I have one in my refrigerator that I bought from a gal that makes the greatest cookies and candies here. It is "maturing" and if it taste anything like the rest of her goodies it will be gone in nothing flat. Connie--have you ever had any of Sonja's cookies/candies? She sells at the Pride of Dakota shows --if not be sure and try them. Pricey--but oh so good.

LindaC, my daughter Amanda is lactose intolerant too, as well as being celiac, so there's real whipped cream for the rest of us, but "non dairy topping" for her. My brother, the heathen, likes Cool Whip better anyway, so she shares. There will be 11 people here today and they are all family. I ask them if there is anything special they want, and everyone asks "are you going to make XXXXX?" Well, of course I am now, LOL. Since Amanda was just diagnosed as being celiac a couple of years ago, I'm still experimenting with the gluten free thing. I handed her a gluten free cookbook and told her to pick out dessert. She chose a sweet potato "torte", which seems more like a sweet potato pie with a sugar cookie type crust, baked in a springform pan. We'll see how that is. I've made the green bean casserole thing, although I detest it. I tried one of the "homemade without canned soup" versions one year and if it's possible, it was worse than the original. Ugh. Annie

Sure. I got the recipe right from this site. As stated above, I will use the ingredients but not bundle the beans, but bake in a casserole dish and sprinkle crispy, crumbled bacon over the top of the casserole. I still call this site Gardenweb. It was known by that for so many years, I just can't use the word Houzz. The comment at the bottom was from phoggie, also of this site. Green Bean Bundles A family favorite. Amazing Aunt Audrey@gardenweb 4 16-oz cans whole green beans 1 pound bacon 1 stick butter 1 t garlic powder 1 c brown sugar S&P Preheat oven to 375. Drain green beans. Cut bacon strips in half. Wrap a piece of bacon around 12-14 green beans forming a bundle. Place in a baking pan and set aside. Over low heat, melt butter in a small saucepan. When butter is melted, add brown sugar, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. Stirring constantly, heat the mixture just until it starts to boil. Drizzle the mixture over the green bean bundles. Cover the baking pan. Bake 45 minutes covered, then remove cover and bake 10 minutes more. Maybe broil them right before serving to crisp the bacon a bit. phoggie AAA...my family loves these green beans also. I did not fix them for Thanksgiving and a grandson wondered where they were so they will be served when he comes for Christmas!

Petalique, it's nationwide. Some communities, like my own, seem to do it very quietly any more. Not a single notice on tv that I've seen. There used to be more importance placed on it. My mothers little larger town, same state, always provided a bag - right up until she moved into senior living and they may still be doing it. We haven't been given a bag to fill in several years. Quick dash to the store which was wildly crowded right before mothers day. And of course ran into people we knew and DH needed to visit. I'd put on a clean shirt, still had my yard work pants on. I bought boxed scalloped potato dinners, boxed Kraft mac and cheese, few Dinty Moore 38 oz beef stews canned, put in a few cans Costco tuna. I don't think we've done a food bank donation since Christmas so we were due. I'm not happy with the inflated grocery prices but we're not going without anything - meaning I really should help where I can. I usually buy a couple of cases of one thing or another at Costco and it completely slipped my mind the last time we shopped there. If I'd wanted flowers I'd have been in good shape at Safeway. One entire end of the store was stuffed with cut, loose, arranged flowers and plants for Mothers Day.