Ann t, it never occurred to us that we could cut it from a roast. These steaks were about 1 1/2" thick. FABULOUSA! I'm going to start giving the meats a second look. Caavonldy, corn on the cob sounds wonderful to me too. This past summer we put tin foiled corn on cob on the grill w/ Italian drsg, peppers, & onions & it was really good. Stirfry-I'll get their hamburger from now on. I'll have to commit to separating it though. It comes in big packages. Thanks for the comments & suggestions.

Just as an aside - the man who had a heart attack would have applied for disability, which is NOT welfare. And which he had undoubtedly paid into in the form of Social Security taxes all the years that he did work. The amount he would have collected would have been a fraction of what he made during his working years. I am on disability myself - and I'm sure there are many others on this list who are as well. We are not deadbeats or layabouts, and we are not raking in undeserved huge piles of cash. We are getting by, by and large, and some people don't even manage that on disability. The man could not have received "welfare" as even when it existed it was not paid out to men. But aside from that - back to the original subject. Frankly I would have been quite up-front about telling someone who offered to bring a frozen turkey that they should either bring a COOKED turkey, or bring something else - also already fully prepared. Seriously, any adult should know better. "It's too much trouble for ME to make a turkey, but I'll dump this onerous task that I can't do on someone else" - that's just not acceptable. You know that nearly every grocery store in the country offers fully cooked and hot turkeys through their deli departments, if nothing else. So they could still buy a fully cooked turkey if they didn't know how to cook one themselves. I would have had no qualms whatsoever about telling someone, politely, with a big smile even, that only a COOKED bird was acceptable, and then offer alternatives for things they could bring instead. On the other side of the equation - the host doing something obnoxious instead of one of the guests - one year a fellow grad student offered to make Thanksgiving dinner - and then charged every one a fee PLUS required us to bring something. Needless to say I never attended a dinner at that person's house again! I figure she cleared at least $50 on that deal, plus kept all the leftovers. I found out about this in the car on the way over there. Too late by far to back out, and we had to stop at a grocery on the way so we could all buy something "to bring" - selected from a very specific list which she had provided (at the last minute) to one of the other students. Had I known in advance about the "to bring", I'd have made something. Had I known in advance about the fee, I'd have bowed out entirely. That's the other side of rude dinner party behaviour, LOL! Thanksgiving is no longer stressful for me as I stopped doing it the year my son (now 29) was born. I was one day out of the hospital, he was 3 days old, and the entire family (and all their kids and various and sundry significant others) descended on me with their usual ridiculously high expectations. Nobody brought anything, they all knew I was less than 24 hours out of the hospital after childbirth, nobody even OFFERED to bring anything. They all sat down and proceeded to gripe about every. single. thing. They were particularly incensed that there were no home-made rolls (I had bought good-quality dinner rolls) and no pumpkin pie (which I have never made in my life anyway, including for all the 20 preceding family Thanksgiving dinners). They complained about the lack of cranberry relish, another item which I have never willingly made and certainly hadn't made in the 8 years since leaving home as an adult. I spent 2 days preparing a huge feast, and then I spent the entire Thanksgiving "celebration" inundated with nitpicking and whining. In 20 years, I had done every Thanksgiving dinner - since I was 6 years old - by myself except for 2. And they KNEW I was pregnant and due to deliver sometime in late November/early December. The fact that I was 10 days early had things gone according to "plan" doesn't help, as if I HADN'T been early, I'd have been hugely pregnant and about to pop while still having to make dinner for 12 ingrates. So, that was the last bird day for me, and no one else ever bothered to do a family holiday meal ever again (keeping in mind I nearly always did Xmas meals as well for the family). Sometimes one sister would do a mini-family meal, where she would pointedly NOT invite certain of the rest of the siblings - and she always wondered why my dad boycotted those meals. He didn't want to go unless the WHOLE family was there. Otherwise he knew he would have to listen to hours of sniping by those present against the unfavored remainder of his offspring, LOL! I take that back, I did do bird day one more time - when my dad was in his late 80's. Nobody but the sister who was living with him and mooching off him bothered to show up - until the next day, when some of them swung by just long enough to grab leftovers and complain about there not being any turkey (my dad hates turkey and had asked for a ham) or any pumpkin pie. Talk about gall, LOL!

I made popovers for years...it was my make a bad meal better trick...easy...put it into the blender and then into custard cups and into the oven... Then one day they didn't pop....and I couldn't make them for years. Then someone suggested adding an extra egg white....and I did and haven't had a failure since. I think the eggs Iw as buying got smaller! I never preheat the pans and I sometimes let the batter rest....sometimes not....never in the refrig for 3 hours....and in the past 30 years they ALWAYS pop! I think ti's about the eggs. I 1/4 cups of spooned AP f;lour 1 1/4 cups milk Bit of salt and herbs if desired 4 eggs and an extra white....grease pans...but I don't put anye xtra grease in the pans, heat oven to 450, pour batter into popover pans and into the oven for 18 to 20 minutes, turn oven down to 325 witho0ut opening the door and bake another 15 to 20 minutes.

To be honest, i've never cared for tomato soup. Never as a child. Never as an adult. That changed the past couple years when i started making my own. A neighbor had been bugging me to make one last Spring. He loved it. Did flips for it. It was ok. I sent him home with 6 pints for their freezer. He had one when he got home and another the next day for lunch. Wonder if any made it to the freezer. Usually tomato soup makes me look around for meatballs or pasta. Too tomatoey or ketchup-y. Love my virginMary. Love my salsa and gazpacho. My tom soup not so much. A grilled cheese truck in NYC puts out a hot pot with a spigot 'help yourself' style. Little cups to sip while waiting and for a sandwich. Then a re-fill as a dip. Delicious tom soup. It was thin and pink. No dairy as someone intolerant asked. No gluten. No meat based stock. -and somehow a gluten-free, dairy free grilled 'cheese' offering they prep ahead and use a separate panini press. Their grilled cheese is on a commercial griddle. So i hit on something last night. After all my soups that use tomatoes but just a few, i think i can make a tomato soup to suit me/us. I did add a 1/4 cup of white wine after the onions and veg were soft and starting to dry out, then a shot of vodka. Cooked off, then the toms. I was making pasta sauce so i added some olives after stick blending. For soup i would puree further with a pint of stock. Parm helped and a half slice of crusty bread common in Italian soups....Susan Spicer uses bread in her garlic soup. More veg, lots of garlic, even a leek and a small potato, lots of stock (could be a veg stock), still lots of tomatoes....want to make it now but we are having steak tonight, (: P)