The girls are soon to be 7 months old and my son moved over to Poland before Thanksgiving. He comes back here every few months but plans to stay there until the immigration applications for his wife and babies are processed so they can all move here. He's quite the Mr. Mom now that his wife has gone back to work. Of course he has his mother in law and a twice a week nanny to help but he's falling into the routine rather effortlessly. Something about this younger generation of parents..the Mom's expecting full participation by the Dad's. Weird. I couldn't wait for my husband to go back to work after we brought the baby home.

Congrats Deedee! The same thing happened to me today! I haven't seen our blues for a month or two; and today, while we were eating dinner, we saw around 6-10 blues swooping around outside and checking out the houses. It was so exciting to see them again. I believe they were the adults and their fledglings from this season.

WOW...I don't visit this side of the forum often enough and so sorry I missed this earlier. Wonderful, delicious and thoughtful package Jessy!! You will love the LC bakingware, I use mine all the time, only I do need some smaller ones like yours!!! The fruit jams...what could be better!! Enjoy and I know you did/are!!! Michelle

Alexa - no secrets here with my recipe. I posted it here last year and it is very similar to Doucanoe's recipe and hundreds of other recipes from the Lutheran church ladies of Minnesota. Of course this is just a guideline and often times larger amounts of my favorite things like carrots and almonds make their way into the pot. This recipe is for hand harvested marsh/river rice. Commercially cultivated wild rice takes longer to cook. The commercial drying/toasting process of cultivated rice causes it to be a much harder grain. LPink had a thread on the topic of cultivated wild rice last year. One cup raw marsh/river rice will make 4 to 4.5 cups of cooked rice. My favorite way to cook the wild rice: Heat oven to 350 degrees. You will need a covered casserole or pot (a 2 quart size is good). I use a glass casserole. Place in casserole: 1 cup raw rice 2.5 cups of boiling water or stock Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Test rice for doneness. Cook another 15 minutes if you want it more tender. Use excess water in wild rice soup. Wild Rice Soup 6 tablespoons margarine or butter 2-3 tablespoons minced onion 1/2 cup flour 3 cups chicken broth 2 cups cooked wild rice 1/2 cup finely grated carrots (I use more) 1 cup minced ham or leftover rotissiere chicken 3 tablespoons chopped slivered almonds (you can put them in the soup OR toast and top as a garnish) Salt to taste if you want 1 cup half and half 2 tablespoons dry sherry Directions In large saucepan, melt margarine; saute onion until tender. Blend in flour; gradually add broth. Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil; boil and stir 1 minute. Stir in rice, carrots, ham, almonds and salt; simmer about 5 minutes. Blend in half and half and sherry; heat to serving temperature. Garnish with snipped parsley or chives. Sauteed sliced portabella mushrooms are a nice addition to this recipe. Happy Thanksgiving to all! Teresa in Minnetonka, Minnesota