A couple of months ago, with the help of GW experts, I decided on the Zoji Virtuoso from BB & B with a 20% off coupon, which helps a lot on the hefty price. I absolutely love it. It bakes perfectly. No problems at all. I can't compare it to anything, since I have never baked breads before, but I have had no failures. Have made cinnamon rolls twice (baked in the oven), several basic white loaves, a whole wheat jalapeno and jack cheese loaf, two pound cakes, and a cinnamon raisin loaf. All of the latter were baked in the machine. The Virtuoso completely solves the crust problem. Breads in the Virtuoso have come out perfectly brown all around, as you can see in the link I posted at the bottom of this entry. You have your choice of 3 crust darkness levels. The one below is medium. I used light for the poundcakes. I don't know how to link to more than one thread, so here is the title of the thread where people were helping me choose a machine: ''Time to spend my Christmas $$$--Which Zoji?'' You can search for it, if you want to see what I was told. I started a few threads with the first breads I made. Here's a link to the first one: Here is a link that might be useful: First bread. This post was edited by Bellsmom on Sat, Mar 2, 13 at 21:58

TEQUILA-GLAZED CHICKEN WITH JALAPENO 1 1/2 tablespoons whole coriander seeds, coarsely ground in spice mill or mortar with pestle 1 3/4 teaspoons coarse kosher salt 1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper 1 (3 1/2- to 4-pound) cut-up (best of fryer) chicken 1/3 cup orange juice or pineapple juice 1/4 cup gold or silver tequila 2 tablespoons (packed) golden brown sugar 2 tablespoons honey 1 to 2 red jalapeño chiles with seeds, finely chopped 1 shallot, minced Nonstick vegetable oil spray Mix coriander, salt, and red pepper. Sprinkle mixture all over chicken. Arrange chicken, skin side up, on baking sheet; cover and chill at least 6 hours or overnight. Combine orange juice, tequila, brown sugar, honey, 1 jalapeño, and shallot in small saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer until mixture thickens slightly, about 10 minutes. Add 1 more jalapeño if more heat is desired. Cool glaze. Transfer 3 tablespoons glaze to small bowl and set aside for serving. Spray grill with nonstick spray. Prepare barbecue (medium heat). Arrange chicken, skin side up, on grill. Grill 15 minutes, turning occasionally. Brush chicken with glaze in saucepan. Turn chicken over; brush with glaze. Grill until juices run clear when pierced with fork or until instant-read thermometer inserted into chicken registers 170°F, turning and brushing occasionally with glaze, about 10 minutes longer. Transfer to platter. Spoon reserved glaze over. Bon Appétit, August 2007 Molly Stevens ====================================== Zesty Braised Chicken with Lemon and Capers 8 bone-in chicken thighs with skin (6 ounces each) Salt and freshly ground pepper All-purpose flour, for dusting 2 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 4 large peeled garlic cloves 1 1/2 cups Sauvignon Blanc 1 1/2 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade Four 1-inch strips of lemon zest 4 thyme sprigs 1 tablespoon capers, drained 1 bay leaf Preheat the oven to 350°. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and dust with flour. In a large ovenproof skillet, melt the butter in the oil. Add the chicken, skin side down, and cook over high heat, turning once, until browned, 12 to 14 minutes. Transfer the chicken to a large plate and pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat. Add the garlic to the skillet and cook over low heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the wine and boil over high heat until reduced by half, about 5 minutes. Add the stock, lemon zest, thyme, capers and bay leaf and bring to a boil. Return the chicken to the pan, skin side up. Transfer the skillet to the oven and braise for about 45 minutes, until the meat is tender. Return the skillet to the stove and boil until the sauce is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Discard the thyme, bay leaf and lemon zest, if desired, before serving.

All the photos and experience you all so generously provided were a huge help to me. Update: I spent my precious points on the compact and it fits perfectly under my plate rack! However, I did get a laugh this morning when I had to read a book to learn how to make toast! Just wanted to thank everyone on this thread for their input & suggestions. So many things these days offer convenience but turn out to be a PITA and end up in the donation box. It was great to know in advance that I wasn't stumbling into that. Do think I really will enjoy the Breville. (Just a P.S. to anyone doing any shopping at Crate & Barrel for the holidays. I didn't know about this at all. I bought ornaments for Xmas gifts at Crate last year. They offered 10% off that purchase if I took out their credit card, so I did. I didn't buy another thing there until September when we needed a new sofa on sale. I used their card. That purchase gave me 1% points valid for several months. I used those points for this purchase, also on the card, online putting in the coupon code. This was a very nice added value to the sofa purchase. )

I'm going to sidestep the cultivar discussion and get back to lawn care in general. You do not need to aerate every year...or ever. You can if you want to, and sometimes there is a good reason to, but many high quality lawns are never aerated. Some lawns need more water to stay alive than others, but all lawns (with just a few exceptions that don't pertain to your situation) require about the same amount of water to look good and stay healthy. On a mature lawn fertilizer is not needed until May. If you fertilize in February or March (like the TV commercials will encourage you to do), that will encourage over growth of the grass once it comes out of winter dormancy. The grass will use up much more of the stored resources than it needs to use and, by May, leave the grass looking very weak. Normal grass will come out of winter dormancy with a vengeance. It will grow so fast you might need to mow 2x per week to keep it down. If you fertilize early you might need to mow it 3x to 4x per week. The point is it will be fine until May with no fertilizer. The reasons not to seed in the spring are, as mentioned above, spring seeded grass is weak and often cannot take summer heat stress. By July the new grass will have died and been replaced by crabgrass. That is not the end of the world but it does seem like a waste of time, effort, and money. Also spring is the time when weed seeds, like crabgrass, are germinating. When you water 3x per day to germinate the new grass seed, the weed seeds love that and will germinate at the same time. The weeds are more aggressive and will dominate and crowd out the new grass seed. So fall is the best time to sow new cool weather seeds. Cool weather seeds can make it through a normal winter and toughen up the roots for the next summer; and the spring/summer weeds are not germinating in the fall. Here's something I put together a few years ago to help new lawn owners. Hope it helps you. Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at nine houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. 1. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in El Paso your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, temperature, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. 2. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. 3. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it (unless you use organics in which case you may overdo it without fear of hurting anything). At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide.