Very neat idea! Be careful though....fish DO jump sometimes and since the islands are so low to the water one could land on the island and die. Believe me.....I had that happen. I made some giant styrafoam lily pads and painted them green for shade for my fish. They looked really good too!! Until one koi jumped on top and died. Really sad. I like floating rings made of PVC pipe and a piece of shade cloth streatched over the top. Cut a couple of slices in the shade cloth. that way if a fish lands up there and flops around, he is likely to hit one of the slices and drop back into the pond.

Cathy : How did I miss your Message ??? Sherry :This started when I asked my butcher to slice some Sirloin thin for Sandwich Steaks. He sliced them a little too thick for Philly cheese Steaks. Sooooooooo !!!! I used my imagination and came up with this.Not hard to do. Just found the recipe: From Luigis Kitchen Stuffed, Large Roasted Braciole , Surf and Turf. I dont think this has been done before but Im not sure. Here are the Stuffing Ingredients: Seasoned Bread Crumbs, 2 cups, with Garlic powder, 1/3 teaspoon Onion Powder, 1/3 teaspoon Salt and a Pinch of Old Bay Seasoning Parsley Crushed , 1 teaspoon Parmesan Cheese I tablespoon 1 Tablespn. of Pwd. egg, or 1 egg mixed with the 1/2cup water, below 1/3 cup of Onions chopped small and cooked 3 min. in Micro Wave ¼ teaspoon of Black Pepper Mix all these ingredients together well. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Other Ingredients for the stuffing are; 2 Hardboiled Eggs, sliced. ½ cup of Olives and Capers chopped Mushrooms ( optional ) Cooked Shrimp Pepperoni pieces Also, add whatever you like . Maybe some Provolone Cheese? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If using regular egg ,mix in here, when cool. In a ½ cup of hot water, mix 1 heaping teaspoon of, Chicken Soup Base and add this to the Bread Crumb mix. Dont mix too much ! And just blend to dampen, Not too wet. Lay one piece of Steak in a large Platter or whatever you choose. The piece in the Photo is about 6 in. X 12 in. Spread all the Bread Crumb stuffing mix on this evenly. Place all the Other Ingredients on the stuffing evenly. I put smaller pieces of the steak under the side and let them hang out for wrapping the Braciole as it is rolled. Lay another large piece ( the same size, as the bottom piece of the sirloin. Start rolling the steak, folding in the side pieces as you go. Hog tie the whole mess very good !!! I Browned this well and put it into the Waterless Roasting Cooker With 1/2 cup of water Now it is Ready, to go in the Oven with the Potatoes It baked 1 ¾ Hours,at 350 deg. The internal temperature went to 160 degrees.

I was born in 1947 and I can remember when water heaters had no insulation. They were simply an upright galvanized iron tank with a gas burner on the bottom in the same manner as the internal vessel in the modern water heater and water heaters were typically operated at 180degF. (My cousin Robert still has permanent burn scars on his face and shoulder from running into a water heater when horseplaying as a small child.) In those days water heaters had no T&P valve. Instead they had a "Blowout Plug" that would literally blow out of the tank wall when the internal pressure exceeded 150psi. (They worked in the same manner as the freeze plugs installed in automobile engines.) Water heaters had a thermostat on the gas control but there was no thermocouple or flame sensor so if the pilot flame went out and the thermostat called for heat it would blow raw gas into the house. I can remember many occassions when we would come home after being gone for the day and the moment the front door was opened someone hollered "GAS". That meant that the entire house was filled with the smell of Natural Gas, so Dad would open the front and back door and we would all sit in the car across the street for an hour or so till the house vented out praying all the while that the gas in the house would not be ignited by the fire in the old coal furnace, which would then produce an explosion and probably level the house. (These type of accidents were quite common in the early 50's). I can remember when water heater manufacturers were advertising they were on the cutting edge of Space Age Technology with insulated vessels and thermocouple protected pilot burners, of course the insulation blanket was a mere 1/2" of fiberglass with a sheet metal shell over it. Tank walls were still plenty hot but at least you wouldn't receive 3rd degree burns from touching one. Oh, by the way, did I forget to mention that most water heaters had no flue pipes in those days either? They simply vented into the room but that was no problem because in those days fuel was cheap and state of the art construction techniques in those days left so many cracks and crevices that on a cold winters nite you could sit in the living room and watch the drapes moving from the cold drafts around the windows. I find it very interesting to note that during the Viet Nam conflict we were supplying millions and millions of gallons of Jet fuel, Diesel Fuel and gasoline daily to the war effort and yet gasoline was only $.30/gal on the pump and Natural Gas was so cheap that it was commonly thought of as an industrial surplus yet within a year after we pulled out of Viet Nam we had a "Fuel Crisis" where the price of gas jumped to $.75/gal and we had to wait in line to get a meager 8 gal. One would think that when the war ended there would be plenty of fuel for civillian life. Is it possible that the oil companies had lost their Million gallon a day military customer so they now decided to raise the price to keep there profit margins the same? Oh, and don't forget, for every price increase the oil companies got the state and Federal Govt padded in their little tax increases as well, Ah, but thats another topic altogether. Suddenly "Fuel Cost" was a household word and everyone began to tighten up. Houses were being insulated and caulked, speed limits reduced and we began to be concerned with "Standby losses" from water heaters. As the houses were tightened up it became necessary to make water heater flue piping a code mandate and people were encouraged to add "insulation blankets" to their water heaters. The problem with insulation blankets is that if they are improperly installed or if they slipped out of position it restricted combustion air to the burners and we began to see a severe increase in carbon monoxide poisoning in the home. As a result the Codes were again revised mandating that all water heaters MUST HAVE a minimum R-12 insulation. To meet the new standards the water heater manufacturers discontinued the use of fiberglass blanket insulation and began using cast in foams some of which are now providing as much as R-35. The Codes now state that insulation blankets are no longer required and it actually discourages the use of blankets. In fact, many local codes now prohibit the use of insulation blankets on water heaters.

I've never seen poppy seed noodles! I always put them in cole slaw dressing (or, really, broccoli slaw which I'm more likely to make). :) You could also just use them on top of a loaf of bread or some rolls, just scattered for pretty. You could make two rugalach. :) (I know of someone who does that. Just takes a spoon of flour, etc., and makes a couple at a time.) It's not long 'till Purim. You could just throw them in with some new for hamentaschen. A long time ago, I tried to make my own poppyseed spread and just ended up with polished poppyseeds. I made a coffee can yeast cake from Joy of Cooking and put them in that. It had almond extract too. The cake took on an almost greenish cast from the seeds, and it was too heavy, but it made the very best ever bread pudding, half and half with challah, and even better with hard sauce. I think that was more like 2.5 TBSP, though. :(