Here is a recipe I have had since the 70's and it is very good. 1 large 36oz can unsweetened pineapple juice 1 12 oz can frozen orange juice concentrate 1 12 oz can frozen lemonade concentrate 1/2 cup sugar 6 cups water 2 quarts ginger ale or one bottle of champagne dissolve 1/2 cup sugar in 6 cups of water. Add orange juice and lemonade concentrate and amount of water called for on each can. usually 3 cans each add pineapple juice. Pour into containers and freeze. I use old 1/2 gallon milk cartons. This makes 1 and 1/2 gallons mix. When ready to serve, thaw until slushy add the ginger ale or champagne. This can be done in a punch bowl or in a pitcher. I usually use half mixture and half ginger ale when serving if making in a pitcher. Sometimes I make it up and just let it completely thaw in fridge and mix it half and half with ginger ale in a glass for one serving at a time. I have mixed it up and just used it, didn't freeze. Pretty versatile stuff.

My chili can't have any powder in it. No chili powder, no garlic powder, no onion powder. It has to have the real stuff.... peppers, galic, and onions. Tomatoes are the key to good chili. No good tomatoes and no good chili can result. Different types of tomato give a whole different character to chili. Yellow tomatoes make a sweet chili and reds more sour. Very ripe tomatoes cook down into juice and greener ones stay chunky longer. Peppers cover a huge flavor spectrum. At the moment I have potted jalapeno, cayenne, and habenera growing in my kitchen. I have two cultivars of habenera... the Burpee hab and the Red Savina. Not happy with my Red Savinas and will be growing another red cultivar next year. The orange Burpee habeneras are nice... tangy with plenty of heat. Jalapenos go in my chili not so much for heat as for green pepper flavor. Pepper "bite" will cook down over time to warm flavor tones. Sometimes I add a couple jalapenos at the end of the cooking to put a little bite back into the flavor. Habeneras have a fairly mean bite so they have to be cooked down some... for most people that is. Onions come in several types. Mostly I look at when they go in. In early and they cook down to become a sweet flavor. Late and they stay hot and crunchy. Hard to beat fresh garlic but again cooking time will blunt the flavor. A big part of garlic flavor is the smell and that is lost over time. Cumin is essential but more is not always better. An excessive amount can take on a bitter tone. Old cumin is often bitter to me. Usually the best is whole seed that is cracked and cooked awhile. Many here rightly advise toasting the seed. As with garlic the essential oils are critical to cumin flavor. Cumin has to cook some to get the oil out but extended cooking can cook off the delicious smell of cumin. Beans... red beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, black beans... they all give a different flavor. Mixing them up can have a cool visual affect. If you like paste style chili try adding refried beans... eat it with a fork. I frequently add cabbage. Cabbage adds lots of fiber, sweetness, and sometimes has a hot pepper like heat. I make a skillet chili that features crunchy cabbage and onions with very little liquid. So no I don't have a recipe for you. Hard to make bad chili if you work with good stuff. Add cumin, garlic, peppers at the start and again a few minutes towards the end of cooking. It will be the smell that draws people to it... if it smells good to them they will love eating it. I posted a beef heart version of my chili on the soup thread. It was excellent with a mild vension taste quality. I can get free cow parts so that was my motivation for using heart meat. Often I buy a bottom round roast and boil that in tomatoes until it falls apart... very thick meaty chili without any grain or starch thickeners. : ) lyra

Bringing this to the top again. This is my Mom's awesome carrot cake that I make regularly. Carrot Cake 2 cups flour 1 1/2 tsp baking soda 2 tsp baking powder 2 tsp cinnamon 2 cups sugar 4 eggs, beaten 1 1/2 cups vegetable oil 8 1/2 oz can crushed pineapple well-drained 3 1/2 cups grated carrot 1/2 cup chopped walnuts Icing: 8 oz cream cheese, softened 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened 1 tbsp sour cream 1/2 tsp vanilla 1 cup icing sugar In a large bowl sift flour baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Add sugar, eggs and oil and beat with electric mixer. Stir in carrots, pineapple and walnuts; mix well. Grease and flour a 9x13" baking dish. Bake in 375 degree oven 45-55 minutes until done. For icing, beat cream cheese, butter, sour cream and vanilla. Add icing sugar and beat well. Cool cake and spread with icing and garnish with more chopped walnuts.

We are probably talking cake cake, although the recipes I found called it pound cake. But it certainly isn't the traditional pound cake with the equal portions. I've found a bundt cake. The only problem is I don't have lemons to zest. I used to always skip over lemon zest in recipes until my secretary gave me one of the rasp-like zesters! Changed my life. However, I have lemon juice that I froze when I bought a bunch of lemons for decoration. Maybe I'll give it a go and just add a skosh more lemon juice to make up for the lack of zest. Here's the recipe from Amy's Healthy Baking blog. Never tried any of her recipes before. Lemon Bundt Cake with Almond drizzle for the cake 1/2 c granulated sugar 1/2 c water 1 tsp lemon zest (about 1 tiny lemon) 1 c all-purpose flour 1 tbsp baking powder 1/8 tsp salt 1 c low-fat ricotta 1 tsp vanilla extract 1 egg (or 2 egg whites) for the drizzle 1/2 c powdered sugar 1/4 tsp almond extract 1/2 tsp lemon juice 1/2 to 1 tsp water To prepare the cake, combine the sugar, water, and lemon zest in a small pot on the stove. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring frequently, and boil for 1-2 minutes. Let the sugar syrup cool for 10-15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350°, and coat a 6-cup bundt pan with nonstick baking spray with flour. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar syrup, ricotta, and vanilla until smooth. Add in the egg, mixing well. Add in the flour mixture, stirring just until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake at 350° for 40-45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. To prepare the drizzle, whisk together the powdered sugar, almond extract, lemon juice, and 1/4 teaspoon of the water. Stir in more water, a little at a time, until the drizzle reaches the desired consistency. Drizzle decoratively over the top of the bundt cake.