Geez you guys are depressing me. The only reason I don't bake more is because most of what I want to bake is so fattening! ;) My kids made me choc-choc-caramel-chip cookies for my birthday. DH ate most of them, but better that all of them do the eating than me (the kids are massively energetic; I am not)! ;) I was amused that the kids haven't the experience/finesse to realize it is actually possible to put too much chocolate into a cookie. But I was proud of myself for staying so hands off. Turns out we "modern" parents really do have a problem with letting kids just have at it and even sink sometimes. It's hard when life is *so* busy that any given experience is so rare that its failure won't be the basis of repeated practice that will result in success, it'll just be ... failure. It is a wonder that humans remain human at all given the preponderance of the non-food they eat nowadays. But I'm with several above who love the concept of the hoosier and its at-ready flour bins, but are grossed out at the prospect of using them today. I agree the volume of most's cooking/baking just wouldn't make the tradeoff in bug habitation. I can go through a #25 sack of flour in a month if I'm on a roll (so to speak). But I bet the more typical throughput back in the day was a matter of days (though those bins only hold #5 or so). Things change; life changes. That "deskilling" disquisition is interesting, but these pressures on women and society in general are a constant force probably since the dawn of fire. I am as happy as the next to lay all blame at the doorstep of BigBizness, but the forces that have booted women from out of the kitchen are myriad and long-term. Not to mention that got them into it in the first place. In the meantime I have a cousin who owns -- and uses -- one of those hoosiers. I try to stay positive and not wonder too much about the makeup of protein she serves us. ;)

That recipe does look good, now I'm not sure which to try myself. Lars' recipe looks simpler than this recipe a friend assures me is good. Maybe I'll need to try both. I love caramel & really been intending to try making some (other than the sweetened condensed version) Caramels 2 c sugar 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup corn syrup 1 cup evaporated milk 1 pint heavy whipping cream 1 cup butter 1 1/4 t vanilla extract Grease 12x15 pan. In pot, combine sugars, corn syrup, evaporated milk, whipping cream, and butter. Monitor heat with candy thermometer while stirring. When thermometer reaches 250 deg remove from heat. Stir in vanilla. Transfer to prepared pan and let cool completely. When cool cut into squares and wrap in wax paper to storage.

I can ice cakes, bake (and I don't think it is that much more exacting than other cooking) and cook most things. I can even make a presentable decorated cake though I still struggle with making roses. I dread any recipe that involves caramelizing a syrup. It goes so quickly from looking not caramel at all to burnt. I almost always end up burning it the first time and having to start over. And I still struggle with rolling a good looking pie crust. I know that practice makes perfect there, but pie crust has so much fat that I don't feel our diets can afford much practice. I'm surprised that Mandie said she can make white sauce easily but can't make a gravy. To me, the technique is pretty much the same. For gravy, it starts with the steps of deglazing the roasting pan. Then I transfer the liquid from the roasting pan to a measuring cups (preferably one of the fat separator ones). Skim off enough fat for the gravy. I usually use a couple of tablespoons per a cup of liquid that I'll be adding to the gravy. From here on it is the same technique as a white sauce except with a different fat and liquid. Put the fat and about an equal volume of flour into a sauce pan. Stir over heat to make a roux. Add the liquid slowly while stirring.

Janice: According to Clemson I was within the planting window but towards the end ( I am in the central area). I planted April 15th (planting for my area is April 5-25). But you do have a good point about planting earlier. I usually like to plant at least some early (in March) under row covers to get earlier fruit. I do know that this year fruiting (and also my leaf yellowing problem that seems somehow linked to fruiting) is at least a few weeks later than normal. But I chalked that up to the high-nitrogen chicken manure which caused a lot of green leafy growth at the expense of fruit. Two years ago I grew peppers with great success, I've tried squash and cucumbers in these beds 2 or 3 years ago which both failed miserably. But I have added a lot of lime and fertilizer since then. My pH in these beds 2 years ago was 4.0 -5.5 so one would not expect squash to do well. Last two or three years these beds have had tomatoes and peppers, because I care the most about tomatoes and wanted to put them where there was the most sun. Thanks so much for your time. It's been very helpful. :)