I have had VERY good luck with bodybags this year. Only one was mislabelled (with only one more to bloom and prove itself) and out of nine only two croaked. A couple are iffy with PM, but at least three look fantastic. Yankee Doodle, New day, and Coral Dawn are near-perfect still, although I know RMV can still show up at any time. Oh well. I am enjoying them while I got 'em! I paid $24 for nine roses. Not too shabby.

You know what I reckon? The recipe has already been converted from imperial to metric - and not done very well at that, adding to the confusion! I do these conversions back and forth all the time, and have done so for well over 40 years, since Australia went metric (I was brought up on British imperial measurements), and IÂve never had a failure yet. HereÂs my version: Dough: 210g (7 ounces) flour 110g (3 ½ ounces butter) 60g (2 ounces) sugar Mix all ingredients together and chill 1 hour in refrig. then roll out in a greased round cake pan,(spring form) make sure to have an edge of 1 1/2 inches (3cm). Filling: Cook 2 1/2 lbs (1.25kg) of plums( can be frozen bag of plums without pits) with 210 grams (7 ounces) of sugar for 10 minutes. Then add 1 + 1/2 pkgs of Jell-O instant French vanilla pudding and stir it. cook for 2 minutes. turn the filling onto the dough then you need German Streusel 75g (2 ½ ounces) of flour 75g of sugar 75g finely chopped hazel or walnuts 75g butter Mix all ingredients together until you get small streusels. More flour if too wet. Sprinkle the steusels on the filling and bake the cake for appr. 45 min. at 190C (395F). after cake cools down, decorate it with whipped cream. 210ml (7 ounces) heavy whipped cream with 1 pck of "whip it" from Dr. Oetker. sprinkle with cocoa adn that's it. I have no idea what "whip it" from Dr. Oetker might be, but IÂd ignore it and use 250ml (8 ounces) of whipped cream, sweetened with sugar or honey instead. HereÂs a quick rundown of the measurements IÂve always found successful. Close enough is good enough. *1oz = 30g *1 1/2oz=45g *2oz = 60g *2 1/2 oz=75g *3oz=90g *4oz=125g (a bit of rounding done at this point!) *6oz=185g 7oz=210g 8oz=250g 1lb=500g 2lb=1kg 1 teaspoon = 5g For oven temps, just roughly halve the Fahrenheit measurements and round off the results, using a bit of common sense, and being guided by the measurements given on your oven. ItÂs rough and ready, but it works. YouÂll never find an oven which will have temperatures like Â356FÂ, so it becomes 350F; similarly, you won't find a metric oven with '175C', so it becomes 170C. 350F= 180C 370F= 190C 400F=200C 250C=220-230C

Thanks, Lindac Years ago I had an electric grill with two flat plates and two waffle plates. It did OK hamburgers, sausages, pancakes, eggs, bacon, and waffles. Worthless for steaks and anything that I wanted to sear. I am hoping to be able to get this one hot enough to grill steaks. I like them rare, so it has to heat enough to sear the outside without cooking the steak all the way through. Maybe closing the adjustable lid gently so juices aren't pressed out and searing both sides at once will work? Like you say, I don't want a grilled cheese sandwich type steak. Guess I'll find out. It's gotta get HOT though. And the top ribbed grill has to just touch on the steaks, not smash them. (When the weather is bad and I don't want to go outside to the wood/gas grills, I frequently cook steaks on a big flat grill over two burners because the broiler in my 8 yr old Jenn Air is totally useless. That's also how I sear steaks cut from sous vide' roasts. I am hoping this expensive toy will tide me over until I can get a CC to replace the Jenn Air. I think fish and shrimp will work--again, if it gets hot enough. Hamburgers and other patties of any ground meat, brats or other round sausages, I am sure will work. Bacon and ham should work. Panini type sandwiches will work, of course. I wonder about grilling veggies--asparagus, sweet potatoes, green beans, which I usually do in a big skillet or the big two-burner grill when it's just too hot to heat up the oven and roast them. I think I will try sliced apples, pancakes, bacon, and eggs, using a flat grill and a ribbed one. I'm hoping that someone who uses a Breville will comment about how they use theirs. Sandra

Let's see, I found a handsome leather tote style bag at Kohls...two tone, black and brown. I also found a beautiful floral coated canvas and leather bag on Amazon. I paid about $150 for both. In the meantime, I've visited a couple of our busy thrift stores on a good day. One had just recieved a large load of donated items, including mostly designer clothing and accessories. I picked up a couple of pretty belts, scarves, and a navy Coach bag......all for $20. I also wrote them a check for a donation....it was too much of a bargain, lol. P.S. Just wanted to add that there were several handbags in that shipment, but the others were just too branded with logos for my taste. Gorgeous, but not my style at any price. I looked through the clothing, but they were all too large. Some of the sweaters were gorgeous and they looked brand new. This post was edited by rhizo_1 on Wed, Dec 31, 14 at 15:08