I give this one a 5* for taste, but a 4* for direction. The filling was a bit too sweet to me, but no one else seemed to mind. My melon was also rather bland to begin with so I would cut the sugar back next time, especially if using a sweet, well-ripened melon. The cantaloupe taste came through well and the cream cheese topping complemented it quite nicely. I will admit to sneaking in a few drops of food coloring to compensate for my mediocre melon. It may have been my inexperience with cream pies, but the instructions didn't seem clear in a few places. They don't specify the type of sugar to use, and for the topping confectioners was the only kind that made sense to me so that is what I used. You will want to make sure the pie has set almost all the way before you try spreading on the topping or you will make a mess. Also, I mixed the topping about 15-20min too early and in the time it sat it managed to go from perfectly spreadable to a thick mass. I would definitely mix it up right when you intend to spread it on the pie instead of getting it done early. Other than minor construction mistakes, I thought this was a really nice pie. It was very light and refreshing, not to mention unique! I will be making this again, tweaking only lightly, and I will wait until I have a good, sweet melon. Oh, and my melon made about 4 1/2 cups of puree.

Mmmm... Like alot of other people, I used this for the dumpling recipe and I really like it. The texture is similar to Cracker Barrel-style dumplings, nice and heavy. I shrunk the recipe down to 1/4 because I knew it would otherwise make waaay too much for my pot. The proportions were this: 1 egg, 1 1/2t oil, 3/4t salt, 1/4t pepper, 1/2c water, and 1c flour. Like others I found it soupy so I added a bit less than a 1/4c extra flour and that helped firm it up. You don't need it really firm, just enough to hold together when you drop them in. I think next time I'll cut the water to 1/3c and see if that thickens it up enough. I just used the side of my wooden spoon to scoop off a thin ribbon of dough and drop (shake!) it in. Definitely aim for really thin ribbons because they plump up alot and then have trouble cooking all the way through. I still had a little dough left over (glad I cut the recipe so small!)but that may be remedied when I reduce the water. All-in-all, a very good dumpling recipe I will be using frequently!

I wanted to comment on those who are insisting that your meat reach 180*. If you follow this don't be shocked if your meat is dry! To be sure, I checked out the USDA website and they recommend an internal temp of only 165* F for whole poultry. The meat continues to cook after you pull it out of the oven and 15 degrees can make all the difference in the world! This also holds true for those little pop-up thingies on turkeys which are designed to pop at 180*. Basically, everyone is just trying to cover their you-know-whats by insisting on a higher temp so they can't be liable for someone undercooking the meat. If you trust your oven and have a good meat thermometer, definitely aim for 165* (in the thickest part of the thigh). You can always throw it in for a little longer if you are unsure, but there's no un-cooking it. Hope this helps! *update* I finally got a chance to try the recipe and I really like it. I had some garlic butter that I really wanted to get rid of so I stuck a few pats under the skin (along with the spices). The meat was really moist and pleasantly seasoned.