I just realized that when I make my beef broth, I brown the beef shin/knucklebones in oven and then put in cold water, bring to boil, lower to simmer and the result is a gelatin base for the beef broth. Never thought of it...but that's exactly what gives the broth its thickness and rich flavor. I'm not too squeamish but I do remember the first time I bought calf's liver...I took it out of package and couldn't wait to get to the trashcan with it....LOL But I still order liver and onions at restaurants...just don't want to handle/cook it. josh

Friend called and said Toyota told her that you have to belong to Facebook to be able to see and vote. There's one teacher that has way over 300 votes. Harrison :o( 40 so far! Thanks for trying ya'll! I did too for Harrison!

Thanks, Maire Cate. I did enjoy it, although that seemed unlikely by the time I had the car packed with food and wine to bring to the event. It was SO hot yesterday, hazy and extremely humid--difficult conditions for making any kind of physical effort. Then when I arrived and started setting things up things got off to an . . . unusual start. Using a corkscrew to open a bottle of red wine, I managed to break the cork, leaving about a quarter of it in the bottle. I decided to push it through, into the bottle. (I've since learned this is something people try only once.) When I did, the wine sprayed up like a fountain, covering me and the table with droplets of red. It was in my hair, and worse than that, it was all over my pure white linen top. I grabbed napkins and started blotting. I think I was mumbling, "This didn't happen . . . this didn't happen . . . " Amazingly, the little red spots blotted up nicely, so that they weren't noticeable unless I pointed them out. (Which I didn't do except with my daughter and my best friend.) As I'd hoped, adrenalin carried me through. As long as I was "on," with people to talk to, I felt fine. I drank water and nibbled on pretzel sticks. I haven't counted up the number of people yet, but I know we had at least 30. Almost all were my friends, so that gave it a nice party atmosphere. I didn't take a single picture, but I'm meeting my granddaughter there this afternoon and will snap some photos then. She couldn't come yesterday because she had to work. I was happy to see my daughter arrive, though. I was afraid she wouldn't be able to make it because she was stuck at O'Hare (with no A/C) much of the night before. But she got there, and stayed till the end to help me clean up. As for sales.........ha! Just one of the smaller ones was sold. I wasn't expecting any sales, so I wasn't disappointed. I woke up in a sweat again last night. I sure hope this isn't an indication that the fever was back. I especially hope this because I exchanged a lot of hugs and kisses last night. Most people knew I'd been sick, but figured I'd recovered, I guess. And, for those few hours, so did I. :-)

Healing thoughts for your dh. Hope his meds and some TLC do the job and he is feeling lots better very soon. My Bro-in-law is getting over pnemonia and he is as strong as a horse. Didn't matter tho, it kicked his buns. Dh said although BIL is getting better he still sounds tough after 3 weeks. As a mom I can't imagine being down for so long. Yesterday I subbed for a fifth grade class where a young man seated in front of me was barking like a seal. I soooo wanted to have him go home. He was feeling great, just a terrible cough. I sure hope it was nothing contagious or I'm toast. :\