I can relate. I was making a amaretto fudge this afternoon. Easy to do in a temp kitchen. 1 12oz package of semisweet chocolate chips 1 14oz can of eagle brand sweetened condensed milk 1/4 cup amaretto 1 tsp. almond flavoring 3/4 cups slivered almonds Mix chocolate chips and milk in a bowl, cove loosely, and nuke for 3 minutes on high. Stir until smooth then add flavoring. Pour into a greased 8 in square pan and sprinkle with almonds. Put into refrigerator until set and cut into squares. Not wanting the amaretto to go to waste, after all this recipe only uses 1/4 cup, I had several sips myself. Called Dh and told his to bring home a pizza for dinner. As I have already had dessert. I sometime make this and just put it in a jar and keep in the refrigerator. Really great warmed up and put on ice cream. Merry Christmas

Pllog makes a good point. Thank goodness for small mercies - no peeling, no flaking. Funny about that with the previous ovens. Rather surprised about that too as I hadn't heard anything about it. Must say, am a bit mystified by a convection oven whose fan cycles off. Why??? Not to save energy surely since the most energy-light part of the oven would be the fan! I downloaded the manual and saw that bit on page 17 that Rocs pointed out to you. A convection oven that may or may not convect. That's not averaging, I wouldn't say. Anyhow, Monogram has received good reviews and I will say that the forward/backward flow is a not half-bad idea to get good coverage. Not to sound totally condescending, but I just wanted to reiterate a few things that you probably already figured out cooking oh in the course of your life and re: convection anywhere (these are the things that I needed to learn): - pre-heat time. Never mind the beep; let it pre-heat 30-40 mins. - Selecting the correct racks and rack pairs when multi-rack baking. All specify to watch for this esp. with multi-rack cooking. - Air-flow: Take them at their word when they talk whatever their oven needs for clearances and to ensure laminar flow in their ovens. Yours says 1-1.5" clearances on either side from the walls, center the dishes on a rack, stagger them when one on top of the other (mine is v. tolerant about the last in convection mode but the clearances for airflow are definitely imp. I've found) - cooking to dish type: darks, vs. shiny vs. glass. Spills vapourizing to smoke is also surprising. Sounds like the bottom element was on and scorched the spill. I think using your drip try from here on out to help catch spills sounds like the best bet. I don't really know what to say though as it sounds a bit odd. Wouldn't have thought the bottom element could get that hot that it would char spilt pastry. No way that Monogram will come out to check the element to see if it is out of place somewhat? (Its a stretch but that's such an odd happenstance, I'd be dying to see what's under the panels ;-) ). Rhome, you'll figure out the ovens' idiosyncracies no doubt.

I've always loved cookie jars but the only one I've bought is a Pillsbury Dough Boy one from 25-30 years ago. It got put away when my boys were little so it wouldn't get broken and now it sits in one of those over the cabinet display cabinets where it creeps out my future DIL. I went to a plain glass jar -- one for us and one for the dog treats. Only one guest has eaten a dog treat - and that one came out of a package that was supposed to look like bakery cookies. It was when my son was in high school and she asked if they were a little old. There was so much laughter.

My mother (with a family of 7, plus friends, grandparents, aunt...) used to bake scads of cookies for Christmas. We were spoiled for choice! Almond crescents, pecan balls, mini pecan tarts, date pinwheels, hermits, jam thumbprints, cut out sugar (with a touch of nutmeg), a cream cheese pastry dough filled with various fruits or nuts (can't remember the name). Sometimes she would make fudge. I am sure that I've forgotten a couple. Over the years I've made all of these, usually just 2 or 3 in small quantity (almost always including hermits) but as the DD grew up and I became prone to gaining too much weight in November and December, I am down to making just one small batch. This year it is gingerbread.