Hope you don't mind me sounding in so late. Sounds like you hosted a great party. Next time discuss menus with anyone with a dietary issue. Then if someone is planning to bring their own food you would have known. I do agree that it was rude of people to come to a dinner - where you had accomodated them all over the place - and they had brought everything for themselves anyway. Unfortunately, the accomodations you made for the Vegans probably contradicted the food issues of the Pickies. I would have LOVED your dinner choices but as for the Pickies - I will tell you what went wrong with those food choices: 1) veggies 2) hummus 3) bratts 4) grilled veggies 5) baked beans 6) cucumber 7) dill 8) sun dried tomato 9) Lemon Cello Torte When one is picky all of the above things with "strange" names puts them over the top. Veggies are usually extremely unpopular with picky people. Hummus has "texture" issues. Torte sounds "different" than cake. "Lemon" is different than vanilla. Potato salad is "mushy" and Sun-driend Tomatoes look "weird". Cucumbers have "seeds". Dill is an "herb". Baked Beans look "weird" and have "texture". I have noticed that picky people tend to hate beans! Brattwurst has the name "worst" in it (I kid you not!) Next time for the Pickies provide regular, common-brand Potato Chips, Hot Dogs, Brownies and a choice of sodas. They would then be in 7th Heaven.

It's the morning after, and I am thankful for all you good people who took the time to post and get me through a bad moment. I learned from your posts, and I laughed with your posts. Most importantly, I found out that even on a cooking forum, not everyone makes the perfect, flaky, homemade pie crust. Thank you for telling me that I am not alone. I am through with pies and pie crusts. This year will have been the 20th year of trying, and it was the worst yet. It is time to move on. I am a market gardener, and I grow wonderful organic strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and rhubarb. When I bake with the fruit, I do a crisp, a cobbler, or a tart. DS has a love of pumpkin pie, and I think my efforts are emotionally entwined with being the "good mother", but I am going to find a good bakery next year. You are all right- there is more than one way to skin a cat (that is a horrible saying isn't it?) I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. You all helped make mine a good one. :)

Hmm. Dogs. We had a medium small poodle named Tappy growing up. Once while dining Sunday dinner, something came on the news in the other room. The 5 of us, for some reason, hurried in there to hear whatever. Came back to find Tappy on the table, actually standing on the roast chewing as fast as she could. We laughed so hard even the dog was confused. Me: You know those chocolate covered espresso beans? Well, about 25 (or more) years ago I decided it would be totally cool to have chocolate flavored espresso. I should have known it wouldn't be wise when the beans clogged up and stopped the blades in my little bean grinder. Nonetheless, I packed them happily into my little Krupp's espresso basket and fired 'er up. As I was doing dishes next to it, I noticed steam coming out of the top of the machine. "Hmmmm..." I thought again. I heard a noise out the window and turned to look out. At that moment, my espresso machine exploded, blowing the screw top up into the bottom of the overhead counter, and the grinds basket down through the carafe and the little espresso machine bottom to put a bull's eye slammed dent into the counter below. Cats ran everywhere and my heart about stopped. Minutes later, as I was wiping up the water and crap from the kitchen, picking glass shards out of my sweater, I was on the phone to BB&B to tell them I needed another machine because mine had just exploded. I left out the chocolate covered coffee bean part. Ironically, just this morning I was making espresso (you can tell I've been devoted for years) in the replacement machine, and I realized it was probably 25 or so years old. No planned obsolescence here! - - - - - - - - - - - -> Another good one is my former SIL. Speaking of Joy... Her DH didn't like soap bottles on the sink, for some reason. Fine. Everything else in the house was covered with ... stuff ... but he didn't like the soap bottles. She put the soap in some nice bottle thing by the sink. One day, she made her wonderful homemade bread. Warm and crusty, a perfect loaf came out. Her family, however, actually spit it out on their plates at dinner. Evidently she'd grabbed the soap bottle rather than the oil bottle and made bread with liquid dish soap. She bemoaned that it was the best loaf she'd ever made. She did, though, tell her DH he could stuff it and went back to safer plastic, labeled bottles for soap. He evidently did stuff it, because a few years later, after being together for 30+ years, he realized he was gay. Left her, their 2 adopted daughters, quit their church, moved to another state (nearby enough to commute) and lives with his boy toy. I wonder if he makes bread?

So glad to hear your hubby is now on the mend! Yes, we (Canadians) can't get immediate surgery for elective procedures, but I can't say I know anyone who had to wait if it was an emergency. DH's friend was out for a walk with his wife when he complained (with slurred speech) of a sudden excruciating headache. She called an ambulance from her cell, he was taken to the local hospital where they diagnosed a bleeding aneurysm. He was airlifted to a nearby Toronto hospital that specializes in neurology and had emergency brain surgery. He was extremely lucky to survive, let alone be fully functional and able to resume golfing several weeks later, with no bill to worry about.