I was at a nursery yesterday that had gallon pots of Mac n cheese... 4 pots in bloom. One looked like the photo.. no quilling... nice flowers. The others looked like Tiki Torch. Not even close to a yellow.. just orange. Hopefully just mislabeled pots. And they had a Tomato Soup gallon that had a single bloom... again a very nicely formed flower... and the red actually matched the label... nice and vibrant red. It will be interesting to see if they hold their color though for very long.

We'll see. I just looked around my local nursery (was actually looking for moonbeam) and spotted this one. I had never heard of that particular one, and thought "What the heck" I might as well try it and see how it does! It has the color I want more than moonbeam too.

Mom makes a Lochshen Krugel thatÂs sweet with raisins. This isnÂt an especially sweet noodle pudding. I found the recipe years ago when I was making a lot of homemade cottage cheese when I was milking my first Jersey cow. I adapted it with the Ricotta later when I started milking the goats. Sue if you can find it in your area you may want to try goats milk ricotta if youÂre lactose intolerant. A lot of people tell me that they can drink the goats milk and eat milk products from the goats milk that canÂt tolerate cowÂs milk. Maybe you wonÂt have to be noble. NOODLE PUDDING 8 oz wide noodles 1 lb dry Cottage Cheese or Ricotta 2 eggs, beaten 1 Tbsp sugar 1/4 c. butter or margarine, melted 1/2 c. sour cream 1 tsp salt 1/8 tsp pepper to taste Cook and drain noodles according to package instructions. Mix with remaining ingredients. Pour into greased 1-1/2 quart casserole and bake in 375* oven for about 45 min until firm in center. * Note - make sure the noodles are covered with the mixture or the noodles will be crunchy. INCREASED SAUCE **1-1/2 lbs Ricotta **3 eggs **1-1/2 Tbsp sugar **6 Tbsp butter **3/4 c. sour cream ** 1-1/2 tsp salt **Pepper to taste ** Note increase - If you 1/2 again the "sauce" it will be less dry and a creamier finished product. But you will have to bake it 15-20 min. longer.** Hope that's not confusing. Mike

I'm glad you liked it, Alexa. A few years ago, I put about 200 of our family favorite recipes onto a CD for our girls. Every one had the story of the recipe that often prompted memories of more than just that one dish. Here's the rambling one for the tomato pudding: THE STORY: Sometimes we forget that in previous generations, not many fresh vegetables were available in the winter. Since she was a little girl, one of NanaÂs favorite foods was tomatoes. Her birthday was in winter so your great-grandmother would always keep a jar or two of home canned tomatoes set aside for her birthday. SheÂd make what they called tomato pudding for dinner that night. She used her own stale bread crumbs instead of the Pepperidge Farm but that most closely resembles the flavor my mom remembered. That's why we still have this dish at Thanksgiving Dinner - to remember to be thankful for canned tomatoes. LOL Every summer, Aunt Bertie would host two or three canning weeks. We'd stay there, along with Nana, Aunts Betty, Evelyn, Margie and their kids. We'd have assembly lines to can and freeze all sorts of fruits and vegetables but tomatoes, peaches, raspberries, corn and green beans were the ones I remember most vividly. With the tomatoes, we'd can them plain, stewed, as ketchup, spaghetti sauce, straight tomato juice, and a variation of V-8 that my dad really liked. No salsa in those days. For years, Jodi and I were the tomato (and peach) peelers. Greg and Linda were the boilers and would dip the tomatoes in boiling water for just a few seconds and then put them into a cake pan to cool a bit before we slipped the skins off and passed them along. Along the same lines, people would add small chunks of bread to thicken and "stretch" stewed tomatoes, even in restaurants. I hadnÂt thought of that until now because you rarely see the bread added anymore and I haven't make them that way since the 1960's.