No worries, Bumblebeez! It was a good idea. :) Chase, that does look great! I'm definitely going to try it. It should work well with the kind of strudelly filo we get nowadays. We used to get it fresh, where the ingredients list said "flour, water and skill". The thick stuff they sell now has all kinds of glue in it and is tough! It would definitely hold up to all that parm though. I will be glad to have a dish where I'm not cursing it, since I'm not nearly good enough to make and stretch my own. Sleevendog, good point about being able to see what it is. Most of the company know borekes, and love them, but I think, without knowing why, that's why I was attracted to the idea of cups and the like. Your piggy-backing to meals comment sounds just like something my mother said when I was a teen: "Julia Child left an important step out of this paté -- it should say, 'Feed pot roast to your family' right here." :) I bet your spring rolls are awesome, but there's no way I'm going to be able to try something like that for this. The mini-skewers are an interesting idea, however. When I mentioned skewers at the beginning, I was thinking something like a satay, but thought Kitchendetective had the right of it on the eating. I might be able to do a mini-satay on an ended tooth pick, as well as the kind of combo you were talking about. Re planning, I don't know what's getting made this week either, or even if there will be company or not. :) But if there is company, it's probably not more than half a dozen people with small appetites. If I don't plan now, and start cooking and freezing over the summer, however, I'm not going to be able to do it myself. I have a good caterer, but home made is so much better than "out" food, and I have good freezers that don't ruin the food. :) So I'm gathering ideas, and in a few weeks I'll start to write menus, and do trial runs on new recipes. I appreciate all the ideas more than I can express.

Interesting...how will this book translate? I liked the book but I'm not sure it was good enough or interesting enough to warrant a movie. Several different story lines they could focus on...what will be the dominate thread...marriage?... infidelity?...photography?...secrets?...the nurse?...Downs Syndrome?...the girl living in his childhood home?...or that beautiful green coat that 'she' was wearing the first time he saw her in the Department Store? We will all find out on Saturday night. Thanks for the heads up. sooey

I agree, I have watched both episodes now and am not sold yet. I am however enjoying the Melissa D'Arabian show more now than last year, I think she has loosened up a bit and is sharing more helpful hints and tips.

mgmum, your messaging is not enabled, so I'll post a link to my OneDrive Kitchen album (scroll down to skip my wandering explanation). It starts with the hand-drawn plan--I found GW before I knew how to upload pics or use a Paint program. I did a DIY mini-remodel using some cabinets from the old kitchen, some new cabinets, and some salvaged cabinets and other recycled/upcycled elements. If you click on each pic, then click on it again, the captions should appear. The whole mess is documented, so if you just want to see the final result, scroll to the end. I mentioned hosting big family dinners--the kitchen is set up specifically to facilitate feeding a crowd. I could have a better working layout, but I need the long counter with no appliances, and a direct path to the new dining room. The range used to be on that wall, and the burners would still be hot from cooking, when it was time to serve the buffet. Many times I've covered the still-warm burners with a noodle board, so no one would accidentally touch them. I moved the range across the room, in part to clear that wall, but also to vent it to the outside. My vented hood is one of my favorite parts of the new kitchen. So, we start in the LR, file past the buffet serving counters (counter on one side, island on the other), and walk directly into the new dining/flex room. I'll include the link for that album, too, although you can see it in the background of the kitchen pics. Scroll down for a pic of the table set for 20. We can seat 6 at the kitchen dining table (usually the teens/young adults), which is open to the kitchen on the other side, and four more at a drop leaf table, which we move from the new room to the LR, which is connected through another opening, so no one is isolated in another room. I live in an older home with a circular traffic pattern--I guess now it's more of a figure-8. Before adding the new room, we had to move chairs out of the LR, push everything else against the walls, and squeeze around each other to seat the whole family together. One Thanksgiving we seated 24 at tables in the LR, and I said, "Never again, unless we have a separate dining room!" I think I've posted the story before, but that year my FIL had a friend visiting from the UK, and they decided to come early and visit with my DH, which left me without my usual help, so I was really running behind schedule. Then my mother arrived with her friend, who became bored because the British friend was getting all the attention. Mother's friend decided that since I was alone in the kitchen, he should come in and sing to me--'Devil in Disguise', while I shooed him from one spot to another, as I needed to check the oven, open the fridge, grab something from a drawer, etc. My mother dragged him back to the LR, but as soon as her attention was again on the interesting British friend, 'Elvis' returned for an encore. As more family members arrived with their dishes, he decided that holding court in the kitchen suited him just fine. I was ready to wring his neck by the time I had the buffet laid out. Now, I can set up the tables the night before, place the serving pieces on the long buffet counter early in the day, have everyone seated comfortably in the LR before the meal, set the drinks up on the island at the last minute, give the signal for the blessing, and breathe a sigh of relief. Everything is arranged for point of use, and my relatives know where to find things without asking, so if I'm running behind, they can set up tables and chairs, set up the coffee maker, set the tables, etc. I have trained them well. ;) Kitchen album New addition/dining room/playroom