Well, I have winter sown about 55 containers of various perennials. That is waaaaay more than I intended to sow this year. From trades I also have 24 or so types of annuals. Never have too much luck with starting them indoors. Think I may start a few of them by spring sowing in the jugs and direct sowing. Don't even ask how many veggie seeds I have at this point! Will have to go thru them and pick out which I am doing this year. My number one problem with veg seed is figuring out WHEN the best time to start them is. Usually there is always something that is planted too late or too early, lol. CMK

The first food I remember making was Roly-Polies when I was about four. It wasn't until about a year or two ago that my cousin discovered this snapshot of me making them. I'd roll out the scraps from my mother's pie crust between two sheets of waxed paper. Then I'd spread it with peanut butter and cinnamon/sugar, roll it up, slice, and put on a cookie sheet for my mom to bake. As an only child, I was my mom's sous chef (tipping beans, whipping cream, decorating cookies, etc.) and I learned a step at a time, always thinking it was fun. All the women in our family used to congregate at my aunt's house in the summer for a week or two of canning and freezing vast amounts of food for the year. I started as a tomato and peach skin peeler. My dad and two uncles had boats so cleaning fish and picking crabs was the beginning of my seafood cooking education. My friends and I used to make little stoves out of potato chip cans and coat hangers and have simple cookouts on them. We'd also wrap potatoes in clay and roast them in a bonfire while we were ice skating and things like that. My cooking skills progressed so that when my father was killed when I was 12 and my mother went to work full-time, I made most of the dinners for us. That's when I started experimenting with different kinds of soups and stews that could be heated up and eaten at any time. When I was 16, I acquired a stepfather who was a wonderful cook (although a little heavy on weird stuff like souse and blood pudding that I'd never seen made before). Around then, one of the grocery stores offered a 12-volume set of the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery and WOW, did my culinary adventures shift into high gear! We'd have a dinner of dishes from Denmark, followed by English jam tarts the next week. I was fortunate to have a roommate for my first college apartment who knew how to cook just about anything. While our classmates were eating ramen noodles and hot dogs, we were having tasty meals on the same budget. We also used to prepare venison and other game dinners for hunters at a set price per head, which was our first commercial cooking venture. So that's my youthful culinary history. Cooking has always seemed to be interwoven with other activities in my life but rarely played a major role in it.

Scratch my traditional Thanksgiving menu that I posted last week!! I knew that only one of my sons would be home, but now my nephew and brother won't be able to join us and everyone else that I've thought of to ask to join us already has plans. So it will just be the three of us. When you're used to cooking for 12 most years, it's hard to get excited about doing it all for just 3! Especially since we'll have almost the identical menu for Christmas day. My son who's home from college happily agreed that it seemed a little silly to cook a turkey, so I'm going with the flow and changing plans! A local deli has some beautiful stuffed chicken breasts that I've always wanted to try and so that may be the main course. I'll still do some special vegs, dessert and homemade bread. Just not the dressing, gravy, bird etc. Grace

Cynic, is that all???? I better get moving. LOL Maybe I will surprise my family and leave them to fend for themselves and take that trip to England for Christmas. I'll let them have my house and they can do their own cooking. Fat chance, they would starve. I think Laura's boyfriend knows how to cook though and my brother's specialty is Greek pasta salad. My sister is the Queen on Lean Cuisine. LOLOL Not exactly a nice Christmas dinner is it. Okay I have been reprieved, a ton of weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I just called my brother and he and his girlfriend are driving to Toronto for Thanksgiving. David is still at his store counting stock and will be there pretty much all night since the store just closed. He sounds happy to be retiring but I feel kind of sad for him. End of an era. I then called my friend Kathy to see if she had any bacon on hand and she said she did. I asked her to make me some bacon bits for the broccoli salad but she said not to bother making it since rarely do we have a cold salad at Thanksgiving and then she said I ruined her surprise. Kathy is one of my childhood friends and it has always been the tradition in her family to have that marshmallow 24 hour salad for their holiday dinners. I consider that more a dessert salad but hey who am I to mess with tradition and this is her first Thanksgiving without her Mom so I said that was wonderful she made the salad. I like it but usually at a shower or something like that. I never thought to make what we call my Grandma's green lime jello salad made with pineapple, celery and cream cheese LOLOL At our family dinners there was always that pale green Pyrex casserole dish on the holiday table that held the lime green salad. Refreshing it was and I had forgotten all about it. I will have to remember it for Christmas. Out of all the vintage Pyrex I have in my huge collection that pale green casserole dish is one I have never been able to find at yards sales or thrift shops. I think my sister Lizzie absconded Grandma's green dish so I will have to ask her if she still has it. Lime green cream cheese jello is just not tradition without serving it in that dish. Oh my. I now don't have to put 2 extenders in the table now so I should have a table cloth that will suffice. I know I should do it anyway but now I don't have to make that extra effort to make sure everything in my house is in perfect order and now I can hide books and my computer stuff on the attic stairs and the dog can still have his toys out and the dog food bag can remain where it is. I was getting ready to get on my butt and start cleaning baseboards since the "girlfriend" was coming. Tomorrows Menu Turkey Stuffing Cranberry Sauce Brussel Sprouts sliced cooked with garlic and cream Orange glazed carrots Squash Mashed turnip Mashed potatoes and gravy Tray with raddishes, olives, my pickled beets 24 hour salad Rolls Pumpkin pie Butter tarts - my Mom's filling recipe, Tenderflake shells I will go raid my Pyrex collection for all the autumn coloured pieces and that way I can keep the food warm in the oven and put right on the dinner table to serve. I wouldn't do that with good china which I don't have right now. I'm still waiting for my Grandma's china to make its way back to Windsor - it just needs a ride LOL Grandma's Royal Doulton china and her pale green Pyrex dish now that for a beautiful holiday table. Thanks again for helping me and listening to my rant. I am so relieved and now will be able to enjoy myself more with the usual suspects in attendance. Anne