I haven't made any for a long time so don't remember what I used except orrisroot. I have a couple of articles that give ideas tho.(I'm trying to organize my craft patterns & ideas into large notebooks )Victoria magazine Dec. 1991 page 116 has Christmas potpourri-2 cups dried cedar tips, 1 1/2 c. bay leaves, 3/4 c.dried orange rind, 1/2 c.cinnamon pieces or chips, 1/4 c. rose hips,2 dried orange slices, 2 pomegranates, 2 pomegranate stars, 2 doz. assorted pinecones of all sizes, 2 Tbs. orrisroot chips or cellulose chips,10 drops cinnamon oil,5 drops bergamot oil,1 drop pine oil. Gild some pinecones, bay leaves & 1 pomegranate with a good gold color paint, let dry, Mix orrisroot & oils in small container. Place remaining ingredients in another container with a tight fitting lid. Add the orrisroot/oil mixture to it cover & put in dark cool place, shake occasionally for 2 or 3 weeks. Place in pretty bowl. To make the dried orange slices Cut juice oranges thinly & place on rack in a single layer put in oven at 200degrees with door ajar. Bake until they are thoroughly dry to the touch. About 12 hrs.or dry slices in a dehydrator. Victoria 1987/88 winter magazine suggests making nosegays(sachets) of dried flowers, I dry roses & buds from mini roses, fragrant herbs & cinnamon sticks. I think huggybear made sachets of lavender, don't know if she had anything else in them or not. Look at Dec. 2008 stuff down at bottom here & you should come across her beautiful ones. Another article I have suggests tea leaves, garden herbs like cinnamon, whole allspice, whole cloves, rosemary, thyme,vanilla bean ,lemon balm, adding fragrance oils,such as rose, lavender,orange, better pharmacies & health food stores are places to get the oils, not same as extracts-much stronger & keep away from kids-could be very dangerous(bro. was saved by having had ice cream before he climbed in stove & got mom's peppermint oil. He reeked for quite awhile. ice cream coated his throat & stomach. Dried apples have been popular in recent yrs also but some of this stuff is strictly for a fancy bowl of potpourri & some could be used as sachets, I had article on making your own lotions & sachets & bath salts etc, but I can't find it . So hope this helps! Jan

I highly, highly, highly recommend Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. I love her book, it's worn and creased and highlighted and photocopied and adored in this household. It gives you everything you need to know in easy step by step directions in making your own baby food, focusing on fruits, veggies and whole grain cereals. It will tell you which foods you can use at each monthly stage and teach you how to choose the most nutrious for your baby. The back index are very helpful, it lists every fruit and vegie imaginable and tells what to look for when buying, how to store, how to cook, and what monthly age your baby can try it. As a new mom, this book gave me so much confidence in how to serve my family healthy meals. I even recommend this book to people without kids because it's such a good primer on how to eat healthy. When you're a pro at baby food, go a few chapters down and she'll help you make fun & nutritious foods for toddlers, (don't have to rely on goldfish or gummie snacks--filled w/ artificial colors and preservatives, which some kids are allergic or highly sensitive to) plus fun things like homemade play dough and bubbles. Can't recommend this book enough!!!! Any more and you'd think I was proffiting from it : ) I have profitted in that I've saved $$ on jars and toddler snacks, plus my kids are rarely sick. Here is a link that might be useful: Super Baby Food, Ruth even answers her emails!

Lindac, when I lived in norway my house mother would often make marzipan (and she taught me how). She would then roll it out like a dough and cover cakes with it. Her typical cake was 2 store bought sponge layers, sliced in half so you get four layers. Each layer was spread with some combo of jam, fruit (kiwi and strawberry were her faves) and whipped cream. Each layer was a little different. Then top with the marzipan dough like you would fondant and refrigerate. It was very good and not overly sweet. We would decorate the top with marzipan rose buds. She never put coloring in the dough that covered the whole cake, just the roses. It was best eaten that day because the fruit and cream would make the cake soggy. Of course, you can let your imagination take off with other fillings and cakes... Her recipe for marzipan was equal parts, in grams, of powdered sugar and almonds. She bought the almonds and blanched them, then let them sit at room temperature for a few days. Put it all in the blender and that was it. No egg whites or corn syrup or other things I've seen in recipes. I've tried it once here but it didn't work. I think I may have blanched the almonds for too long. I waited too long after coming back to the states to make it and forgot the details of her technique. :(

Hello! Thank you, Marilyn, for at least answering my post. I don't think this particular forum gets much traffic, because this was posted some time ago. Also, I am very interested in your mushroom/tofu burger recipe, but your e-mail address was not on your page. If you do not want to post it on the forum, can you cut and paste the recipe on the forum in reply? While I am not a partciular fan of Boca Burgers, I wanted something that was not as expensive. The Morningstar Grillers in my area are just pennies short of $4.00 a package. At almost $1.00 a patty, that's much more expensive than hamburger. They weren't cheap when Worthington produced Morningstar, but since Kellogg bought them, I can never seem to find them on sale at a reasonable price. Again, the tofu sounds interesting, but I have found unfortunately that while I like it a lot, I have to lace it with soy sauce (when making tofu spread), or fry it until it cannot be called healthy anymore. I have had it fried at a a good Chinese restaurant - I think they called it mandarin tofu - and you could tell it hadn't been boiled in fat because it wasn't puffy, just crispy. I have not been able to replicate this-I guess they used rice starch or something like that. If I could learn how they did it, it would make a decent burger-like patty. Happy gardening! Borealis