i have hostas I could trade and shasta daisy and coneflower seeds wilmoth will be glad to help with postage...wilmoth

Been thinking about this... here are the steps that might have any affect on the outcome. The chickens came in 50lb boxes, there was come juice, but not much and then only thing I can think of is that they might have gone through a brining before packing. The boxes were clearly marked 'rotisserie chicken' The chickens were threaded onto the big skewers 4 per skewer and we did at least 36 at a time and were hung at least 24 hrs ahead of time. Then wheeled into the big walk-in cooler, where a circulation fan was running all the time. Thought I'd mention this because I was thinking about AnnT's method of salting poultry and then putting it in the fridge.....there is something about drying out that skin that works. It is crisper and almost thicker, if that makes sense. Nancy

beachlily, my stepdad had shingles and it was awful, there were days when even the collar on his shirt hurt him. I'm sorry that your hubs has this to deal with too. Hang in there, I'm sending prayers and hugs, as you know. Ruthanna, like you, I don't have air conditioning at all, and I cook outside on the deck sometimes. I should have an awning out there, but I don't. I do have an outside plug, so I put a crockpot out there, or my Nesco roaster or my small countertop "convection oven". I also have a camp stove, so I can make breakfast out there if it suits me and I have canned out there occasionally. I keep threatening to get one of those "screen houses" because the mosquitos here are awful, the people who keep track of such things say it's the worst year for mosquitos in a long time, that we're having the "perfect storm" of heat and wet for them. The bats and barn swallows are loving it, though. It got to be 92 here on Friday and 88 on Saturday, with humidity hovering in the high 80s. I decided to just ignore it and so on Saturday I mowed the lawn, finally cleaned and folded the pool cover, gave the outside trim on the house a coat of Kilz because we're painting the house, and then went inside and canned a batch of Habenero Gold. I figure if it's hot, it just is and a bit more doesn't make a difference. Yesterday I compensated by spending 7 hours in the garden, rototilling, raking and hoeing. There was a decent breeze and it only went up to 84F so it wasn't so bad, but it didn't cool down at night and Elery ended up sleeping on the couch in front of the open sliding door and with the fan blowing With both dogs. His house has air conditioning and so he's not used to it. Annie

I have had the GE Profile Over The Range Micro/Convection/Speed Cooking oven for about 3 years and I love it. Be very careful to cover well any items you put in it, because you are limited in what you can use to clean it, and I think they even warn you about scrubbing the inside too hard, because you don't want to scratch the shiny silver coating inside the oven. Mine came with a good sized book with recipes and a laminated "cheat sheet" you can keep nearby until you are comfortable with the controls. I found it especially helpful in the summer to cook items without heating up the large oven and the house. Breads come out nicely evenly browned in a convection, but I personally find them drier than in a regular oven. The think the constant air movement does that, although I havent' tried it much and maybe just reducing the cook time would improve the results. This oven convinced me to get convection in my new range when I redid the kitchen about a year later. I can't remember if it was the convection or speed cooking option, but for this oven, one advises you to decrease the usual cooking time by 20%. I think there is also a recipe conversion on my large oven that decreases the temperature of the oven for convection cooking instead of decreasing the cooking time. Anyway, that didn't make any sense to me, since given the choice I would prefer to decrease the cooking time than the temperature. You could try both and see what you like better. One may work better for some items and the other for other items. I know when I did a turkey in the full size convection it was the most beautifully browned bird I had ever made and cooked in much less time. Obviously the time savings would be much more noticeable with a longer cooking recipe. Decrease a 30 minute recipe by 20% and you only save 6 minutes, Decrease a 4 1/2 hour recipe (for a 20lb turkey) by 20% and you save an hour! I bet a roasted chicken would be wonderful in that oven on convection, but I am too chicken (no pun intended) to try it because of the baked on grease I would have to figure out how to clean off. I think I eventually got the grease film off mine by accident after I had baked a moist item in it for 30 minutes or more and found it had loosened up the grease enough to wipe it off. Before that, microwaving cups of water or vinegar and water, and using soap and water had not budged it. It really needs a self clean feature. Sue