I have been growing these for at least 5 years. They are the best of the best! They are large, tasty, not giant cores like big tomatoes sometimes have and are not cat faced. They make lots of tomatoes and are my favorite in the garden. Problem is that if I want them, I have to start them myself or pay unaffordable, huge prices at Burpee. Plants are not available at your local nursery. I'm 70 years old and I really don't have the energy to keep starting them like that. I will have to revert back to Big Beef so I can buy plants locally and at a reasonable price.

gma_j, I see now you were referring to setting the probe temperature. I haven't used my Miele probe; I use the speed oven for smaller things, where a probe is less useful. But it really does snap in place with a loud click; so if yours didn't, that could be the problem. Larger things generally go into my E'lux oven; that probe works fine. The speed oven pre-heats quickly, so if something fits its faster to cook it there. Its useful for re-heating (use MasterChef, if you know the weight), as well as stuff like baked potatoes (in combination mode), and for roasting, braising, or convection baking small portions. I've rarely used defrost, or broil (except to finish browning something like ribs). The Miele's manuals leave much to be desired. While we wait for mojavean or someone smart to write a decent Miele speed oven cookbook, a variety of recipes on the Miele site can get you started on some dishes (see link). Here is a link that might be useful: Miele recipies

To properly cook a steak is to cook it how you like it. Raw, cremated or anywhere in between. You don't need a salamander to cook a steak and few places use a salamander on a steak anyway. They put it on the grill and will put it in an oven to warm the inside more often than not. I get so annoyed at a cook telling me how I'm supposed to have my food prepared. And frankly, few places get a steak cooked the way most people like it but few will send it back. And no, microwaving it after they give it to you undercooked is NOT acceptable. I haven't been to a steakhouse in probably 20 years. Actually there was a steak buffet that for the most part was on-par to superior to the expensive places I've tried. They're long since gone. I'm not a big steak eater anymore. I enjoy ribs, roasts and a good burger. And all of them too can be done better at home most of the time. I find people like to go out for a change, not because food is "better". And often it's an ego thing to go to an expensive specialty place rather than quality of the food. And not only can I make a superior steak at home, I can make a VASTLY superior baked potato to those put up in hotsie-totsie restaurants. No, a tater wrapped in foil is not a baked potato, it's steamed. And leaving them in the warmer for hours is not baked either. But that's for another thread.

The ones you see in pots blooming, some were bands last year and bloomed this year, others were bands that I got this spring and gave me one beautiful bloom, to give a hint at the future blooming beautiful roses they would become :). Carol everybody is fine now. I stepped on that nail, and almost have to be hospitalized. My youngest daughter broke her arm, fell off the monkey bars at school..well fractured one bone and broke the other, she just got her cast took off yesterday. Then on the day my youngest was in the hospital getting her arm reset...the school called. I had to find someone to pick her up( My oldest Daughter ), it was early and she had just got there. She had been having problems with her monthly for a while.. bleed through before going to her first class, with a thick pad on..I made her a appt. for the next day because I knew it would be late when I got out with my youngest. I told my oldest daughter's doctor 3 month's prior , well one of them, they are a couple that they see there, that I wanted her on birth control to regulate her monthly..she got 5 days to a week break a month, and I told them it was getting worse, not better, it had been going on a year and Willow, I told them she was down playing her symptoms. Well the last time they had done blood work was three month's prior, anyway's she ended up being severely anemic when I took I took her in that day, they admitted her in the hospital they kept her for a couple of days, the meds to stop her from bleeding wasn't working, and her level's kept dropping, so they gave her three pints?/ bags of blood, kept her a few days, and we got to come home. She is on birth control now and is doing better. she has check-ups and stuff, but is doing well. Two days after willow came home from the hospital, my husband fells, was a 1/8 of a pound of pressure from breaking his ankle and completely tore his ankle from the bone and pretty much shredded his ligaments. My middle daughter is the only person not to have anything happen, knock on wood. I hope you understood what I said happened to everyone..sometimes I leave out details..if you have any questions just ask . I think I wrote about all this as it was happening in another post. I'm still playing catch-up in the yard and such...another reason I haven't been on much. Along with my computer going out and getting my daughter's for a few minutes.. I get on and read over, trying to keep up alittle on stuff on here. There was two weeks or so I wasn't ab'e to get on at all except to message a person I had a trade with to let them know I wasn't able to do it at that time and again to put off longer because stuff kept happening.