Tony, I've been thinking about the crust problem you mentioned, did you use an IR thermometer to see if the centre of the stone was up to temp.? Maybe it wasn't and the edge would have picked up heat from air flow. Just a thought;)
tinyfish, I thought I was just going to do a quick post to respond to skreef's post and didn't intend to horn in on your squash soup post I guess I got caught up on the Thanksgiving thought.
I really think it is these cheeses that made all the difference.
BTW, I forgot to mention that I also sprinkled the mac and cheese with some cayenne pepper, mixed it in during the final put together stages.