Great BB! I love the pink butterflies! And adorable in your flamingo garden. All in all you get an A+ in MY book! As for faded flamingos, you can always spray paint them with Krylon Fusion paint for plastic. I haven't noticed that it fades, so maybe you wouldn't need to repaint them yearly and turn them into "blobs" like excessfroufrou and her grandma did! (I'm LOLing imagining big pink blobs on top of spindly flamingo legs...LOL!) I've got a flamingo story to share...We lived in a "fancy" neighborhood one time and a new family who owned the local biker bar moved in. They put up an entire flock of pink flamingos and some neighbors were so horrified they started a petition to force them to remove them. Now, these people could have bought and sold ALL of the rest of us 10 times over, but the snooty neighbors were simply "above" bikers in their minds. When we refused to sign their silly petition, they got mad at us, too. Apparently they shared the petition with the owners of the flock who laughed it off. None of us realized how upset the anti-flamingo crowd was until one night somebody stold all the flamingos and CHOPPED THEM up into little pieces and threw them in the street in front of the house they came from. It could have gotten ugly, but the bikers were nice people who weren't looking for a fight. Nobody ever found out who actually "killed" the flamingos! At Christmas that year, Hallmark came out with the cutest flamingo ornament. I bought one for each of the neighbors...including the very nice neighbors who owned the biker bar! And, we have had flamingos of one type or another in our yard ever since!

Happygram, that's the best Hagadah I've every seen! I'll never forget my uncle leaning over gently to my cousin one year who was chanting on in Hebrew for hours, saying "Son, isn't there a shortened version some where? Don't get me wrong, you're doing a wonderful job, but could we maybe abbreviate this a little?" I was also thinking that the difference between Passover matzoh and "non-Passover" matzoh, is probably about 2 bucks.

Oh! Westsider's must be the quickie way. I've never done them in a covered pot. It's great that the butcher is putting all those parts together for you, agmss, so you don't have to break down the chickens yourself to get them and still make the best use of your sister's chickens. Since she's giving you fat, here's what I do to render it: Rendering chicken fat Put the lumps of fat in a little pan with a small onion or half a large onion, cut into large pieces. Don't put in too much onion or it'll soak up all the fat. Never turn your back on it while it's on the heat. Start on a medium high heat until the fat starts to melt. Turn it down a bit so it won't spatter Once all the fat is melted, turn it off and let it cool just a little.. Pick out the onion and any other solids with a fork, or use a strainer. Put a spoon in a clean glass jar (sterile if you're not going to use it all up right away). The spoon keeps the jar from breaking. Pour in the fat, carefully. (Remove the spoon.) Cover and chill. Keep in the refrigerator. When the fat solidifies the onion juice will separate out of it, on the bottom, as you'll see through the jar. The fat will be yellow from the onion, as well. Once it's solid, chicken fat can be frozen in an airtight package. Don't put a glass jar in the freezer. ------------ So, in my house, he who wants to eat chopped chicken liver gets to make chopped chicken liver. :) I checked. It's the sinew that makes it bitter, but it's easy to remove. Here's a great little how to de-sinew chicken livers video. Also make sure to remove any bits that aren't the right color. :) LPink, I don't judge! If the mix suits you, why not? Some mixes are very good.

That sounds like a fun and delicious day. Years and years ago my mom and aunts would can together, and I'd be assigned a task or two, but I've never really done any group canning or freezing. I'm an anomaly I guess. My DH helps me quite a bit when I'm canning or freezing. He's a master at dismantling the tomato press and cleaning and re-assembling! I once taught a group of young colleagues to can, we made Dilly Beans, but I suspect none of them ever tried it alone. Enjoy the fruits of your labors!