Hi, everyone! I hope everyone is having a great day!!! I am incredibly busy, but just wanted to post at least once today! Thank you Tracy - I am SO happy to hear that you all loved the cranberry jam stuff! I have to tell you I made your homemade cranberry sauce yesterday, and my hubby LOVED it! He and I were the only ones that ate it - we always are! But, he went on and on about how it was way better than canned, and way better than any other homemade anyone has tried! Then, the stuffing! Girl - that was wonderful!! I did add a half pint of mushrooms that I canned a while back, and chopped them up very small so the kids wouldn't really notice them. That went really well too! Dave said it was the best ever, and my brother-in-law loaded half his plate with it! William is the only kid here that is a stuffing eater, and he loved it too! (So did I!!!) I am getting close to finished. Not really, but it's nice to say! I have all the chocolates and candy and cookies packaged. Just have to cut and package the fudge yet. Make labels and stick them to all the jars of preserves. Make the cocoa mix, muffin mix and pancake mix, and make all those labels and package them. Umm, make an order form and price sheet, make an inventory, and I'm sure much more, but that's all I can think of right now. I am not going to bring the cupcakes I'm afraid - I've just run out of time to finish those. I got some baked, but I don't have time to make frosting and make the decorations, so hopefully some people will check out my website, where I will post some of those soon, I hope! Anyway, gotta get back to work - I want some sleep tonight! : ) Hugs, Becki

How is everyone doing tonight? I had the nicest surprise from Becki today! I got to try some of her Mocha Truffles and OH BABY are they good! The inside was this phenomenal creamy chocolate with the perfect hint of coffee, the outside was the white chocolate with the light dusting of coffee. Oh was it awesome! The flavors all complimented each other perfectly! Becki, You amaze me! I remember you saying that you thought the crystals made it a little bitter but I think it was very good! Perfect! I am rationing them! LOL! I will only let myself have one if I am on my very best behaviour and get a lot of work done! I know what you are going through with the whole getting things to look perfect. I went through the same thing when I was baking pastries for a caterer a few years ago. It is going to come together with practice. The more you get the feel for the chocolate the better you will get at it! I promise. You certainly have nothing to fear in the taste department! Your truffles were amazing! When I was making creme brulee for the first time I was terrified of how the caramelized sugar would look after it was flamed! I tried it under the broiler, nope! That sucked! Took too long, reheated the custard, made soup out of it. Blech! Had to start from scratch all over again. Pulled out the blow torch and it worked great, I didn't like some of the scorch marks but since then I have seen some of the cooking shows with the professional chefs and their's looked the same as mine! LOL! Same deal with my cheesecakes. I do mine in the big sheets instead of the round springforms so I can have lots for a crowd with bite size portions. The cream cheese layer on top was always a problem getting it to smooth perfectly, finally I went to a restaurant supply store and bought a large offset spatulala and it was big enough to get that smooth finish all the way across the 15 x 17 pan. The other day I read an interview with the pastry chef on food network that does the cake show (can't remember his name right now) he said that the one hard and fast rule is to not bake when in a bad mood or frustrated because your desserts will show it! I thought truer words were never spoken! That has been so true for me! April, didn't you say that you had trained to be a pastry chef? Any helpful tricks of the trade that you remember for Becki? I have had similar issues with the chocolate coatings in the past and remember trying different things to get it to work better but not always consistent with the same results. I don't have a ton of experience in this area. I would love to make some Hemp lip balm with you! LOL! I am growing my hair out so I can look more like a hippie at the commune! Communal Kitchen and dining room with separate living quarters is perfect for me! Oh, and a giant great room off the dining room and kitchen for lots of comfort, crafts and gabbing! I would love to learn how to make some of those essential oils. Bath and Body Works makes this awesome Vanilla Oil that I would love to be able to make myself. I have the vanilla, just need to know what to do to make the essential oils! LOL!

This is another simple recipe. Serve with rice. Bean Sprouts with Pork 3/4 pound of ground pork 1 white onion sliced 1 stalk celery sliced thin on an angle 2 garlic cloves, minced or grated 1 inch piece of ginger, grated 2 or 3 Thai red chili peppers, sliced 2 to 3 cups Bean Sprouts Peanut oil Scallions sliced on an angle Salt Pepper Heat Wok over high heat. Add just a little peanut oil and add onions and celery. Cook for a few minutes stirring often. Remove from pan. Add a little more peanut oil and saute ground pork until no longer pink. Season with salt and pepper. Add minced garlic and grated ginger. (I use a microplane). Return the onions and celery to the wok. Add the sliced chili peppers. Stir to combine. Cook for a few more minutes. Add the bean sprouts, cook just long enough to heat through. Add the chopped scallions and serve with rice.

Case in point, coincidentally, I'd decided to use ground chicken for adding meat to pumpkin lasagna to have a higher protein percentage. The mild flavor, I thought, would be good for keeping the rest in balance. I cooked it up with some pancetta (it was ultralean chicken), S&P, dried oregano and marjoram to have a hint of Italian, as well as chipotle powder and ground allspice to go with the pumpkin. I haven't made the lasagna yet (getting ingredients ready and chilled) but used some of the extra for dinner, sort of sloppy joe style, but with tasty cheese instead of sauce. Really good! I expect it to be good in the lasagna. Ground chicken (or turkey) doesn't have to be pretend beef. It's good as ground chicken! I was thinking about the extruded thing too. I agree it looks offputting. But as I was cooking up my chicken, which was from the store, but I have ground my own and the texture is the same, I recalled how gooshy it is. It's not textury like ground beef. Turkey isn't much different. So I'm thinking why extruded looking? Because they can precisely fill the trays and have it cut off at an exact weight probably! It's basically coming through a mechanical piping bag, or narrow sausage stuffer. That's my guess anyway. I don't like the beef version, which I have tried a couple of times, because it wants to stay worm shaped. Ground poultry seems too gooshy for that to be an issue. Or not? What do you think?