Lucky you to be in Vegetable Heaven! I would be attacking that basket. First, broccoli-cheddar chowder for your friend. I'll take the cabbages and use them, along with some of the carrots and peppers, to make one of our favorite coleslaws. I'll leave the jalapenos for someone else. COLORFUL COLESLAW 1/2 cup vegetable oil 3/4 cup sugar 3/4 cup cider vinegar 3/4 tsp. celery seeds 2 tsp. dried mustard 1/2 tsp. salt 1/4 tsp. black pepper 1/2 head green cabbage, cut into thin shreds 1/2 head red cabbage, cut into thin shreds 1 carrot peeled and coarsely grated 1 small onion, peeled, halved and thinly sliced 1 green pepper, seeded and halved crosswise and thinly sliced 1 sweet red pepper, seeded and halved crosswise and thinly sliced Put red cabbage in a storage container in the refrigerator. Combine oil, sugar and vinegar in small nonaluminum saucepan. Bring to boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Simmer for 5 minutes and add celery seeds, mustard, salt and pepper. Remove from heat. Combine all remaining ingredients in a large bowl except for red cabbage. Pour dressing over vegetables and toss. Chill covered for at least four hours, or preferably overnight, stirring occasionally. Add red cabbage about an hour before serving. 12 servings. Note: You can add the red cabbage at the same time as the green but since the color will bleed out of it over time (no change in flavor), the presentation is prettier if you add it right before serving. Next, the green and yellow squashes would be "stringed" and steamed in the microwave. When done, stir in some of the chopped scallions and parsley. (squash in the pic has dried cranberries) Some of the tomatoes and the rest of the cabbage and carrots would go into a bean soup made with turkey kielbasa. A half recipe of this salad would use up the cucumber, some of the tomato and parsley, and you could substitute lime juice for the lemon. TURKISH SHEPHERD'S SALAD 3 large tomatoes 2 medium size cucumbers 2 medium size Green Peppers 1 large red onion 1/2 bunch Parsley 7- 8 sprigs fresh mint 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 and 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon salt (or less to taste) Sumac powder * (This is not a marinated-type salad and is best when all the ingredients are chopped and mixed close to serving time.) Wash the vegetables; peel and halve cucumbers, removing seeds; remove stems and seeds of the green peppers, and remove the surplus parts of onion, parsley and the mint. Chop the onions, green peppers, tomatoes and cucumbers into cubes about 1 cm. in size (between 1/4 and 1/2 inch.). Finely chop the mint and parsley. Add lemon juice and salt to olive oil, whisk well and pour over the salad immediately before serving. Sprinkle lightly with sumac powder. *Note: if you don�t have sumac powder, increase the lemon juice to 2 Tbs. Gellchom, have fun with your lovely basket ingredients.

Please excuse the hijack anitamo. Those who have been through this know. You "handle" it until something pushes a button, which anitamo's post evidently did for me, especially Pal's link to the soft caps as I was talking about that with my sister the other day. I so appreciate the support, ladies. I'm super private as I believe it's impolite really to burden others. Everyone has problems, tragedies and crises in the course of a lifetime -- no one needs anyone else's. I believe in sharing the happy stuff -- I put up 2 favorite recipes on a new thread mtn started. Both really delicious. I've always had a very high stress tolerance and have an ability to thread my way through chaos. But losing younger siblings is a killer even when you're not close. My next younger brother passed suddenly 4 years ago. Now my sister is sliding away. It's like standing on a large island that's your life/family history and watch huge chunks fall off. I don't mind it changing me. I always have been lucky and I'm blessed in so many ways in this life. But my sister has had much to overcome and not a great deal of happiness. The idea that she must go so early and with so much pain and disability seems really cruel. Enough. Thank you all for your good thoughts and prayers. Big hugs to you. I so appreciate the empathy and support. It really helps.

I'm giving out Penzey's spice collections to a couple of recipients this year. You can even make your own box with spices you choose, which I did for one of my recipients. Not sure how fast they will arrive if your deadline is Friday... I also sent out a sausage and condiment basket from iGourmet, and I selected the components based on what my brother would like. (He lives halfway across the country, so I'd have no way of knowing his local purveyors of baskets...) Personally, I like fruit baskets and wine baskets. And I can always take more Penzey's... I do agree Swiss Colony is to be avoided. Back in the day they were decent -- not any more. Do check to make sure your recipient doesn't have various food allergies/sensitivities. While I'm sure someone's pistachio basket mentioned above is wonderful, that is the one nut I have to stay MILES away from, as opposed to just a room away. (Sigh, I used to love pistachios...) EDIT: I forgot to mention my brother sent me via the Internet a wonderful, wonderful large amount of smoked salmon for my birthday (early December), and also a few packages of Cajun spiced bacon. Both of these gifts were/are wonderful! He found quality online sources for these gifts. (And he knows that my sweet tooth is about as active as my appendix...)

I had to order a sympathy gift basket but forgot all about this thread, unfortunately. I used Harry & David, after a few people told me it was reliable. Oh my word they are pests! I get at least 2 emails every single day. I will unsubscribe once I'm sure the basket was received and I don't need to contact them for any problems. And I expect to be inundated with catalogs. I'll use catalog choice to opt out once I have the first catalog and the mailing label. Pestering me is not the way to entice me to become a return customer.