No, not yet. Last year was unusually warmer, so I planted some tomatoes in early Feb in paper pots. I moved the seedlings into ground at some point. But the weather subsided and tomatoes did not really grow, but grew at a very slow rate. Comparing these to ones I planted later in March or April in ground, the ones planted earlier in February weren't any bigger. The ones planted in warmer season grew faster and caught up in size. So, I'm not planting any tomatoes until mid March to April.

The first food I remember making was Roly-Polies when I was about four. It wasn't until about a year or two ago that my cousin discovered this snapshot of me making them. I'd roll out the scraps from my mother's pie crust between two sheets of waxed paper. Then I'd spread it with peanut butter and cinnamon/sugar, roll it up, slice, and put on a cookie sheet for my mom to bake. As an only child, I was my mom's sous chef (tipping beans, whipping cream, decorating cookies, etc.) and I learned a step at a time, always thinking it was fun. All the women in our family used to congregate at my aunt's house in the summer for a week or two of canning and freezing vast amounts of food for the year. I started as a tomato and peach skin peeler. My dad and two uncles had boats so cleaning fish and picking crabs was the beginning of my seafood cooking education. My friends and I used to make little stoves out of potato chip cans and coat hangers and have simple cookouts on them. We'd also wrap potatoes in clay and roast them in a bonfire while we were ice skating and things like that. My cooking skills progressed so that when my father was killed when I was 12 and my mother went to work full-time, I made most of the dinners for us. That's when I started experimenting with different kinds of soups and stews that could be heated up and eaten at any time. When I was 16, I acquired a stepfather who was a wonderful cook (although a little heavy on weird stuff like souse and blood pudding that I'd never seen made before). Around then, one of the grocery stores offered a 12-volume set of the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery and WOW, did my culinary adventures shift into high gear! We'd have a dinner of dishes from Denmark, followed by English jam tarts the next week. I was fortunate to have a roommate for my first college apartment who knew how to cook just about anything. While our classmates were eating ramen noodles and hot dogs, we were having tasty meals on the same budget. We also used to prepare venison and other game dinners for hunters at a set price per head, which was our first commercial cooking venture. So that's my youthful culinary history. Cooking has always seemed to be interwoven with other activities in my life but rarely played a major role in it.

mnerg - I did that very thing but for a different reason. I live in a remote town in Alaska and the 'bakery' here only has pansy bread...meaning soft, pillowy - NOT the kind you'd need to stand up to French-onion soup! It worked out just fine. I prefer not to have my bread soaked, anyway. But, I think if I were to ever make it again with some really good hard-crusted bread I can get in Anchorage, I will try the broiler method...just so I can say "I did it!" I may go back to the other way...we'll have to see. I think part of the French-onion soup experience is the cutting into the gooey, stringy cheese along with the soup & stringing it up to your mouth :)

I'm keeping Thanksgiving low key this year. Thursday meal will be just me, DH and our daughter. They have simple tastes so no need to go overboard. Frozen turkey has almost defrosted after being in frig four days, so that's good to roast tomorrow. Bought a bag of cranberries today. We will have turkey, gravy, cornbread, baked potatoes, broccoli (plain steamed), and cranberry sauce. Daughter might make us a pecan pie when she arrives tomorrow. We're already planning a turkey soup & sandwich leftover meal with the rest of my family here in town, and then with DH's family a few hours south. Today I bought a frozen turkey breast to ensure we have enough leftovers to share :-)