Dave, good call on that uncinata, I knew something about that bugged me, but it has a curved trunk so I did not realize it was not level. Going back and looking at it now I see I will have to make an adjustment. Thanks to everyone for the name corrections, I will update my database. I am curious, what programs, methods do others use for there databases? I understand the importance, and wonder if there is a better method than the Excel spreadsheet I use?

Just checking in after a busy week here. I laughed out loud at those cookies! How cute are those??? Puppy Chow....haven't seen that in years! A woman I worked with at the "phone factory" used to make it all the time! Sol, glad to hear your mother in law is on the mend. Still, we'll keep the good thoughts coming. Kathleen that roast looks amazing. I am one who doesn't like it too rare, just a little pink inside is fine. Somehow I missed the popcorn cauliflower recipe, tho. Will search for it later. Yep, Lou....go sign up for the pizza party! Ann, you amaze me. You can make even something I don't really care for (clams) look decadent! Simple dinners here the past couple of days, and no photos. Thursday night it was Cindy's Louisiana BBQ Shrimp over rice with steamed sugar snap peas. Last night Swedish Meatballs, buttered egg noodles and mixed veggies. I kind of combined Alton's and Ann's recipes, added a few of my own touches and I came really close to the perfect (in my opinion) Swedish Meatball! A few more "tweaks" and I'll have exactly what I want! Going out for a friend's 40th birthday tonight. No clue what will be on the menu for Sunday. After a warm couple of weeks the temps are getting back to our normal frigid! Linda

Happy Christmas Eve! Maddie outdid herself (and her card brought tears to my eyes!). There is a corn stalk angel, a corn cob santa, a hand-painted gold glass ornament, a box of candy, and a lapel pin that is a palm tree with a martini glass under it (where did she get THAT idea?). You can see the pin if you look really hard on the branch on the right side of the angel's head and bottom of candy box. Thank you, dear Maddie! I'll always remember the first photo we all saw of you, highlighted in candlelight at a Christmas Eve service. Ooops, just looked and the silver tree ornament on the right side is mine. Thought I got all mine out of the picture range. Special thanks to Suzanne for walking us through the picture process! Milkdud, I am so happy you liked the ornament. I found it the week you were struggling with your food choices and just could not resist! DH and I will be alone tonight. We'll have a quiet dinner and then light the luminaries to match all our neighbors around the lake. We usually try to walk around in the stillness and just take in all the light. Silent Night, Holy Night....

At the risk of being tagged a "troll", here's my two cents on this old thread. I've had an empty box of Jules Destrooper's Almond Thins on my computer desk for several months to remind me to look again to see if anyone has developed a recipe and put it online. (I tried it a couple of times myself at first but the results were, well, disappointing.) I found this thread on today's Google search. I don't know anything about Trader Joe's similar cookies, as we don't have that supermarket chain in the New Orleans area, but the list of ingredients in the Destrooper butter almond cookie is clearly different from the "Destrooper" recipe linked above at Yahoo! Answers: INGREDIENTS: WHEAT FLOUR, BROWN SUGAR, BUTTER, ALMONDS, SALT. (Listed in that order.) Of note: no egg, no vanilla. The only sources of moisture in the genuine Destrooper's are the brown sugar and the butter and I'm guessing I could try a dozen more times before I figured out the proportions and baking technique that would work. (I'm an OK cook but not that much of a baker.) Perhaps "WHEAT FLOUR" is how folks in Belgium refer to "whole wheat flour" but I'm not thinking this is the critical difference, at least vis-a-vis Destrooper's (versus Trader Joe's). I'm thinking that adding egg and vanilla and omitting the molasses flavor of the brown sugar would tend to make a very different cookie, regardless of the proportions of other ingredients and the baking technique. I'll let you know if I ever figure it out...