OMG....!! I'll counter with one I have handy....but even then I think I owe you one....or maybe 3....sounds fabulous!! Soup,chilled cucumber I call this Bridal Luncheon Cucumber Soup, because I have served it at several bridal luncheons. The card says it's from "Cooking Across the South" a cookbook of my daughter's. 2 large cucumbers 1 clove of garlic 1 tsp salt 1/2 Tsp dry dill weed 1 cup lemon juice 2 8 oz cartons of sour cream 2 cups half and half And milk to make it thin enough Chopped chives and cucumber slices for garnish Peel and seed the cucumber and puree in a blender. Pour in the sour cream and 1/2 and 1/2 and mix well....add milk as needed to thin if desired. Chill and serve garnished with chives and cuke slices.

Christmas Eve was always meatless-- salmon loaf & oyster stew ( tho that was probably Dad's ( Irish ) tradition. Mom ( Polish) always made cheese pierogies , almond soup ( which is like a soupy rice pudding) , kapusta & scallopped potatoes-- there was rye bread, pickled beets with horseradish -- then after Midnight mass it was kilbasa sandwiches on rye ( Dad made his own--never smoked it was always serve fresh-- boiled a bit in white wine & water then covered into the oven ). Christmas Day was a sweet picked ham Dad had pickled-- more Polish sausage--

LindaC, my daughter Amanda is lactose intolerant too, as well as being celiac, so there's real whipped cream for the rest of us, but "non dairy topping" for her. My brother, the heathen, likes Cool Whip better anyway, so she shares. There will be 11 people here today and they are all family. I ask them if there is anything special they want, and everyone asks "are you going to make XXXXX?" Well, of course I am now, LOL. Since Amanda was just diagnosed as being celiac a couple of years ago, I'm still experimenting with the gluten free thing. I handed her a gluten free cookbook and told her to pick out dessert. She chose a sweet potato "torte", which seems more like a sweet potato pie with a sugar cookie type crust, baked in a springform pan. We'll see how that is. I've made the green bean casserole thing, although I detest it. I tried one of the "homemade without canned soup" versions one year and if it's possible, it was worse than the original. Ugh. Annie

Petalique, it's nationwide. Some communities, like my own, seem to do it very quietly any more. Not a single notice on tv that I've seen. There used to be more importance placed on it. My mothers little larger town, same state, always provided a bag - right up until she moved into senior living and they may still be doing it. We haven't been given a bag to fill in several years. Quick dash to the store which was wildly crowded right before mothers day. And of course ran into people we knew and DH needed to visit. I'd put on a clean shirt, still had my yard work pants on. I bought boxed scalloped potato dinners, boxed Kraft mac and cheese, few Dinty Moore 38 oz beef stews canned, put in a few cans Costco tuna. I don't think we've done a food bank donation since Christmas so we were due. I'm not happy with the inflated grocery prices but we're not going without anything - meaning I really should help where I can. I usually buy a couple of cases of one thing or another at Costco and it completely slipped my mind the last time we shopped there. If I'd wanted flowers I'd have been in good shape at Safeway. One entire end of the store was stuffed with cut, loose, arranged flowers and plants for Mothers Day.