Sure! How's the ice cream going? The information about the shortening was in Loves2cook4six's thread about substituting for dairy in a tart recipe. Cloud Swift recommended Spectrum cold pressed palm oil shortening. I've baked a lot with the trans fat free shortening that used to be made by Smart Balance then seemed to be the same thing made by Crisco. It works fine in cakes and breads, but it separates when you try to melt it, and it's pretty stiff even at room temperature. The Spectrum is soft and kind of velvety at room temperature, and just becomes softer and looser when melted in the microwave. I think that's from being pressed rather than concocted. A couple of years ago I started researching matzah ball recipes for a vegetarian friend and found a lot that didn't sound good, but saved a file with ones that had potential. The only one I found that had shortening rather than oil (from mrfood.com) was very close to our old family recipe with the addition of water. Some of the better liquid oil recipes used seltzer. I thought that made them sound really loose, but my friend gave me a Soda Stream and I thought it sounded fun to include it. I have no idea if the bubbles actually help anything. :) The shortening recipe sounded best because the proportions didn't just say substitute liquid oil for schmaltz, one to one, which sounds goofy to me, but I waited until the end to add the water, to see if it needed it. In the end, I combined all the recipes and it came out really well. Here's what I made (which I already e-mailed to the friend since she still hasn't made any matzah balls, hence the extremely detailed directions): Vegetarian Matzah Balls Yield: 37 medium sized matzah balls Cooking time: 8-9 hours. No joke. • 12 eggs • 1.5 cup soda water • 1 cup vegetable shortening, melted --Spectrum cold pressed. • 1 + 1 scant teaspoon salt • 1 teaspoon black pepper • 1 teaspoon white pepper • 3-4 Tablespoons (one handful) of Fines Herbes • 3 cups whole wheat matzo meal (Yehuda) 1. Separate the eggs into separate mixer bowls. If you only have one mixer bowl, put the whites in that and the yolks in another large bowl. Add about 1/4 tsp of the salt to the eggwhites. Put the rest, along with the pepper and dried herbs in the matzah meal and stir well. 2. Combine the yolks, shortening, and matzah meal and mix well, alternating between shortening and mix about three times. If you're doing it by hand, use a heavy wooden spoon or use the paddle on the mixer. It should all be well stuck together. Add the soda water about a third at a time and mix well. Adding the water in stages helps you assess how wet you want it and adjust the amount of water you add. It could vary on things like how wet the eggs are. The end result should be about the consistency of chocolate chip cookie dough. Stiff but not rigid, and not loose and wet. 3. Whip the salted whites to stiff peaks with the wire whisk on the mixer. Don't worry if it's not perfect meringue. It'll still work. 4. Gently fold the whites into the yolk/matzah meal mixture, using a heavy wooden spoon. Add about a quarter of the whites on top, then reach under with the spoon, turning it over as you reach the top. The mix should seem to wetten, but don't keep folding until all the white is absorbed--you'll overwork the batter and squash all the loft out of the eggwhites. Just fold until the white is like a ribbon through. Add the rest a quarter at a time, gently folding. It should still feel kind of fluffy when it's all mixed, and have no big white spots. Stop as soon as you can. 5. Cover and chill 30-120 minutes. (Half to two hours). Don't leave it much longer, or all the loft will go out. 6. Fill your biggest, widest, pot (stock pot, bean pot) about 3/4 full of water and put it on to boil. You'll want a rolling boil, but even with induction that much water takes some time to boil. If it's ready before you are, turn it down. Bringing it back to the boil will be easy. 7. Put a bowl of water where you're working to rinse your hands and a tray lined with parchment paper to put the balls on. (You can drop them right into the water but this is easier for me.) A medium food scoop is a great help for portioning. Take a rounded scoop's worth (i.e, don't flatten, but get round like a scoop of ice cream, but measure with your eyes--don't try to make it any particular shape in the scooper. Use a soup or serving spoon to get a similar portion if you don't have a scoop. Handle and mush the batter as little as possible. Dump the scooped portion--the size of a walnut or golf ball--into your damp hands and very gently roll it to form the ball shape. Don't worry about the exact shape. Just give it one roll in one direction and one in the other, without pressing, and put it down. Rinse/wet your hands as needed. 8. When your matzah balls are ready and your water is at a rolling boil, lower the water to a fast simmer--the high end of low (probably number 3). Carefully place matzo balls in the boiling water trying not to get spattered. Simmer for as long as you can. Bare minimum, 4 hrs. They'll sink first, then they'll rise to the top. If you have more balls than room at the top, they'll kind of stack up and the top ones start to turn brown. Just bop them down with your wooden spoon so the brown parts turn under and to let lower level ones up. After they've floated for a long time, they'll start to submerge, though they don't go down all the way to the bottom. When they're all hiding under the surface they might be done, but you could leave them in for another hour or more. If they start looking waterlogged and fluffy floating away, as in falling apart, they're overdone, so aim for 5-7 hrs. Yes, other people make matzah balls that they say are done in less than an hour, but this is how we do them for firm, fully cooked, tender and bounce free matzah balls. 9. Drain the matzah balls well while you're dishing them up. I use a ladle with a built in strainer, but you could also fish them out with a slotted spoon or small strainer with a long handle. Nobody likes the matzah ball water in their soup. :)

Hi BetsieLT, It may be that you are recently retired - but life isn't over - I hope. Had you given thought to what you'd do after retirement, before it came? It brings a major disruption in your activities, interests, use of time, connections with people, etc. Are you living alone, or sharing houseroom with (an)other(s)? Do you plan to continue living in your present place? If not, do you know where you want to go? If you've thought of moving to a distant place, many suggest going there to live in a rental place for a while, to experience it year-round before settling down. I understand that many people, through many years of living in their home, have acquired most everything that they need/want. On the other hand, some have planned to begin some new interests after retirement and, not having acquired the necessary equipment before, may want to get them now. I hope that you won't be in a hurry to give away most of your things - especially money and investments - as you may want/need them later. My 86 year old uncle, whose wife died a year ago now, whom I spent several months with until his cattle went to pasture, as he had bad back, hip (3 replacements) and leg, wonders how much longer he'll be able to continue in his country home. Though he has a (nearly new) truck, his eye doctor was unwilling to give him clearance to renew his driver's licence. But he wants to go on living in the home where he's lived for over fifty years as long as he can. He looked around, while executors were dealing with his wife's things, and said, "You spend all your life getting a number of things (he has a modest home) and now - what do you do with them?" He can afford anything that he wants. As a financial planner and retirement consultant for a number of years, I've found that many people have major expenses in the first year or so after retirement - doing some travelling that they've wanted to do in a leisurely fashion. And in the last year of their life - related to serious medical issues. I hope that you have assets that allow you the freedom to do some of the things that you'd like in the way of travel, hobbies, attending shows, festivals, etc. Do you have some friends, especially ones who've retired rather recently? No doubt you can discuss some of the retirement issues with them. It will be important to make some new friends - for you'll find that a number of the ones you've had for years will be dropping off. In increasing numbers as the years go by. This is a great new phase of your life - go into it with joy and anticipation. Enjoy each day, week and year to the full. There can be some wonderful days ahead for you. Good wishes to you as you set off on this new adventure. joyful guy/Ed P.S. My email address is here - go to "My Page" for a better idea of who I am and what I'm about. Write if you'd like some more individual discussion. OJ (Ole Joyful)

I grow lavender lassie ! It just started opening up for me . So in a week or so I'll have nice photos for you ! I love the fragrance! It's 3rd year also and not climbing yet . Oddly mine in pa started throwing climbing canes up right away . I had two ready to climb an arbor . Again it does black spot . The kind of black spot I get , I can shake the bush and the bad leaves mostly fall off or easily are plucked off. I don't remember it being unbearable . The only way I would get rid of a bush for blackspot is if it was naked and lavender lassie never is or was for me . So it's not awful ! Heres a single bloom for you. I love love the fragrance !! I will look for more photos later for you . I really reccomend it ! Beautiful photos alto Rama !!

I use olive oil in cornbread. I never liked it until I found that recipe. It's very moist, like Italian olive oil cake. I melt a tablespoon of Crisco in the cake pan while the oven is heating and then swirl it around and pour in the cornbread batter. Crisco is what gives you crispness and I am mimicking cornbread in a preheated cast iron skillet when I do that. I use part Crisco in pie crust because it holds its shape better--no droopy edges. I also have a few cookie recipes that call for half butter, half Crisco.