I used to make homemade mayonnaise! First time I made it was in a home ec demonstration class in college. Brownies The only brownie recipe I ever use. It's not thick, not dry, don't test with a toothpick. Kinda fudgie 1 stick butter (I use land of lakes) 1 cup sugar 1 cup all purpose flour 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking powder 2 eggs beaten 2 HEAPING tbl cocoa 1 tsp vanilla Melt butter in a square pyrex dish sift all the dry ingredients mix in eggs with the dry ingredients then the butter and pour back into pyrex dish bake 350 for 18 minutes EIGHTEEN MINUTES cool completely before cutting occasionally do this: make a glaze 1/2 cup powdered sugar 1 tbl softened butter 1/2 tsp vanilla 1-2 tsp milk Mix, drizzle over warm brownies

Well, I never had a garden living in high rise building in Singapore. Everything was bought weekly like roses, carnations, chrysanthemums and so forth. Although, my dad had amaryllis growing in a few pots. That's it. When, I bought this house. I bought a number of roses like JFK, Miss All American, petunias, Coretta King Scott, knockout roses, lilies. Most died esp roses. Then I bought more and more..they stay for a season or 2 then died. I got into roses because I was googling more about roses. I have never order on line only bought it from local stores. It was a few of you encourage me to get and not to give up. Bec, every one been so supportive. Just from trial and error. A little knowledge goes a long way. My first purchase was from ARE for black Friday .I was so worried since it is is own roots and fortuniana was highly recommend. Talking to master garderners of Dept of Agriculture that assured me Antiques Rose's can grow in my soil . They show me data, researches from various universities herenin FL besides theybinly come in own roots. One of my roses died. ARE was nice to send me another one for $5. They said it is dormant and it came from 2 feet of snow to 78 degrees here. Might be in a shocked. ARE send me another in 2- 3 weeks time. Been so busy in my backyard that I totally forgot about the dead rose..le Vesuve. After some time, I decided to throw away the pot when I notice a small shoot. It was a baby le Vesuve growing next to a dead rose from roots. I Was Shocked. Like no way..omg. Jasmin, I just read your thread and I agree with you 100%. I prefer old teas Bec of it..it can grow in any soil and Bec of it hardiness . It can survive in normetoes soil. And can grow from roots. So, now if I have to get HT it is only on fortuniana rootstock. I am very, very happy with my roses but I do fear bec it is not mature and still young. But I do know it will make it this year and next. This is my le Vesuve. In the pot was the one that died but regrow back. The ground was a replacement it has bloom twice already. So, it is 3rd bloom coming soon. The ground is wet from rain . Jin

I second the request for the Chocolate Bread Pudding. There's not really any "must have"s here but I miss a few things: My godmother always made lefse and dinner rolls. They were both excellent. That poor sweet lady made them every year up until maybe a year or two before she died, and she was mid-90s when she died. And making homemade yeast rolls was plenty of work for people who have ever done it the old-fashioned way, and no, she didn't use a "Kitchen-Aid"! She got weaker in her old age and less able to stand for the long time. But she knew how popular they were and she always wanted to do it. And most of the time until her latter years, she'd walk to the grocery store (I'd guess maybe 1/2 mile away!) What a trooper! RIP my dear, you're missed in SO many ways! Making lefse is not easy either, especially by yourself! In the later years she couldn't roll it as thin as she used to but still gave it her best shot and it still was a treat. I've made lefse a few times. Should give it a try again but my limitations probably would affect it. And I can buy decent stuff from a couple places so I can still have a memory and a treat. Also my cousin used to (probably still does) make excellent iced sugar cookies. But the local "produce" store makes some that are pretty much identical so that fix is taken care of and even Lofthouse cookies are an adequate substitute. As far as other dishes, I can be pretty flexible but I have, in the past few years, been making a BBQ bacon ranch corn that I really enjoy and I'm getting back to really enjoying turkey again so I usually get a smoked turkey breast. Probably 20-30 years ago I started my own semi-tradition of having a "themed" holiday. Guess I got a little tired of the always-turkey or always-ham meals. One year it could be "comfort" foods, another "Italian", another was "diner" food, etc. And I always tried to add a new dish that I wanted to try that I hadn't made before. Keep some staples in there in case it didn't turn out. But it became quite popular with guests. And when the GFs didn't have to cook they always appreciated it no matter what I made! Could be 99¢ TV dinners and they probably wouldn't complain... too much. Uh, strike that. Yeah, they could complain. :)

Rosapeimula: I only have 2 kordes rose 🌹now: Beverly and summer romance. Bith I got a couple weeks ago at fall sale so I will see. hofelly the will live up to the expectation, healthy, blooming well and well behaving :) primula is a pretty name, the rose has a beautiful color, and it is said both the flowers and leaves are fragrant! Prairiemoon: the pineapple sage is indeed sage. I had to move from the flower side bed to a new one far from the house. It is welcome to take all the space there if it could! Unfortunately no hummingbird. I think they are all gone, bit bees come to it. I thoguht bees are not attracted to red but obviously I wa wrong. Yes the brugs are toxic. I used to grow a lot of them before. When we had our dog, I digged them all. Now with the dog passed I started to grow the brug again. It is really quicknfix in a garden