Jeez, Deanna, I read that header and thought, "Am I in trouble again?" I felt like the kid heading to the principal's office. The recipe is my all-time favorite shortbread (and I am, unfortunately for my figure, a shortbread connaisseur). It's very delicate and crumbly, not a whole lot like you might think shortbread might be, but it is a great great cookie. Well, enough accolades. Don't want to keep you in suspense. This comes from Alice Medrich's book, "Cookies and Brownies." It's out of print, unfortunately. Note the absolutely absurd used price on Amazon. As if. She did a lot of experiments for the ultimate cookie in each category and discovered bleached flour does make a difference with some types. This is one of them. You decide. I know most people don't go the bleached flour route, but I buy it specifically for a few of these recipes. Nut Shortbread Categories : Desserts  Cookies Entertaining and Holiday Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour -- (bleached preferred) 1/2 cup nuts -- (pieces - toasted) 12 tablespoons unsalted butter 6 tablespoons sugar pinch salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 teaspoons sugar -- (for sprinkling on top) Pulse flour and nuts together in food processor until finely ground. In saucepan melt butter. Add sugar, salt and vanilla. Stir in flour/nut mixture. 9-inch round or 8-inch square pan or 9 1/2-inch fluted tart pan, greased or lined with foil. (Not necessary with stone pans.) Pat shortbread in pan. Refrigerate at least two hours or overnight. Preheat oven to 300°. Place rack in bottom third of oven. Bake shortbread 65-75 minutes. (A few minutes less for tart pan.) Sprinkle with sugar. Remove from pan and cut into pieces while still warm. Cool thoroughly. Keeps well in a tight tin or can be frozen. Description: "Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies page 25." Carol Here is a link that might be useful: Grotesquely Overpriced Used Book

That is how I have my DS Kindle set up - I didn't want it tied to my account, so I just bought him an Amazon card (they actually have Kindle ones, but any Amazon card works). I bought a $25 one from the grocery store - no fees. Check with your local library too! I can "check out" books from my local library, down load them via Amazon for free. I get to keep them on the Kindle for 2 or 3 weeks and they they take them off. In Iowa it is called WILBOR - and it works GREAT!!! I use my library card number to check them out, but I do it from my home computer.

I've received offer of information from Matthew Lesko of the unusual suit (and startled face) on internet, Pooh Bear. It relates to governments' and charitable foundations' grants, apparently related to a wide variety of uses. Some of the grants are available from the government, and likely one could find the basic information if one knew where to look, but it appears that he has assembled quite a lot of it in one place - what percentage of the total amount, one wonders, and is much of it really relevant for many of us? How current is it? It appears that he does give advice as to how to deal with the (apparently massive) red tape in making application. Some of the charitable foundations were originally funded by family-owned companies, with a foundation set up on the death of some of the original owners, e.g. Ford, Rockefeller, in order to save taxes and avoid being forced to sell enough of the company to lose control, and with the proviso that family members would manage the foundation. Such as Andrew Carnegie's support of libraries, I think - though I think he gave those gifts during his lifetime. Similar idea, though. The information about the various charitable foundations, may be assembled somewhere else, if one knew where to look. I remember a retired doctor dealing with tuberculosis treatment in Korea 45 years ago was looking for a grant from Rockefeller Foundation, I think it was. Seems to me that the cost of Lesko's information (book? CD?) is somewhat less than $40.00. I received information about another source, as well. Think I have the info here, somewhere. Will see if I can find it. Good wishes to you and yours. joyful guy

I got one to test it out thinking of my parents (I did get them one, but they pooh poohed it and won't bother learning how convenient it is). I is just a gadget, but it's constantly improving. You can turn off the microphone (though I'm sure a hacker could turn it back on), but I keep mine in the kitchen and I don't care who listens in there. :) There's a lot that it can do that are kind of scary. You can purchase things with a sentence, for instance. I don't know the details, because that doesn't interest me. There must be some kind of security check, maybe a voice print. I also don't want an integrated smart house system, because I don't want to deal with it when it fails, so I don't have lights or heat or anything hooked up to it. Besides, without having to walk over to the light switch or thermostat, considering we don't have to strike a flame with a flint and steel or lay a fire, how much more couch potato can we get? It might be useful to have the Echo control lights in a bedroom, or entryway, and all of it for someone with limited mobility. I love it in the kitchen for asking it the time or date, and especially for putting things on shopping lists. I've asked it a bunch of general knowledge search questions which it's very bad at, but it's getting better. The shopping list is my big use. Elbows deep in messing cooking, I can tell it to put something on the list. Or even just in the middle of something, it's much nicer than dropping it and running to a pad and pen. The list then shows up on the Alexa app on your smartphone or tablet. Instead of remembering my shopping list, I work at remembering to charge my phone, which is a good safety consideration anyway. You can also see your lists on the Amazon website. There's also a to-do list. The voice recognition is very good. Sometimes, it'll think it hears a command on the TV, like when there's a character named Alexis, or if it hears its name in a commercial, but that's rare. Even with the TV on, it usually understands my shopping list items. Recently, it couldn't figure out "mints", though. I don't know how well it does with accents. A feature I wanted for my mother was the reading. It will read your Kindle books to you, as well as playing Audible.com books. It'll mark the place so you can go back and forth between devices. I have to get her in a good mood to learn how to use it, though. The speaker is about what you'd expect for that kind of device. It's better than a phone, or backpack speaker, but that's not saying much. I also think it's probably playing MP3s rather than full file music, which makes it sound even flatter. I was baking the other day, however, and wanted some music, but my hands were messy and I didn't have much longer until cleanup anyway, making washing up to go turn on the stereo unappealing, so I told the Echo to play something and it was fine for the couple of songs until I was done. I won't play MP3's even in the car, however. I did a test with all the compression formats, and they lose too much color. I'm not so picky I have to have vinyl or something, but I'm still pretty picky about audio. If you're used to MP3's and earbuds, however, I don't think you'll have any problem with the Echo speaker. Most of the popular music you've bought from Amazon, at least for the last few years, should be in your music library, and there's a lot that you can add for free if you have Prime. There's a lot of other stuff you can do/get with Echo, and more being added daily, but that's mostly in the just a gadget category. Games and whatnot. It's the voice command/playback/home automation that make it special. Not revolutionary, but it comes in a nice little easy to use package.