Greetings! I've been browsing the net for tips on just this subject and your thread has answered a lot of questions - thank you! I just have one more inquiry - do you know of a way to make the end product of one-part self curing silicones (after curing) softer and stretchier (lets say more like human skin, goal hardness is 10-30 shore A)? The reason I'm asking: I am a resident in heart surgery and I'm trying to make practice models of parts of the human heart and tissue to use for training outside the operating room. As you said the platinum cure silicones are used for this purpose but the price difference is tenfold and they're a bit too expensive for us.

A stick blender changed my life!! I am not that fussy about food appearance, I can always strain it if I want it extra fine, but I use just my stick blender for everything now. Gave away my regular blender because I wasn't using it. I even do smoothies with the stick blender. Thanks to Johnliu I have a Cuisinart for everything else. They aren't very heavy duty so yes, watch them on the banging and heat, both baddies, so cool your mixtures before pureeing and also keep the blender from banging on the pot bottom or sides.

Thanks everyone. Really appreciate all of the suggestions. The slate had actually caught my eye. It does read green, for sure, which doesn't inherently bother me, but makes me nervous in context. So scary picking something so visible, expensive and permanent! The point about when I may choose to do the siding is a good one. It's quite expensive by the time it all gets added in. And frankly, it's been difficult to get the attention of contractors and painters. It took so long to pick a roofer that I really lost energy on the siding even if the finances hadn't been an issue. I lack the expertise to know what absolutely needs to be replaced right away, and what can be fixed or wait. And I'm just not trusting answers I get from the contractors, to the extent I get answers at all. They're more likely to just send a massive estimate replacing everything. I may choose to replace a few old windows at the same time, so I absolutely could end up waiting a while, although the state of the siding makes me nervous in terms of how long I can reasonably wait.

Oooh, that sounds refreshing, Luckygardnr. I got this gluten-free recipe via e-mail. Twice-baked potatoes freeze nicely. TEXAS TWICE BAKED POTATOES (Gluten-Free Website) 6 large baking potatoes 1 lb. ground beef 6-8 slices bacon, cooked & crumbled 1 medium white onion, diced 16 oz. sour cream Coarse salt & fresh ground black pepper, as desired 2 -3 Tbsp. hot sauce 16 oz. shredded Cheddar cheese 3-5 scallions, diced Wash and perforate potatoes with fork in several places, slice thin line on top. Place potatoes directly on rack of oven preheated to 400F, cook for 1 hour 30 minutes. While potatoes are baking, brown ground beef with diced onion until meat is no longer pink: remove from heat. Fry bacon; remove and drain on paper towels and crumble. Remove potatoes from oven let cool enough to be handled. Slice each potato lengthwise into halves. With a spoon, scoop out almost all of potato into a large mixing bowl, leaving just enough to maintain the rigidness of the skin. With a large fork, hand-mash the potatoes mixing in the sour cream, salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Stir thoroughly until mixture is creamy but still firm. Mix in the crumbled ground beef, bacon, onion, and scallions. Add half of the shredded cheese and combine. Fill the empty potato shells with meat mixture; place on large baking sheet. Top with remaining shredded cheese. Return to oven and bake for 20 minutes or until cheese is thoroughly melted. (Serves: 6)