Hi Sheila - if you type "pressure cooker recipes for baked beans" into Google it pulls up all sorts of recipes for making them. Here are a couple of the results: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1850,152166-240200,00.html http://fastcooking.ca/pressure_cookers/beans_rice_risotto_recipes_pressure_cookers.htm#baked_beans But these recipes are NOT for canning. They can be frozen after cooking. Pressure cooking is very different from baking so trying to pressure can something that has already been pressure cooked will result in mush. Hope this helps. Dave

It's quite common for oven thermometers to show a variance in the temp from the digi readout. So here's the standard a few of us have found to be reasonable. Bake a box of Duncan Hines or Pillsbury cake mix using one of the pan sizes they specify, the exact oven setting and set the timer for the earliest 'done' time. See what happens. Those companies engineer those mixes for consistency with almost any oven. So it's a good test. The box mix cooks exactly on time in my oven. The browning is extremely even as is the rising. Since it's processed food there will be less variation in results -- it's been engineered to perform. I used convection bake, lowest rack and put pan in the center with no drip pan below -- just one rack in the oven. If you get uneven browning with the box test, then you likely have an oven issue. If not, then it's probably a matter of finding the right oven mode. My bake cycle is 15 degrees slow. So I just add the 15 degrees to the setting. When I got this oven I knew I would have to accept a long learning curve. I've got 2 books full of my own recipes that I've made forever and I've had to match them up to the right cooking mode with this oven. It's how I've seen the differences and learned to use the various modes. F.ex. I use intensive most, I use bake and convection bake. I rarely use surround. The diagrams of heat sources in the user manual is the most helpful thing I've found to determine which mode to use. I find their explanations to be bizarre. Overall, I really love my oven. It's been a very high performer and very dependable. But I'm not convinced that everything needs convection -- for me it's whatever works best. Here is a link that might be useful: Challah thread

akgirl, I LOVE potatoes in nearly any way possible. However, I also have a huge texture issue with some things and the skin on a microwaved baked potato is one of those things. I'll peel it off and throw it away, but I'm not eating it, it's kind of papery and odd and the potato isn't dry and fluffy, it's gummy and moist. it's actually good when making American Fries, I always peel the skin off and the chunks of potato stay firm/moist enough to stand up to browning in a frying pan. I love those potato skins all covered with cheese, maybe some chili, you know, those wedges of potato? The skins have got to be crispy/crunchy, though. The peels are my favorite part of a baked potato, my youngest daughter used to eat the middle of both of our potatoes (covered in A1 sauce, no less) and I'd eat the skin, buttered with salt and pepper. Annie

There are still all those ingredients that came from a laboratory. Grandma used to tell me that if it wasn't food 50 years ago, it's not food now. So we still have the added chemical ingredients, which I dislike and avoid whenever I can. As I mentioned, that can of baked beans doesn't have anything in it that I can't pronounce. I love beans. Nearly all beans, any beans. I like them in soup or in burritos, I make a pot of pinto beans and cornbread and that can be a meal for me for a couple of days and I'm happy. I've been known to eat last night's cold baked beans in a sandwich for breakfast, love 'em. Maybe that's it, I love 'em all. I prefer homemade to canned, of course, but I don't find commercially canned beans to be any "mushier" than my homecanned ones. Of course, I come from Michigan, we grow a lot of beans and are the major supplier of dried beans to Europe. 90% of our cranberry beans go to Italy, and I think I eat a good portion of the remaining 10%, LOL. I don't think I've ever met a bean I didn't like except those big, dry and mealy Limas. Cake I can take or leave, even the homemade ones. Like cheesecake, it's OK, but I'm relatively apathetic. Cake mix cake, though, has that metallic flavor and feels like a sponge in my mouth, until it falls apart into those spongy little crumbs. As I've mentioned, Ashley actually likes that texture, Shaun mentioned that she did too, and I don't think that someone else using them indicates a moral deficiency of any kind. Just don't argue that they are cheaper or faster, because they aren't and the savings in time is only a few minutes over making a scratch cake. So, my cake baking will remain relegated to weddings and holidays, Ashley can make Duncan Hines cupcakes if she chooses to and frost them with Nutella. I'll take seconds on the baked beans, any way you can make them, although I prefer them with maple syrup and some nice smoky bacon. Annie