I'm sorry Jan!! LOl...ya'll have to forgive me, I've been spacey and drugged up for months, I lose track right in the middle of typing. I've woken to find open windows on my computer with notes I've been typing, and don't even remember talking to them *sigh* But......I'm going to put the recipe for Poinsettia Cookies here again....these are just delicious, everyone loves these, and they smell great. Oh, Jan....I use the cherries in the jar, too! They taste much better :D I just lay them on paper towels to drain, and I cut them with scissors, really easier that way. They look very elegant, and make great gifts. Poinsettia Cookies Ingredients 2 c Butter or margarine; 1 c Shredded coconut 2 Eggs 1 c Butterscotch chips 1 ts Vanilla extract Granulated sugar 3 c Flour 1/2 c Candied red cherries; cut in 1 ts Salt Cream confectioners sugar and butter; add eggs and extracts. Sift together flour and salt; stir into butter mixture. Stir in coconut and 3/4 C of the butterscotch chips. Chill dough until firm. Roll into 1" balls. Place on ungreased baking sheets. Flatten cookie with the bottom of glass dipped in granulated sugar. Place butterscotch chip in the center of cookie. Place cherry wedges in a circle to resemble a poinsettia. Bake at 375F for about 12 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen cookies. ************************************************ I also see I forgot to add the Divinity recipe! Here is the site I got the best recipe from. http://www.angelabetts.com/blog/2007/05/22/divinity-candy-recipe/ DIVINITY CANDY 3 cups sugar cup light corn syrup ½ cup water 2 egg whites 1 teaspoon almond extract (or vanilla, whichever you prefer) 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans Place sugar, corn syrup, and water in heavy saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat to hard ball stage (248° to 250°F). Remove from heat and let stand until temperature drops to 220°F, without stirring. Place egg whites in mixer bowl. Attach bowl and wire whip to mixer. Turn to Speed 8 and whip about 1 minute, or until soft peaks form. Gradually add syrup in a fine stream and whip about 2 ½ minutes longer. Turn to Speed 4. Add almond extract and whip 20 to 25 minutes, or until mixture starts to become dry. Turn to Stir Speed and add walnuts, mixing just until blended. Drop mixture from measuring tablespoon onto waxed paper or greased baking sheet to form patties. Yield: 20 servings (2 pieces per serving) Per serving: About 192 cal, 2 g pro, 40 g carb, 4 g fat, 0 mg chol, 15 mg sod. ******************* The punch recipe sounds great, and I need a recipe! So funny because I just found another punch bowl! Not one for a birdbath either!

Sorry I haven't been around much lately---but here are the results for my tomatoes---which I covered during a snow fall last Saturday and pulled the crispy blankets off of them Sunday morning---they are still alive. They have some frost damage here and there, but not too bad. My favorites for canning this year: Campbells 1327---bright red, round fruit that resists cracking, and can handle sitting on the counter for several days. Flavor is good, good as a slicer, but since it can sit around it makes a great canner. Determinate Heidi---very productive bright red paste type, no BER, good flavor fresh, medium size. Handled the heat. Determinate Rio Grande---very productive large oval shaped paste type, no BER. Determinate Aker's Pink Plum---beautiful pink paste tomato, smaller than Heidi or Rio Grande, but peels easily and the perfect size for canning whole. Yellow Bell---pretty pale to bright yellow fruit with good flavor, about the size of Aker's Pink plum---on the smaller side, but got a little bigger later in the season, also easy to peel. My favorite slicers: Kellog's Breakfast: This tomato is so beautiful! It is large and tasty and very meaty! It started producing fairly early and is still producing huge bright orange beefsteaks. Burracker's Favorite: my first bi-color---stunning. It ripens to a deep golden color with a red blush on the bottom that extends in striped about half way up. When you cut it open it is golden with red marbling. Very large! Quite productive. Earl's Faux: a pretty pink beefsteak. Very tasty!!! Potato leaf variety that produced better for me than Brandywine. The fruit ranged in size from baseball to soft ball size. Consoluto Genovese: A small, bright red slicer that is fluted/scalloped and looks like a flower when you slice it. Very productive---no larger than a baseball,kind of flattened---looks like a red mini pumpkin. Good flavor and started producing early on---tolerated the heat well. Azoychka: A bright yellow, small beefsteak that is very early. Good flavor---a clean, tart flavor, but not too tart. Productive, fruit ranged in size from ping pong to soft ball sized, with most of the fruit in the middle. Noir de Crimee: A Black tomato a strain of Black Krim. Earlier than Cherokee Chocolate and a bit more productive. Great flavor, a very juicy tomato and beautiful to look at! Coustralee: a large red tomato---later than I like, but earlier than Big Zac, good flavor. It didn't produce very good for me, but I'll give it another try in a better spot. I'll have to do this in installments. Maybe I'll post a link to some photos too. I grew around 25 varieties this year! Later, Tyffanie

Shambo- If you like, and normally use, Condensed Canned Soup, you should include them in your food storage rather than trying to replicate it. Condensed soups are common food storage items and used in lots of food storage recipes. However, if you are trying to avoid the high-sodium content and "odd-ball" ingredients found in most commercial canned soup, or want a reasonable substitute from storage ingredients, then there are recipes you may want to try - just don't expect the same thing (taste-wise) as Campbell's Soup. There is a number of Cream of _______ Soup base mixes to choose from if you are trying to avoid canned soups (see the link below). Augason Farms even has a #10 can of soup base, which is probably similar to what we make in our mixes. Creamed soups are really nothing more than white sauce plus added ingredients like chicken and bouillon, cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, celery, etc. - just like we learned to make in Home Economics all those years ago. We've just gotten out of the habit of making it from scratch and reach for a can of soup instead. I like to use "Magic Mix" (a mix developed by the Utah State Extension Service), and I use the gluten-free version that uses cornstarch instead of all-purpose flour. I use cornstarch because I don't store all-purpose flour, but I DO store cornstarch - which has a long shelf-life. I also use coconut oil instead of butter called for in the recipe so it's shelf-stable and doesn't require any refrigeration. MAGIC MIX 2-1/3 c. dry NON-instant powdererd milk* (I use Morning Moo's Whey-based Milk Substitute) 1 c. all-purpose flour, OR 1/2 c. cornstarch 1 c. butter, at room temperature (I use LouAna Coconut Oil) Combine dry milk, flour or cornstarch, and butter into a large bowl. Mix with electric hand mixer until it looks like cornmeal. Keep mix tightly covered in the refrigerator for up to 8-months. Yield: 5-cups. *If all you have available to you is INSTANT non-fat dry milk, you can blend the dry milk powder until it's a fine powder, and then it will measure the same as NON-instant dry milk powder. To make Condensed Cream of Tomato Soup: 1 c. Magic Mix 1 15-oz. can diced tomatoes 1 t. dried parsley flakes (optional) salt and pepper to taste Combine Magic Mix and diced tomatoes. Stir constantly over medium-high heat until mixture thickens. Add parsley, salt and pepper. Blend in blender until smooth. Serve immediately, or use in any recipe calling for canned cream of tomato soup. Cream of Mushroom Soup - using Magic Mix 1 c. Magic Mix 1 can (4-5 oz.) can mushroom pieces and stems, undrained (you can also use rehydrated freeze-dried or dehydrated mushrooms + the water used to rehydrate them 1/4 c. water 2 drops Kitchen Bouquet (optional, for color only) dash onion salt dash pepper Combine Magic Mix, mushrooms and liquid, and water. Stir constantly over medium-high heat until mixture thickens. Add Kitchen Bouquet, onion salt, and pepper. Use in any recipe calling for canned cream of mushroom soup. Other recipes using Magic Mix found in the book - "I Can't Believe It's Food Storage" by Crystal Godfrey... -Pesto Alfredo Sauce -Condensed Cream of Chicken Soup -Condensed Cream of Broccoli Soup -Condensed Cream of Celery Soup -Magic Mix Gravy -Magic Mix Fudgsicles -Magic Mix Pudding -Magic Mix White Sauce Recipe found on\-line. Tomato Soup Mix \- Single Serving by: Budget101 4 T. Non\-fat dry milk 2 T. Powdered dry tomatoes (you may want to start with 1 T. and add more if needed) 1/8 t. Basil Salt , Dash Pepper, Dash Measure all into jar or ziploc bag, shake to combine. Add mix to 1 Mug of Hot water, stir, let set 2 minutes, enjoy. TOMATO BASIL SOUP (source: Jan's Fabulous Food Storage Recipes - Converting Stored Foods into Useable Meals - by Jan LeBaron) 3 T. dehydrated chopped onions 1 t. dried garlic granules 1 t. dried basil 1 c. tomato powder 4 c. water 1 c. diced freeze-dried tomatoes (optional) In a large pan add 4 c. water, bring water to boil, lower heat and then add garlic granules, basil, whisk in tomato powder until smooth, if you are adding tomatoes dices add last 5-6 minutes. LOW\-FAT CREAM SOUP MIX (source: "Use It or Lose It" (food storage cooking school) \- by Rebecca Low and Deloy Hendricks \- Utah State University Extension) http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/FN_503.pdf 2 c. INSTANT dry milk (or 1\-1/4 c. NON\-instant) 3/4 c. cornstarch 1/4 c. chicken bouillon granules 2 T. onion flakes (dried) 1 t. basil (dried) 1 t. thyme (dried) 1/2 t. pepper Combine all ingredients and mix. Store in air tight container until ready to use. Equivalent to 9 cans of cream soup. To substitute for 1 can condensed soup: Combine 1/3 c. dry mix (use 1/4 c. if made with NON\-instant dry milk) and 1\-1/4 c. cool water or liquid from vegetables. Cook over medium heat, stirring until thickened. Add thickened mixture to casseroles as you would a can of soup. Do a search and you will find many more recipes on\-line for creamed soup substitute mixes to try. Powered butter can be reconstituted to make a spread, and I add a little coconut oil to it to add back some fat. When used in baking it is not necessary to reconstitute. Simply add it to your dry ingredients and increase the liquid the amount it would take to reconstitute. For home food storage I prefer coconut oil for cooking and baking to powdered butter, and that's the main source of fat I store. I store some powdered butter, but I only occasionally rotate it into the pantry and use it mostly for homemade mixes and baking. I also store grass-fed organic ghee (mostly for it's nutrition) and commercially canned butter (Red Feather Pure Canned Butter). --------------------------------------------------- Sweet Dairy Whey- I worked with Sweet Dairy Whey years ago as a substitute for some of the sugar in recipes. I've never used it since..... I do, however, store and use whey protein powder (and as you suspected, they are not the same thing). I often increase the protein profile of baked goods and snacks by adding protein powder - especially when we have a vegetarian day. I also use a whey-based milk substitute (Morning Moo's) which has a shortening-like effect on baked goods, so you can often use less fat in a recipe. I've made low-carb cream cheese frosting using Morning Moo's powder instead of powdered sugar and sweetened it with a little agave nectar or stevia. -Grainlady Here is a link that might be useful: Making Magic Mixes

I think that's a great idea to have that in the kitchen kids will love it, I think you can lock it up when you want too so your kids don't go crazy. Anyway I live here in Utah and theres actually a company out here called Soda Tech Inc. their website is http://www.sodabuzz.com They offer a full line of home Soda Fountain Systems and I think the bar gun your talking about you can get up to a 100' remote system, so you would really only have one line running to the kitchen with how many ever flavors you'd want. I think they can install it for you but im not sure out of state. As far as the unhealthy part of it all, they have health and sport drinks you can buy in 5 or 3 gallon boxes, I think the latest I heard they offer is that rice drink, horchatta or something like that. Then if you drink alot of soda anyway this would be well worth it, I think it equalled out to be something like 6 to 18 cents per 12 ounces. A 5 gallon box makes about 30 gallons of soda so you do the math.