I did go with the Fagor a few months ago and love it - the browning feature is great although most meats in the quantities you would be slo or pressure cooking have to be done in two batches. I still find it nicer to have a plate to wash over a separate skillet though :) And - My larger pressure cookers are stored in the basement and not completely handy when I want them. On days when I'm not especially organized (and I have a few of those) when I've wanted dinner ready at dinner time and was going to be gone in the late afternoon - but had not started slow cooking something earlier in the day...I've set it to pressure cook a few minutes, then reset to slo cook on low till time I wanted to serve....tenderizing inexpensive meats further than the 'keep warm' feature would do. But it is only 6 qt. Nesco makes an identical product - I went with the Fagor because its an inch smaller in diameter, allowing it to be stored on a 12" kitchen cupboard shelf, with the door closed :) I was looking for a replacement to my 70's era West Bend bean pot style crockpot that had been a faithful kitchen help most of my adult life and got distracted by the multi-function appliance. What I kept finding in reviews is that the newer slow cookers cook hotter than the old, surprising some of us who were used to the really slow cooking.

Sure it's OK to put the glass lid on as a cover. Many tradtional crocks used to come with lids. The more air you keep out the less likelihood of yeast, etc. that you'll have to skim. Do still lift the lid and check the cukes regularly. Carol

YEA! I just bought Chamomile tea - so that item is checked off the list for now, I pretty much have everything but the Thermometer and a marking pen. I'll be putting the set up together myself, so figure it will at least be an all day project. Dawn, yeah, I usually put my seed trays on top of the fridge until they germinate. Right after I see a few pop up, I move it to the lights and let the rest follow suit. I have grown African Violets before, and they are also easy to propagate from leaf cuttings. Regular AVs are small plants (can get pretty wide), but there are also some very small, tiny even, AVs that are super cute. As a former avid Begonia grower, I also used to grow a lot of them under lights, growing from seed (very tiny, dust-like seeds), and some will root via leaf cuttings like the AVs, pieces of rhizome for the Rhizomatous varieties, and stem cuttings from the canes, shrubs, semps, Rex (which I don't grow because they are just more finicky than I care to deal with), thick-stemmed, a few tuberous (not the large-flowering ones that like to grow in the cooler Northern climes). I used to show my begonias at the local, regional, and national show levels. But that is a very long time ago. I recall one of the entries was a fish tank in which I put plants I had grown from seed - about 10 different ones, that were meant for a high humidity environment, and it was gorgeous. I may get back into some begonias in a very small way. Begonias of this category really do like light gardens because they are shade loving plants and lights don't emit anything close to the intensity of outdoor sunlight. There is a local begonia show around March or April here in the city, of the Barkley Branch of the American Begonia Society, and they always have a plant sale along with it. If I can remember, I may go and p/u some there. The small Rhizomatous are better suited to light gardening. The fluorescent tubes that come with the garden are T-5s. Apparently this is a good blend of the red and blue spectrums for good growth. Mmmmmmmm, a Mesclun or microgreens mix sounds very, very good. Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, I am thrilled - I always put everyone else in the family first - I don't buy clothes or shoes, except when I have to, or anything special, other than my coffee beans, so it's kind of a guilty pleasure I'm indulging in. But, life is short, and it only took be approx. 30 years to make the decision to go for it. I'm sure I have tons of seed in my "seed box" that will be suited for growing this time of year. I'm attaching a link to an image of several different rhizomatous begonia leaves just to show that there are so many more types of them than what we see used as bedding plats. Susan Here is a link that might be useful:

I use a knife or whatever's handy to fish the bread out of the toaster. My mom probably taught me to do otherwise, but I got to thinking logically (something she rarely did) and realized that it's not likely to get electrocuted by sticking a knife in the toaster. Otherwise, why would they make the toaster compartments deeper than the bread? I mean, come on, they do it on purpose so we have to be tempted to stick a knife into the blasted thing. The only time I've had trouble with a crock pot lid breaking was my fault. I dropped it and it shattered. Unfortunately, I can't blame that one on the company, as much as I'd like to. Sally