When I was a teenager, I made a "Spanische Windtorte." The picture of it was so pretty, and it sounded wonderful. It is an Austrian dessert composed of meringue filled with cream. You pipe meringue in a close spiral and bake it for the bottom, easy enough. Then you have to pipe and bake many rings, which you layer up from the bottom and glue with unbaked meringue to form a round box. Then you do another close spiral for a lid. The inside is filled with whipped cream flavored with cognac and fresh strawberries. After carefully placing the "lid" on top, the outside is decorated with piped whipped cream and candied violets. It wasn't that it was difficult, exactly, it's just that it was seriously time consuming, handling the brittle meringue rings was troublesome, and decorating had to be very quick so that one could serve the dessert before the inside cream began to melt. I had to make my own candied violets as well, which didn't help. It was very pretty, but when it came to eating it you might do just as well with a bowl of strawberries & whipped cream by crumbling a few meringue cookies on top. All that work and so little gustatory umph.

It is funny to look up fly traps and end up on a cooking forum. Interesting conversation and interesting place. Here is my tip. I keep a small pot of simmering water going for sterilizing utensils if they are going to touch both raw and cooked meat. Think batches of chicken cutlets. No germy spoon rest just clean your tongs between flips.

Ann H., traditional Chanuka foods vary with the community. Jews of Eastern European descent eat latkes (but never agree on how to make them). Israelis eat fried filled doughnuts. As you see in the string, and can find on many web sites, everywhere in the world, Jews come up with something different for Chanuka. The one constant is that it should be something cooked in oil; that's the point. The idea is to commemorate the story about the oil for the menorah. lpinkmountain, if you use a mix for matzo balls, you will go to hell. JUST KIDDING! But really, I have never understood what the point is of that mix. I mean, matzo balls contain matzo meal, salt, egg, water or broth, and fat (chicken fat best if you are not a vegetarian and your cardiologist isn't looking). So what's in that mix? I think it's just matzo meal, salt, and some bouillon powder (which I don't like anyway); you still have to add the rest -- doesn't really save any time and just costs a lot more and uses more packaging. Lakeguy, here is how I (a genuine Jewish mother) make chicken soup and matzo balls. It's a very simple recipe, without even any dill or garlic, but it really doesn't need it, because the strongly developed chicken flavor holds its own, so try it this way first. Really, you can make any kind of chicken soup your family likes, but make sure to follow the two essentials about the type of chicken and the length of cooking. Try to find a kosher chicken -- the bigger, fatter, and older, the better. The taste is just much, much better. It's not that the kosher slaughtering makes a difference. But they grow them bigger, and they don't feed them chemicals (not for kosher purposes, just to broaden their market to foodies), and the soaking and salting of kashering is like brining it. If you can't find a kosher chicken in your town, then go for an organic one, I guess. Lindac taught me the money-saving tip of using a package of wings instead of a whole chicken (kosher chickens are not cheap). Gellchom's Jewish Chicken Soup (eat! eat!) 1 cut up kosher chicken, or a large package of wings, necks, etc. 2 stalks celery, NO LEAVES, scraped and cut into sticks 2 large carrots, scraped and cut into sticks one whole onion, peeled Salt and pepper Rinse the chicken and put it in your soup pot. Cover with water to about 3/4 inch from top. Bring to a good hard boil, reduce the heat, and skim. Then add the vegetables, 1-2 T salt, and some pepper. Cover and simmer a LONG time -- absolute minimum 1 1/2 hours, but I like to let it go to much longer, even to 6. If it cooks too far down, then just add some water; the taste will still be plenty rich, I promise. Remove chicken and use for something that can have seriously overcooked chicken! Discard onion (and celery, if you want, but I like it in the soup). Remove carrots and set aside. Strain soup and return carrots, celery, and maybe some of the chicken. Chill and remove some but not all of the fat before reheating. Serve with matzo balls, kreplach, noodles, or rice. Matzo balls (this is just the old recipe off the back of the Manischewitz matzo meal box, before they changed it from schmaltz to oil) 2 T schmaltz (rendered chicken fat; buy frozen in kosher market or make your own) or oil (if you must!) 2 lg eggs, slightly beaten ½ c matzo meal 1 t salt, optional 2 T water or broth (use broth if no schmaltz) Mix schmaltz and eggs. Mix matzo meal with salt and blend. Add water and mix. Cover and chill at least 15 minutes. Boil slightly salted water. Reduce heat to low, form balls (with wet hands, and note that they will enlarge as they cook), and add to soup. Cover and cook 30-40 minutes.

Yes, PM, I do. As I said, I like them better, and they aren't as fragile, so they are easier for the kids to handle if The Princess wants to make some. They also are a bit more substantial for the spreading of Nutella/etc. I did grow some corn and grind my own meal, but I use Aunt Jemima brand too, it's the only thing available at my local groceries. I did buy some Brinser's at the local Amish grocery and liked it very much, but the kids didn't like it as well. It was coarser and not as sweet, which made great hoe cakes and cornbread, but the kids want those sweet/fluffy muffin type cornbreads. Southern cornbread that Elery grew up with has no flour, no sugar and white cornmeal. I grew up on "johnny cake" which is sweeter and has flour and yellow cornmeal. So I use his recipe and it's gluten free anyway, and the kids just put butter and honey or sorghum on it and it's sweeter, LOL. I use this recipe for the crepes. I've used coconut milk in place of the dairy successfully, but I've never tried to leave out or replace the egg. Gluten Free Easy Crepes Recipe makes 10 crepes (depends on your pan size!) Ingredients: 2/3 cup milk 1/3 cup (or 50g) cornstarch 1 egg 2 teaspoons olive oil or melted butter pinch of salt Directions: Mix (I used a small whisk) all ingredients until very well blended. Spritz a pan (small, nonstick) with olive oil. Preheat the pan over medium-high heat. Pour 2 Tablespoons of batter into the pan while swirling the pan. Continue to swirl the pan – OFF the heat! – until the batter begins to bubble and there is no longer excess batter to swirl. Cook for 20-40 seconds (the first crepe takes the longest… this time is for the quicker crepes) or until steam is puffing out the sides. Quickly and with some care, flip the crepe and cook and additional 15-20 seconds. Continue until all the batter is used. (Depending upon your pan, you may not have to spritz it with oil between crepes.) Annie