Carol, this is one reason I want to take it to the party Saturday, I'll get to taste it and determine if it is good enough for gifting....LOL. Annie, I agree, not enough desserts for Thanksgiving is almost un-American. Of course, we did not have turkey either, but this is because nobody likes it that much. More desserts would have been well received though. To me this forum is more about food preservation than harvesting. If I have something tricky to harvest I am more likely to ask at the veggies forum, or at least double post. I ask food preservation questions here though. Sometimes I find myself preserving food I did not harvest. Sometimes this non-harvested food comes in HUGE quantities, like the 3 boxes of bananas that were 'harvested' from my sweeties employer, or the 80 lbs of cheese.....(he works on food commercials and there is often lost of food left, good food too...). Answer on the bananas: peel and freeze. Answer on the cheese: don't take it! run away from it! OK, if you must take it, it will freeze pretty well. The candy linked by ruthie looks very good indeed. The ingredients listed are not part of my harvest though. Lately I got 11 lbs of good quality belgian chocolate (melting type, yum....), 3 to 4 lbs hazelnuts, and some caramel sauce (all "harvested" by the food commercials....and free to me!). I see some hazelnut chocolate cookies materializing soon, right on time for Christmas. I'll post the recipe if they work out.

Glenda ,Can you post Reindeer droppings? We have lots of real deer around here so that would be fun to make! lol Here is some I make & love: Chunky Peanut Brittle 1 t. plus 1 ½ c. butter (no substitutes), divided 2 c. peanut butter chips, divided 1 ¾ c. sugar 3 T. light corn syrup 3 T. water 1 ½ c. salted peanuts, coarsely chopped ½ c. semisweet chocolate chips Butter the bottom and sides of a 15 x 10 x 1 inch baking pan with 1 ½ t. butter. Sprinkle with 1 c. peanut butter chips; set aside. In a heavy saucepan, bring sugar, corn syrup, water and remaining butter to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Cook and stir until butter is melted. Cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer reads 300 degrees (hard crack stage). Remove from heat; stir in peanuts. Quickly pour onto prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with chocolate chips and remaining peanut butter chips. With a knife, gently swirl softened chips over top of brittle. Cool before breaking into pieces. Store in an airtight container. Yield: 2 ½ lb. ~~Fudge Krispies~~~~~These are sooo good~~~ Taste like a Nestle Crunch ! 1pkg (2c.) milk chocolate chips( not semi -sweet ) 1/2c. marg. 1/2c.light corn syrup 2 tsp.vanilla extract 1c.sifted confectioners sugar (powered sugar) 4c.Rice Krispies cereal Combine choc.,marg & corn syrup in med. saucepan . Stir over low heat until melted & smooth. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and sugar. Add cereal Mixing lightly until well coated. Spread evenly in 13x9x2 inch pan. Chill until firm. Cut into 1 1/2-inch squares. Store in refr. 48 squares. ~*~Toffee Cookies~*~ 1 sleeve saltine crackers 1 cup brown sugar, packed 2 cups semi-sweet or milk chocolate chips 1 c.Butter 1c. finely chopped nuts Preheat oven to 400*. Cover a small cookie sheet with sides with foil; spray with Pam. Melt butter & brown sugar in a med. saucepan and cook approximately 3 minutes, stirring often. Place all crackers on foil. Pour sugar mixture on crackers and spread evenly. Bake 5 minutes. Mixture should boil but not burn. Remove from oven and sprinkle chocolate chips evenly on top. Set a bread board over pan and let set 3 min.Remove bread board .Spread choc.chips with spatula as frosting a cake. Sprinkle Nuts on top ,press slightly.Place in refrg. About 1 hour.Break into pieces.Store in refrg. **People can't Believe that this is crackers! I have also tried Butterscotch chips & peanuts.Semi-sweet chocolate & peppermint candies crushed.(that one is really good!) This is a must in my house to make :-) ~~~MOUND BARS ~~~ This taste like that famous candy bar.ItÂs so good & easy! 2 c. crushed graham crackers 1/2 c. sugar 1/2 c. butter, melted Mix together and bake in 9x13 inch pan in 350 degree oven for 7-8 minutes. Mix 2 cups coconut with 1 can sweetened condensed milk. Spread on top of baked crust. Bake 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Melt 1 (12 oz.) package chocolate chips . Spread on top.Cool then cut into bars. ~~Twix Bars~~ this is very good! almost better than the real thing. 35 unwrapped kraft caramels 1/4 cup water 1 box Lorna Doone shortbread cookies (40) 2 bags milk-chocolate chips 12oz ea. 1. combine caramels with water in small pan, melt over low heat. 2. place the cookies side by side on ungreased cookie sheet. 3. spoon a dab of caramel onto each cookie, then place all the cookies in the refrigerator until the caramel firms up. 4. in the meantime, melt chocolate chips in double boiler or microwave heating 1 min on high, stir, then 1 more min. 5. remove the cookies from frig. resting each cookie on a fork, dip into chocolate. tap the fork on side to knock away excess chocolate. place on wax paper and cool at room temp. this will take several hours but the bars will set the best this way. putting in the refrigerator for 30 min will speed up the process. ~~KIT KAT BARS~~ (very rich,cut into small pieces) Ritz crackers (I used 3 sleeves) 1 1/2 c. graham crackers, crushed 3/4 c. brown sugar, packed 1 c. white sugar 3/4 c. butter (must be real) 1/3 c. milk 1 c. butterscotch chips 1 c. semisweet chocolate chips 3/4 c. peanut butter Put graham crackers, brown sugar, white sugar, butter and milk into a saucepan and bring it to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes. Spray a 9x13? pan with butter flavored cooking spray. Put a layer of crackers (I used one sleeve) in bottom of pan and pout 1/2 of the mixture over it. Put another layer of crackers and pour the remaining mixture. Add one last row of cracker. In microwave melt butterscotch chips, chocolate chips and peanut butter together I stirred every 1 (one) minute til nice and smooth. When melted, spread evenly over the top. After it has cooled a bit, score the bars. Then let cool completely. I put in the refrigerator. After set up, cut into bars and store in an airtight container. I store in the refrigerator. Hope this helps! ____________________________________________________

Islay -- those sound delicious. I love avocado. Pricey here, unfortunately. Sleevendog, so do you think it is the same variety? I have "Siam Queen" seeds, but I also think that is the name of the Thai Basil plants I've bought at nurseries and at W-m store. One of my neighbors just planted a pretty raised bed kit (I helped her). It is up on a cement terrace, away from marauding rabbits and woodchucks. She filled it with alternating layers of potting mix and bagged manure. It's been watered regularly, and the plants are packed in there (3' Sq box). Jeepers! I bet that anything will take off in that stuff. My soil is LEAN. I compost, but haven't added it to my garden beds for a while. My "garden" was (I didn't know when I dug it) an extra leech field or something. But the house was built in the woods on a slope and the excavator (I could ring his neck, but he's no longer with us), pushed the nice woodland top soil onto an adjacent parcel (that he bought <g>) and so the house lot/yard were pretty much gravel fill. There were piles of pond excavated "loam" here and there when we moved. A smart fellow with a small dozer spread the loam around for us, but it was not screened and there was only enough to give about 4" of topsoil. So I added feed bags full of horse manure, peat, forest soil and house/garden compost and leaves and clippings over the years. It must have helped because I at least have some worms in the soil and the structure is better than gravel <wan smirk>. But we are in the woods, so our place gets a lot of shade throughout the day. Nice for staying cool, but most plants want more light. I've planted cilantro roots from the store and as well as the ends of green onions. I've even planted punky Asian Shallots. A red onion too. The cilantro didn't work very well, too woody. Your idea to keep planting is it good. I'm short on space. I think I'm going to try to find a way to ELEVATE raised bed kits off the ground away from woodchucks and rabbits. To TEXAS new comer to thread: I have never tried jicama or fish tacos, but they sound delicious. (I've I've got the wrong thread, ignore. I have to work between mobile phone, PC and too much to do.)

I dont actually think my son wants 'cute' and if he did he wouldnt get it from me, so maybe I just raised him with low expectations of my craftiness. In fact, while he did get a care package mailed to him, the impetus was the call saying, "Mom I need more sensors(for his continuous glucose monitor, he is a Type 1 Diabetic). It's not like I could skip the care package at that point.