I prefer from scratch. I did a little research on some recipes and came up with this one. I decided to make little bundtlettes but it could be made in a standard sized bundt pan or in loaf pans. Vanilla Bean Butter-Rum Poundcakes 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature 1 cup granulated sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 vanilla bean 1-1/2 cups flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature Glaze 1/2 cup granulated sugar 1/4 cup butter 1-1/2 tablespoons water pinch of salt 2 tablespoons dark rum Preheat oven to 350 F. Butter and flour muffin tin. Cream butter in bowl of mixer. Slowly add sugar and beat for two minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition of egg. Add vanilla extract. Split vanilla bean and scrape inside into batter. Reserve vanilla bean pod. Beat for approximately two more minutes, until batter is fluffy and creamy. Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. At low speed, add flour mixture alternately with buttermilk, ending with flour mixture. Pour batter into prepared pan, and bake for 30 - 35 minutes, or until golden and cake tester comes out clean. Remove pan to cooling rack set over baking sheet for 5 minutes. Remove cakes from pan to cooling rack. Poke several holes in each cake with thin skewer/ cake tester. Pour glaze slowly over cakes until cakes absorb glaze and glaze is used up. Serve when completely cooled. Make glaze: Put sugar, butter, water, vanilla pod, and salt to small saucepan. Stirring constantly, bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in rum. Remove pod when ready to pour over cakes. Lori Here is a link that might be useful: All That Splatters - Vanilla Bean Butter Rum Poundcakes

This one starts out with a box mix, which I generally don't do, but this recipe is a favorite of mine. It is from the Fredericksburg Herb Farm in Texas. I always order this whenever I visit their tea room. ~ Suzie Rosemary and Orange Rum Cake with Glorious Glaze 1 (2-layer) package yellow cake mix 1 small package vanilla instant pudding mix 1 tablespoon finely minced fresh rosemary Grated zest of one orange ½ cup water ½ cup canola oil ½ cup light rum 4 eggs 1 cup chopped pecans Combine cake mix, pudding mix, rosemary and orange zest in a food processor. Process until mixed. Add water, oil and rum; mix well. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Stir in pecans. Pour into bundt pan sprayed with non-stick baking spray. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour or until wooden pick comes out clean. Pour Glorious Glaze over cake in pan. Allow glaze to soak into pan completely before removing cake. Invert cake so that glazed top is facing up. Garnish with fresh rosemary sprigs. Glorious Glaze ½ cup unsalted butter 1 cup sugar ¼ cup water ¼ cup rum Bring butter, sugar, water and rum to a boil in saucepan. Boil until mixture reaches soft-ball stage or 235 degrees on candy thermometer.

Thanks for your reply, so at least I know it should dry somewhat, we had a hot day and the finish felt a bit better, I used 400 wet sand paper on a block of wood followed by 000 synthetic steel wool, to rub down the stain a bit so it is not as thick, and hopefully cure better.. adding some water too I have alot of control. It brought back some of the grain details in areas that are too thick. At this point I am going to continue with the finishing without stripping. The pillar is the solid oak, it has not been rubbed yet but but it might become too light if I do. With this minwax stain, there was just no way I could achieve this level of color without glazing and dry brushing, at least on oak. I wish I researched more and used a more professional stain product that gives less headache, the repeated coats really left alot of bubbles and particles.. hopefully the layers of clear coat will embed and give a flat surface and hide the imperfections a bit. Note this is the english chestnut color and I had originally not planned to go this dark but the uneven tone of the stain kind of lead me to this. I am going to use a spray can sanding sealer that dries in 15-30 minutes it should not be enough time interact with the finish, especially if I left the stain cure for longer.

So, my tablet locked up, but the Submit button worked, so I did a submit and edit, p and I finished with a lot more to the previous. I might have overdone it—please don't feel obligated to read! no problem anout the thread. We don't have thread police here, and Floral’s article answered all my questions, plus added some interesting ideas, so I'm set for the dessert. I'm mostly Ashkenazie, middle Europe, if that's what you wanted to know, but one of my grandfathers, a scholar, grew up in what is now Israel, and his family had a lot of Eastern influences as well, which is where lamb and rice for Seder come in. Both of my grandmothers were modern women, and I think their mothers as well, before it was ”modern”, so we nowhere have the tradition that the family must follow the husband's traditions. Frankly, I think that's just a rule for peace in the home (itself an important rule of Jewish life)—that is, if you can't agree on how things should be, that's the tiebreaker. :) That's not what's said, but I prefer to think of it that way, So ”fish balls in a jar” might have been any number of things. Some jarred gefilte fish is fine. Some is pretty good. A lot is deeply disgusting. It's usually packed in its own aspic, which is fishy slime. Some people actually like eating it. I don't think you have to have fish allergies to find it revolting. For Passover one is to be more strictly kosher than normal. I don't keep kosher daily (long divergence there, so I'll skip the explanations). I do try to keep the meal meat only, and avoid things that by their nature could never be kosher. Except, I couldn't keep the family out of the Matzah Toffee, which has butter. You make a toffee of butter and brown sugar, spread it over matzah, sprinkle liberally with chocolate chips, melt in a hot oven for a few minutes, spread the chocolate evenly with a spatula, then sprinkle with high end trail mix (nuts and dried fruit bits), melt for another minute. When cool, chill overnight on the baking sheet in the fridge. Break into bite sized shards and keep in an airtight bowl in the fridge. Some people call it Matzah Crack, not because you crack it into pieces, but because it's irresistable, and my family figure if it's down to coffee and fruit, it's not butter on the seder table. I haven't heard of the smeared with version you described—nor the canned tuna based fish loaf—but they're recognizable. :) So too is the strata made with layers of veg and matzah. And eggs. I invented one when I was young, which I thought was merely serviceable, and a former roommate called months later for the ”recipe”. As if there was one. ;) Luckily, I was young enough to remember it. Blessing the greens is one of the 15 steps of the Seder, fairly early in the service. It's the parsley or other green herb dipped in salt water (for more see my previous, added-to, post), The nut salad is called ”charoset”, and among other things symbolizes the mortar used by the Israelites in building for the Egyptians, There are all kinds of different charosets, some mostly fruit, others soupier, others more of a paste. Kind of Ashkenazie standard is apples and walnuts chopped together with wine, based on what was easily available in Northern Europe in early Spring. My father's way is one apple, lots of pecans, cinnamon and sweet concord grape wine, chopped slowly, with his big knife, adding more wine and cinnamon, bit by bit, so it gets cut right into the apples and pecans as they get minced. Then they're put in a container and covered with wine, in the fridge for a few days, with the occaisional stir, adding more wine as needed, as it's absorbed. Unbelieveably good! I can come close using a spring driven manual nut chopper, but nothing is like my father's big knife. I make an avocado charoset for my two cousins with nut allergies (eaten by all, since it's good), and a date and nut based one I learned here for variety. The blessings over the matzah are the standard one for bread (for bringing the grain from the earth) and one for the commandment to eat matzah. After that, we put bitter herb (the horseradish) symbolizing bondage and toil, on a bit of matzah, mellowed by the sweetness of the charoset added to it, and say the blessing for the commandment to eat bitter herbs. Then there’s the Hillel sandwich which used to be a bit of lamb and a slice of horseradish between pieces of matzah (no, the earl of Sandwich was known for what he’d eat while gambling, but was hardly the first!), but since an interpretation in the 16th century of the common era said that eating lamb was a temple (the actual one in Jerusalem) thing, there's no lamb. It's one of the steps of the modern Seder, and some go just horseradish and a ”Whoa!”, which my family have always done, but there's nothing holy about horseradish. We have at keast two kinds of bitter herbs on the Seder plate, which might include kale, and popularly romaine, though since the lettuce blight and rise in production and consumption of romaine, it's just not that bitter anymore. Many people prefer a bit of bitter veg for this, understandably! Beesneeds, you have a great memory for what you experienced. Following the really horrible false propoganda demonizing Jews, especially in Europe, we have a tradition to invite outsiders to Seder, to share the normal reality with them. How fun it must have been for those guys sharing with you and your sister!