Cascade cleans better anyway. I read on an appliance forum that Palmolive Eco gel is actually not as environmentally friendly as one might think. Still has lots of chemicals, I think. Environmentally conscious people usually buy Seventh Generation, but I'm not sure how well it cleans and it's expensive. For me I use Cascade Complete... I'm enviromentally conscious by not pre-rinsing the dishes and letting the machine do its job, and by using a detergent that gets the job done right the first time.

i made them, sans raisins...i'm not a big fan unless i chopped them up fine. i didn't have any dates otherwise, i would have used dates -- i love date and oatmeal. the apple is quite tasty in them. i only baked a few, i'll do more tomorrow. i didn't have enough milk to really over-indulge. maryanne

I have a couple of cookie scoops, but I still prefer the push-off-the-teaspoon-with-my-finger method, LOL. Plus it gives the grandkids a chance to eat too much cookie dough, all filled with raw eggs, before it gets baked, because their job is to roll the cookies into balls before baking. OK, seriously, the cookie scoops are great, I have the stainless steel "ice cream scoop" type and I've had no personal experience with the silicone one you describe, but my secretary has one and loves it. Go figure, I guess it's one of those personal preference things and I sure don't need another gadget to stuff into my kitchen drawers so I probably won't try one either. But it definitely is a cookie scoop. Annie

Boy do I feel you on cookie-cutter style homes. My husband and I just purchased a cookie-cutter 3 years ago, something I swore I'd never do. I grew up in the nyc, and one of the things I've always hated are neighbors. When I say hate, I mean hate the with fury of a thousand demons. I don't want to look at them, I don't want to hear them, I don't want to see their dogs and kids running around anywhere I could see them. Yes, I'm probably the one with the problem, but it doesn't change the fact of how I feel. When we moved out of NJ where we temporarily lived after we got married...I will refrain from making Jersey jokes.. we knew we wanted to live in a small wood or stone house in the country, something with age and originality, but land and seclusion was more important to us than anything else. There were so many homes we saw within our price range that were exactly what I've always dreamed of, but they always seemed to have neighbors right there, right where you could see them! or hear them, with views of their pools, views of their back yards and decks. I'm sorry, but no. After 5 years of renting and searching we finally came upon this house on a beautiful 8 acre lot abutting a forest, totally secluded, in a quaint little sleepy town in CT with a covered bridge. At that point we realized, it's either land or house, and again, land was much more important to us. You can have the most beautiful quaint little house, but you move next to the wrong people, and that cute little house can become your worst nightmare. Till this day I don't understand how people are able to live so close to one another and not kill each other. We took the leap, were very excited about it, and about a month into this cookie-cutter we realized what a mistake we'd made. We had the worst case of buyers remorse that lasted about a year. But we started fixing up the place, getting new furniture, replacing fixtures, painting the walls some nice neutral colors, bought new modern furniture for the deck, and lo and behold, we're actually falling in love with this place. We were lucky in a few aspects about this house that didn't render it totally hopeless, and one of the things is that the previous owners didn't chintz out on the windows or sliding doors. All Anderson double hung wood windows. Not those horrible white plastic windows, not sure what you call them, and the porch deck is all cedar..that was a start. The roof color is horrendous, but it can be changed, and the siding is vinyl, disgusting soul.killing.vinyl.. but you know what? if I hate it that much, that can be changed too. The thing that you can't change is beautiful natural landscape. I guess you could if you bulldozed it, but I love the feeling of waking up in the morning to the sound of birds, or going to bed at night to the sound of owls or coyotes. Sitting on our deck and not hearing anything or anyone but nature. We've now become quite attached to this house. Tuesday if all goes well we have new granite being installed, and a nice sink, with an old school industrial yet modern looking faucet. I'm playing up the "farmhouse" look now. Yeah, I bought a couple things from pottery barn, and RH, but I also haunt the many of the local antique shops, and mix it up quite nicely ( you should see the amazing hutch I got for only at half price!). I too hate that catalog look. I don't want everything to be so perfect and just so. I want our house to have an approachable warmth to it. When people come visit us, I want them to feel they're visiting a home, and not entering a staged model sub-division house. Sure it was cookie-cutter when we bought it, but it doesn't have to be cookie cutter while we live in it.