cook in the air often do better with directed heat, unless they're small like cookies or hors d'ouevre. I haven't tried baking in the Advantium, but it's my convection oven of choice for heating up lots of small things that you might find on a "passed hot apps" tray. It does a great job. Usually these things were originally cooked in the big oven on big trays, however. Is it for gourmet cooking? Probably not, if you're excluding things like braises, which are the opposite of sous vide in that they're also low and slow, but are meant to cook the ingredients to the fullest, rather than barely cooking them at all. I wouldn't agree with that definition of "gourmet", especially considering things like sour cherry duck legs, which are really amazing. I do agree that it is not a Modernist thing to do, however. I have tried the chicken in the Advantium speedcook thing, to try it. It's edible, but has a microwaved taste to it. I wouldn't use it for baking potatoes, either, unless really pressed for time. But I might use it to bake potatoes for potato salad, since I prefer baked to boiled, and the flavor is fine. Intermediate cooking can be done quickly in it to good advantage. Just like a countertop microwave or convection oven, the Advantium is a tool, like a food processor, more than a cooker like a Gaggenau oven. It really is meant more for harried families and people who live in vehicles (boats, motorhomes, etc.). Mine functions well for me and serves a lot of my needs. So far (touch wood and tell the fairies), in four years of regular use, mine hasn't had a problem. I'm sorry yours expensively crapped out on you.