If you do not care for the flour taste in gravy, you must simmer it for 15 minutes or so after you add a slurry. This is the reason people use a roux to thicken gravy and stews, the powdery flavor is already cooked out by the time you add it. A roux cooks the flour ahead of time, so your chicken/turkey/roast doesn't need to sit so long while you're making gravy. I use a light brown roux rather than a blond for turkey gravy, as the cooking time required adds a richer flavor. Remember though, that the longer the flour cooks, the less it's thickening power. If you're new at making gravy, or make it seldom, it is a good idea to have some extra chicken stock (or turkey base...Better Than Bouillon makes a good one) on hand in case of over thickening, weak flavor (or not enough drippings!) In the case of thin gravy that needs to be thickened a bit at the last minute, I prefer a cornstarch slurry to a flour slurry because it doesn't need the extra cooking time. Do not use cornstarch as the exclusive thickener however, because it makes more of a "glaze" than a gravy. One part cornstarch to 3 parts water is a good emergency, last minute thickener for a gravy that is just not quite thick enough. Add the cornstarch& water mix in small quantities, say a tablespoon at a time (a little does a lot!), keeping the gravy at a high simmer (stirring the while) for 3 minutes or so before deciding to add more.

All you need to do is play with the program and eventually you can figure it out. That is how I learned but I do not know everyting. As far as I know you can change the color of the walls in several ways: One way is: Open the photograph select the magic wand tool click in the area to be changed now you can press delete and the area will get white (optional) or just keep the old color under the new layers. When the area is still selected you go to edit/fill and ok. the area automaticly will get the color that you have in the foreground or in the background. You could use the paint brush instead the fill command and start applying the color. (do you know how to select and change colors?) another way is when the area is selected, you go to layer/new fill layer/and solid color or pattern/ok and ok again after selecting the color you want. The advantage of using this way (by layers) is that you can change the layers easily: layer/change layer content/and solid color or pattern/ok and ok after selecting what you want. You can also use the lazo tool to select the area to be changed. If it is an square, the easiest way to select is using the rectangular marquee tool. Hopefully Lindybarts is here later and she can explain it better. good luck

bmore: I am sure that is what made the difference. I have had a bag of the gluten for years , in the freezer, but since I rarely make breads with a significant amount of whole grain flour I never use it. I am glad to know it really does make a difference. Of course rhome uses it so that is a clear indicator that it works ! Your shaping is great. Uh...246 you are NOT allowed to post a pic like that and then no description/recipe ! Auto lyse means that you are allowing the flour to absorb that water before you start to knead. It is the same as letting your crepe batter set before using it...the flour particles swell during the 30 to 60 min. period. Also this allows you to see whether you are going to really need more flour during the kneading process and how much...usually very little which is another reason the bread comes out better. Now out with it ...what is that AMAZING dessert ???? c

It rarely is too late to plant anything at this time of the year since we're in the winter doldrums. Technically speaking, garlic can be planted any day of the year. It typically is planted in September, October or November here, depending on how warm the autumn is, but still will produce even if planted in January or February. It just won't produce as well as it would have if it had been planted earlier. The later you plant it, the less time it has to grow before the summer heat pushes it towards harvest time. Also, the later you plant it, the less time is has to accumulate enough chilling. If you've got it, you certainly should plant it because whatever it produces will be a lot more than you'll get if you don't plant it. You probably can grow some of the smaller squash plants in 20 gallon grow bags, but heat will be your (and their) enemy. Squash plants tend to wilt in the summer heat, and that is more of a heat reaction than a reaction to dry soil, as they'll wilt even in wet ground. However, the plants do suck up and use a lot of moisture to keep those large leaves hydrated, and you may have trouble keeping the root zone consistently moist enough in the worst of the summer heat. If I wanted to grow squash in a grow bag, I'd select one of the varieties bred expressly for growing in containers. Squash may stay too stressed when grown in containers and stressed plants attract insects more readily, so keep that in mind since squash pests almost always have trouble with squash bugs and squash vine borers even when the plants are not stressed. Shallots normally are planted in the fall, just like garlic and perennial onions. They probably would do well if planted now as I don't think they are day-length sensitive, but they will do better almost always from a fall planting. Most retailers only ship them for fall planting. Sometimes retail stores have them in bags at this time of the year because people want them and ask for them, but that doesn't necessarily mean they should be planted at this time of the year. It is doable, but it is not ideal. Beets like to germinate in warm weather and grow in cooler weather, making them ideal for a fall crop. It often can be difficult to get them to sprout outdoors in winter because the soil temperatures are so low. I don't grow beets often, but when I do, I germinate them indoors and then move them outdoors when the weather gets warmer in spring. The issue with the beet seeds being so slow to sprout in late winter/early spring is that often the seed rots in cold, wet soil or washes away in heavy rainfall or gets eaten by pests before it can sprout, and meanwhile the gardener is waiting, waiting, waiting for endless weeks for the beets to sprout. Every one of us gardens in different conditions depending on our location, the type of microclimate we have (mine is colder than the surrounding area, so I have to take that into consideration), our weather pattern in any given week, month, season or year, our soil or growing medium, etc. It takes time to work out what works for a specific gardener in their location with their specific growing conditions and their specific soil, soil pH, water, prevailing wind, etc. You shouldn't be afraid to experiment widely with how to grow different things because it is that very experimentation that will show you what works best for you. While we can offer general guidelines, none of us is growing in exactly your same location or same conditions, and most of us are not growing as much in containers as you do. Anything planted outdoors in January through March, and often April and earliest May as well, may occasionally need protection from extra-cold weather, and that is doubly true of containers since they sit above grade level and lack the insulation provided by the ground to in-ground plant roots. When you grow in a container, the plants are considered to be growing one USDA zone colder than your actual USDA zone. As Bon briefly alluded to by mentioning how some wintersown seeds can sprout here and then freeze afterwards, this is one of the hazards of wintersowing in an area that often lacks snow cover and which often has wildly erratic temperatures even in winter. People who wintersow in milk jugs that get buried in snow can rely on the snow to insulate the containers and keep the temperatures from fluctuating wildly like they do here. This both prevents germination from occurring too early and also helps keep the temperature inside the jugs from fluctuating wildly. I almost never wintersow since I have a light shelf indoors and a greenhouse outdoors. Wintersowing can be useful for perennials that need cold stratification, but I can provide that cold stratification by sowing seeds in a small flat in a sterile soil-less growing medium and then putting them in a ziplock bag in a dorm-sized fridge left over from our son's college days. We just have too much erratic winter weather most years where our highs can hit the 60s and 70s, followed by nights in the 20s and 30s or even colder, and uninsulated wintersown jugs can perform erratically in wildly fluctuating temperatures. When I wintersow, I have to keep everything in a transluscent plastic tote with a lid that snaps on securely or the varmints that roam at night will get into everything, even when I keep the wintersown stuff on the porch. When growing in containers, always use a soil-less medium made to drain exceptionally well. The specific brand doesn't matter that much as quality can be inconsistent even with well-known brands. If I wanted the best growing medium available, I'd buy Pro-Mix but it can be very pricey, and while I might use it for seed-sowing, I wouldn't spend the bucks required to fill large containers with it. The worst stuff I ever purchased was Miracle Grow Organic, which smelled terrible and killed tons of plants. I rarely lose plants, but the MG Organic killed oodles and oodles of them. I'll never, ever, ever, ever buy it again. Based on the horrific smell and the quick plant death, I'd say it had too much poultry litter or something similar in it. I'd check with a reputable local nursery that sells its own soil mixes and see if I could buy it in bulk if I had a lot of containers to fill. You can make your own using Al's 5-1-1 mix from the Container Forum here at GW or his gritty mix, but sometimes it can be hard to find all the ingredients locally.