I LOVED this mix and it was so much less intimidating for me than a recipe calling for all the spices(and of course going and buying the stuff.) I get intimidated by long lists of ingredients (it doesnt matter that I KNOW i can do it either, it the list is long I tend to shy away from it completely.... ) like the pickle spices so this worked great. It said let sit for 6 weeks for best flavor. I cracked one at 2 weeks and have been eating those darn pickles like candy. I remember eating pickled carrot sticks as a kid and want to make some, I plan to pick up more mix and carrots this weekend if life stays calm. I like the Splenda idea soo much, sucks that I cant eat that stuff.. It makes me oh so sick. The 6 ish cups of Sugar was a LOT for me... But yum yum. I cant wait for the green beans to produce so I can try those too! I have a couple pretty red cayenne peppers I picked from the garden yesterday that I could add.. I bet that would add a nice zing!. Hmmm cauliflower... yummm... Maybe I will put that on my list of things to pickle... along with the bread and butter garlic I want to make.... Mmmm garlic..... I wonder how thick slices of onion would pickle?????? anybody know...

There is a learning curve with anything new and the Electrolux is no exception. I was fortunate to have been at the King Arthur test kitchen and they showed me how to use the machine. Let's take the above items one at a time... 1.) I don't know what they are talking about with the height adjustment. I've never adjusted anything to do with height. The bowl sits on top of the motor so there's no motor head above the bowl to get in your way...hence nothing to "adjust". 2.) The assembly arm can't be "stiff". There is a knob on the side of the arm with large groves to make it easy to grasp...you just simply turn it one way to loosen and the other way to tighten. I have arthritis in both hands and can easily grasp the knob. It's large and if it's hard to move it's because you tightened it too much...operator error not the machine. 3.) The pin holding the attachments is solid SS (about 3" long with a little knobby thing at the top). I can't figure out for the life of me what could be hard to clean. It's a solid piece of SS for goodness sake. I've never had to do anything but wipe it down for a little bit of flour dust. There are NO grooves, crannies, etc. to catch any food particles on or in. It looks sorta like a gigantic SS nail. 4.) Assemble and disassemble...too much work? Huh? Preparing the mixer for use consists of the following: a.) put scaper arm in hole (this is again a solid piece of SS and just drops into a hole...how hard can that be?) b.) push the pin into the roller (wow, that's hard!) and that it...assembly complete...time required...maybe, 2 seconds. 5.) Creaming butter/sugar requires knowing how to use the machine. The Owner's Manual is quite good but sometimes folks don't really pay that much attention to Owner's Manual instructions. The roller adjusts from tight against the bowl to completely loose and floating. If the butter was getting caught on the scraper then the roller was not adjusted property...too loose...the roller should have been tighter against the bowl. If you go into using this machine expecting it to be a KA then you'll be frustrated. It works on a completely different design. It is, IMO, much superior for all mixing but it is extraordinarily superior for kneading bread dough. The roller acts like the palm of your hand in the kneading process. With each rotation of the bowl, the roller pushes the dough against the side of the bowl the same way in hand kneading you push the dough down against the table. You end up with a thoroughly kneaded dough that is silky smooth. My machine came with a separate mixing bowl and wire whip for doing egg whites. I've never used it. The Owner's Manual tells you that the roller does a better job but since most American's are used to the whip attachment they included one. I find the roller does a beautiful job on anything from a single egg to a couple dozen for angel food cakes. I especially think it does a great job with meatloaves. The roller is more gently than a hook and so you end up with a more tender meatloaf, meatballs, etc. Cookies...the Electrolux is so much better here it's almost funny. The roller does not beat so much air into the cookie dough so your cookies will not have that awful commercial texture even doing a triple batch loaded with chocolate and nuts. The speed control is excellent...it using a sliding knob that gives infinite control of the speed rather than separate speed zones. I've never needed a timer with more than 12 minutes. Six to eight minutes will perfectly knead even the heaviest of rye doughs. Capacity is huge at 22 cups. I'm not sure what else to address...if you have more questions, I'll try to answer...wish I could have you over for a slice of fresh, warm bread and show you how the machine works. I was so fortunate to live within driving distance of King Arthur.

Old flour makes horrible bread. I have a 6- to 12-month rule for unbleached/bleached flour, so I wouldn't use a mix that was older than 12-months. On most "troubleshooting lists" for failed bread, old flour is often a reason, so replacing the yeast is just one problem. As my grandmother used to say, "Wasted food is the most expensive you'll ever buy." Another problem. There have been cases of illness from old flour products. I believe the one I heard about was from pancake mix. Not sure if it was aflotoxin (mold) or something else, but it can be deadly. If in doubt, throw it out. Food safety 101. -Grainlady

Posts by Annie & Grainlady convinced me that I should buy a Zojirushi. So last year my husband got me one the larger one for Christmas. I use it exclusively for kneading & rising. (I don't care for the way the crust turns out when the machine does the baking. I had another brand years ago and the crust was the same, so I think it's just part of the bread machine experience.) My husband is on a low sodium diet, so I make all our breads and cut the salt content by half. We're not big toast eaters so I usually make sandwich buns, dinner rolls, bagels, etc. and keep them in the freezer until needed. Because I bake the dough myself, I don't fuss with special bread machine recipes. I just put the ingredients in the machine following the recommended order. I let the dough rise in my machine and then take it out to form and bake. However, while it's kneading, I check it to see if it needs a bit of extra liquid or flour. You can't just dump everything in, walk away, and have a perfect loaf. There are so many variables that I think it's really necessary to check the dough while it's kneading. One advantage to baking it yourself is that if you find that, for some reason, the dough is still too dry or too wet, you can adjust it before sticking it into the oven. The large machine is perfect for marathon baking days. I've used it to make three different breads in one day. I'll get one recipe going and pull out the dough to rise in a bowl while I use the machine to mix up & knead another recipe. Then I'll do the same thing. Only the last recipe made will actually rise in the machine. That way I can get almost a month's worth of sandwich & breakfast breads baked in just one day. I also use it for kneading sourdough bread. But I take that dough out and let it rise on its own, many times overnight. The instruction manual for the Zojirushi gives the times for the different processes (pre-heating, kneading, add-ins, rising) so I just set my kitchen timer a few minutes past the beginning of the kneading cycle to check the dough. Then I set the timer again for the beginning of the rise. I usually rub a bit of oil on my hands and dab the top of the dough ball so it won't dry out during the machine rise. I make pizza dough in it all the time and let it rise in the machine unless I'm doing one of my marathons. I think using the full operation, from pre-heat to final raise, probably takes longer than if you just took the dough out and let it rise on its own. Before I got the bread machine, I either made bread by hand or using my food processor. There was nothing wrong with those methods. The thing the machine did for me was allow me to make larger quantities of bread products at one time to accommodate my husband's dietary requirements.