Diane - A word of warning on the pecans...they will not keep long if they are cracked unless you freeze them. Of course that may not be a problem, if you are eating them that fast. LOL The reason that I know this is that my niece gave me a bag of cracked ones one time and I left them in the bag for a little too long. One day I opened the door to the room where they were and I had about a thousand littles moths flying around. They had hatched out and been well fed in the bag of pecans. Diane - You have come to the right place for the piecrust. I cannot even stand the thought of using lard and I think it would be way to much trouble if I had to do the frozen chipped butter thing, or the ice water thing that some people do. Warning: You are going to think this ingredient list looks funny, but give it a try. Make sure you have waxed paper. 2 cups flour (scant) 1 teaspon salt 1/2 cup cooking oil 1/4 cup buttermilk You can stir this with a spoon and it should be a soft dough. It will be much softer to roll out than most pie crusts. The trick is in handling the crust, so read this part carefully. Take out a little more than half for the bottom crust and place it between two sheets of waxed paper. Roll out with a rolling pen. After you have rolled it to the proper thickness, remove the top sheet of paper by carefully pulling it from one side. Lay it back down on the dough again. That was just to release it from the paper and make it release better later on. With both sheets back in place, flip the entire thing over so the bottom piece of paper is now the top piece. Remove the paper that is now on top and set it aside. Now here is the tricky part. Pick up the dough, still on the paper, by using both hands placed about 2/3 back on the crust and your pie pan in front of you. Let 2/3 hang toward you and let the 1/3 drop back over your hands. Starting with the 2/3 part, place it in your pan with the paper still attached. As you lay it down, the paper is now on top. Now slowly peel off the paper. This sounds like it slow process, but it really isn't after you get the hang of handling the dough. If you have a problem, just patch it. Since you didn't add more flour in the rolling out process, you can throw the scraps back into the bowl and use them as part of the next crust. I have quadrupled this recipe several times without any difficulty but I would suggest you make it as a single pie the first time so you know how the dough should feel. I predict you will never go back, once you have tried this one. Very little mess to clean up since the rolling pin never touched the crust, and there is no flour mess to contend with.

Stick blenders are the greatest things since "sliced bread!" I've been making smoothies this hot summer: vanilla yogurt, milk, a frozen banana, some berries or peaches, and buzzzzzzzz away, pour in a glass, hmmmmm......and they do quick work to make a smooth pureed soup! Love those homecanned goodies! Great swap box, Nancy! Do not eat all that fudge a one sitting, Shaun! Teresa

I have not read about this particular diet, but I'm trying to get more fiber in my diet to help with diverticulosis. Here is some information I have found: ~ making your own whole grain or multi-grain bread is a good idea; just watch how much plain (white) all-purpose flour is in the recipe as that is not the way to get whole grains; add unprocessed wheat bran and wheat germ to bread recipes ~ add more barley, oatmeal, and brown rice to your eating habits; I cook up both barley and brown rice in 2 cup (uncooked) portions then freeze the extra in 1 cup (cooked) portions for later use ~ eat 3-5 servings of fruit and veggies every day, with as many of them eaten raw as you can ~ add cooked dried beans (mashed) to meatloaf, meatballs, casserole, meat sauce, chili, taco meat; or you can add 1 TB unprocessed wheat bran to these recipes as you are making them ~ for snacks, eat fresh fruit (not fruit juice), pretzels, baked tortilla chips with bean dip, fresh veggie sticks with an herbed yogurt dip. Brown rice might take some getting used to, but the more you eat it the better it tastes! A Mexican pizza could be made with a flour tortilla, topped with seasoned mashed pintos or refried beans, some taco seasoned ground beef if you want, cheese - then top with shredded lettuce, diced onion, tomato, olives, peppers, jalapenos, any topping you like on a taco. You could drizzle some taco sauce or salsa over all if you like a spicy sauce.

It's summer again, and I'm bringing back this thread with a few comments, updates. Gosh, I've made more ice cream than I thought I ever would! DH loves the stuff, so all winter I kept him in ice cream. Ha! I'll mention again the 2 cookbooks I've referenced: The Perfect Scoop, and Ciao Bella Book of Gelato and Sorbetto. For ice cream making, I'd not recommend the cuisinart with the compressor as it's honkin' huge, and heavy. I love mine, but I had room. If you've got room in the freezer for an ice bucket, the other cuisenart's are probably just as nice! Ciao bella's sorbetto is my preferred method - making a simple syrup, then adding that to the fruit (blend the fruit until ultra smooth with a blender or stick blender). No gritty sugar. Smooth! And if you're fruit is overripe, it's perfect, just use less sugar in your simple syrup. These are incredibly refreshing, and peach remains my favorite. For ice cream, I prefer David Lebovitz' Perfect Scoop, with some changes to suit us. I use the vanilla base for pretty much every ice cream (except DH's favorite, which remains Lars's Strawberry ice cream). I do put the egg yolk mixture (i.e.: the whole thing after being tempered) back onto the cooktop and cook to a spoon-coating custard. Always. But I find 3-4 yolks is plenty. My current favorite is Madagascar vanilla bean, where you scald the milk, sugar, and cream with the bean seeds and pods, turn off the heat, cover and steep 30 minutes. Then I proceed to adding that to the rest of the cream and the beaten egg yolks. Then back to the cooktop to heat until it coats a wooden spoon. Without the vanilla bean, I use this same method for coffee ice cream, chocolate, and any other flavor which suits my fancy : ) And I always run it through a sieve. Recently I got busy, and ordered Schwan's ice cream, and gelato. They used to be known for good ice cream. Guess I've made too much of high-fat home-made, as nothing tastes as good as that which I make now! The trick is, don't eat as much! Also, in the Perfect Scoop, there's a fudge ripple recipe (you can find it here) which keeps in the fridge a good while. Drizzle from a spoon into your ice cream as you are putting it in the container. Makes for a very rich chocolate swirl. Please feel free to post your tips and favorite ice cream recipes, or peruse above, as there are several good ones! Recently made: Mango sorbettoAnd earlier this year, madagascar vanilla bean (the yellower color is from the vanilla bean, moreso than the yolks: