Maxmom, A few months ago I had pull-out shelves installed in the lower cabinets! DH doesn't understand why those pullouts got me so excited. But prior to that I struggled with those nasty half shelves as you can see below. I added an extra half shelf to every cabinet so I wouldn't waste head space. How I dealt with that was labeled bins; still had to stand on head but if I put the bins back in order, then I could reach in without looking and pull out the correct bin. When I got the pullouts, I completely reorganized and Freecycled about 33% of the items in the cabinets. Boy it feels great. In fact I have invited a soon to be college student to come over for lunch and pick through what I didn't Freecycle. I think she will appreciate some of the high-end stuff because she loves to cook.

It was in the link, but I put it here for you. Butter Cream Frosting for Sugar Cookies 1/2 cup butter or margarine (1 stick) 1 box 10X powered sugar (around 3 cups if using a bulk bag) 1 tsp vanilla flavoring 2 to 3 TBS milk Food coloring Sugar sprinkles (for after the cookies are frosted) Directions: Again, let the butter/margarine sit out and soften. That makes mixing much easier, and it¡¦s also easier to get the correct consistency when adding the milk. If the butter is cold, then it gets too thin as it warms up. If this does happen, just add a little more powdered sugar. Cream the butter and powdered sugar putting in about a half cup of powdered sugar at time. If the powdered sugar looks pretty lumpy, it¡¦s a good idea to sift it, so you don¡¦t have sugar balls in the frosting. Mix well. Add the vanilla. Mix. Add around 1 TBS of milk and mix. Continue adding a tsp or so until the frosting is the right consistency for spreading. If you discover you¡¦ve made it too thin, stir in a little sugar. If it¡¦s too thick or starts to get too thick as you decorate add just a tiny bit more milk and stir. Add a couple of drops of food coloring and mix if you want a single color batch. It¡¦s more fun, however, to divide the frosting into small bowls and let everyone make a color. Be warned that some people (mostly boys) will put in all the colors and make ugly brown frosting. It still tastes great. And, this really is about having fun. If you want sugar sprinkles, then take some regular table sugar. Put a 1/4 to 1/2 cup or so in a zip lock bag. Add a little squirt of food coloring. Squeeze the bag until the sugar is all colored. It's fun also to divide the sugar out and make various colors like with the frosting. Sprinkle on the colored sugar. You may need to very lightly tap the sugar on top of the frosting if the frosting is starting to set. If you want the sugar sprinkles but not buttercream frosting, then make up the colored sugar and pat that on before baking the sugar cookies. If you try to put colored sugar on cookies without frosting after they're baked, the sugar will not stick.

Thanks for the link.. I think I'm safe calling my Chinese garlic "Chinese" as indicated by the linked website. From what I read on export sites, there is regular white and pearl white but still "Chinese." Spanish red and morado cloves look very similar. Not sure if clove size and how each clove fits into the bulb is an indication of the variety but the garlic I have looks more like the shape of the Spanish Morado bulb, aka Morado de Pedronera.

My mother (with a family of 7, plus friends, grandparents, aunt...) used to bake scads of cookies for Christmas. We were spoiled for choice! Almond crescents, pecan balls, mini pecan tarts, date pinwheels, hermits, jam thumbprints, cut out sugar (with a touch of nutmeg), a cream cheese pastry dough filled with various fruits or nuts (can't remember the name). Sometimes she would make fudge. I am sure that I've forgotten a couple. Over the years I've made all of these, usually just 2 or 3 in small quantity (almost always including hermits) but as the DD grew up and I became prone to gaining too much weight in November and December, I am down to making just one small batch. This year it is gingerbread.