I do the noodle routine too, tibs. My God however, I have had fifty-sixty dozen eggs at a crack to deal with. That's when our local charity kitchen got a good donation and they were thrilled. Do you have any idea how long it would take to make all those noodles? LOL I used to spend days on end making them as many as my clothes rack would hold at a time. I have had as many as thirty one gallons bags of them in the freezer. I have found if the whites are seperated they freeze quite well. I keep small bags of them frozen to make baked meringues and pavlovas.

The iced fruitcake looks like something I might have to try this year. As long as it's dark, full of fruit & nuts with not much cake, how can it be anything but delicious? This is my favorite recipe for a dark fruitcake. Over the years, I've substituted all kinds of fruits & nuts & it always turn out great. Maybe the rum helps! RUM CROCK FRUITCAKE Makes 1 Bundt (+ 1 mini loaf pan) or 2 3x5x9 loaf cakes 1 lb dried currants 1 lb dark raisins ½ lb golden raisins ½ lb citron or dried fruit 1 C filberts or almonds or figs ½ lb chopped dates (or pecan halves) 1 C dried or candied cherries (dried cranberries work just as well) ½ C candied citrus peel 3 C (a fifth) of Dark Rum (cheap is okay, but it needs to be dark) ---------------------------- ½ lb sweet butter, softened 2 C packed dark brown sugar 5 large eggs 2 C flour 2 t. baking powder --------------------------- Grind enough whole spices to make these quantities, mix & set aside: 1 t. ground cloves 1 t. ground cinnamon ½ t. ground nutmeg 1 t. ground allspice ½ t. ground mace Mix all the fruits & nuts together in a crock or a ceramic or glass bowl. Stir in the rum (adding more, if needed, to cover), & let stand, loosely covered, in a cool place for at least 3 weeks. (A day or 2 has always been okay for me.) When you are ready to prepare the cake, preheat the oven to 275 F. & place a large shallow pan of water on a lower rack. Prepare pans by greasing, lining with brown paper or parchment, & greasing lightly again. Drain the contents of the rum crock (discard the rum or use in another batch of marinade if making additional fruitcakes) & set aside. Cream the butter with the sugar until fluffy & stir in eggs, one at a time, blending well. Sift together the flour, baking powder & spices. Sift half of the flour into the butter mixture, mixing well. Gradually add the fruits/nuts, alternating with the remaining flour mixture & blending thoroughly. Put batter into pans & bake for about 2 ½ hours (more for a bundt pan) or until a cake tester comes out clean & the edges shrink from the pan. Cover the cake lightly with pieces of foil if it browns too quickly (usually after 1 ½ hours). Remove the cake & cool in pan for about 1 hour. Turn onto a cake rack & remove the paper. When the cake has cooled, wrap in foil & store in an airtight container to age for at least 1 month before serving. (Its also excellent after 1 week of aging as DH is too impatient to wait longer).

I consider myself chastised for saying I was going to cook the meatloaf all night. I have several times put on a small roast and vegetables to cook so that when I come home from church, I have a meal already cooked. That usually is a cheaper cut of meat because I like my meat to be falling apart tender,along with carrots, sweet potatoes , onions, etc. The purpose with the meatloaf was to have it available in slices for the future. I have made the statement that I don't live to eat but eat to live. Cooking has not always been my lifetime ambition, and I am a mediocre cook at the best that has become addicted to healthy cooking. Considering the fact that that my Mom wouldn't let me in the kitchen in case I would mess it up, and I only got in on the dishwashing, laundry and ironing part of housekeeping, I have managed to get along for quite awhile. I pleased my other half, though. My husband is the one that taught me how to cook. Barb

Yes, a meatloaf can be made in a crockpot, and I've done it, although I'm not a huge fan of meatloaf. The recipe I use calls for garlic, onion, chicken broth, eggs, parmesan cheese. The broth and seasoning goes in the blender so there are no chunks, and then everything gets mixed and shaped. I grow grassfed beef so there's not fat, my ground beef will stick to a pan, but the broth and eggs keep it moist. I top it with a mix of catsup, brown sugar and vinegar, straight from America's Test Kitchen, my girls loved that stuff. Anyway, cooking time will vary depending on the crockpot, but I cooked mine on low for 4 or 5 hours. I put the topping on when I first put it in the crockpot, so it could bake on a bit. The only problem was that it was not loaf shaped, so it was hard to cut into sandwich sized slices. That was before I bought the small Nesco, now I'd put it in a loaf pan and put it in the Nesco roaster... Annie