Gosh Annie, how old is my birthday twin now-22? How time flies! This birthday kind of snuck up on me, I had no real plans and when anyone asked me "what do you want to do for your birthday I could only come up with, "Oh, I dunno.........."

So sorry! That I haven't followed up. I was out of town last week. On Tuesday, dear daughter went and got chicken breast and lemons. That night she made the Gordon Ramsay lemon chicken. Alas! She overcooked the chicken breast. I'd told her to cook them to no more than 140F internal, but she got so worried about food safety (footnote 1) that she cooked them more, and it turns out she'd purchased chicken tenders (I think that is what you call the little sliver that sits just inside of the breast?) which meant they overcooked even more quickly. Sad :-( So she came up with a plan B, SWMBO makes a no-cook lemon pasta sauce that takes 10 minutes. Dear daughter made regular and gluten-free pasta, whipped up the sauce, and brought that to the club meeting. It also turns out that many of the H.S. Iron Chef Club meetings, including this one, conflict with the Vivace Club she is in, which is some sort of a cappella vocal performance club. She went through the tryouts and got selected, it helps that she is a tenor/alto 2 which isn't common for girls. This meeting was one that conflicted, so she was only able to run to the Iron Chef meeting, drop off her dishes, and run off to Vivace practice. As of this point, we don't know who won. Dear daughter's dishes were received well enough to be featured in the club's Facebook page, so they weren't a total flop. But not the BONE-CRUSHING DOMINATION that the Gordon Ramsay lemon chicken would have been IF PROPERLY PREPARED. Well, live and learn. She had fun, learned some do's and don'ts for cooking chicken, and got at least an honorable mention / photo. Oh, we are not sure what the next ingredient is, but I will find out. I wish I'd been there to supervise her cooking, but I've been traveling for work most of the week, every week, for the last three weeks. Home life has become awfully discombobulated. I'm falling badly behind in my in-office work. Eating bad stuff and getting fat. And the chicken was overcooked. We'll pull it together in time for the next Iron Chef competition and, of course, the jello shot Halloween party! (footnote 1) Ever since her summer working at the camp kitchen, dear daughter has been as obsessed with food safety as any county health inspection. She wants to bleach our counters.

I love pumpkin pie, and it is one of the few ways DH and DD will eat pumpkin. We don't have canned pumpkin here, so I cook and mash butternut squash for it, or occasionally Kent pumpkins which are sweet. My recipe has brown sugar and evaporated milk. Colleen's Pumpkin Pie 1 cup evaporated milk 2 eggs 1 1/2 cups mashed cooked pumpkin 1 cup brown sugar 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/8 tsp nutmeg 1/8 tsp ginger 1/8 tsp cloves Mix thoroughly (I put it all in the blender) and pour into prepared 8" raw pie shell. (I make mine from scratch.) Bake 15 mins at 425F, then 50 mins at 350F. Using the blender makes it very smooth and creamy.

michelle, come on... I only posted that comment due to your post on the other thread about homosexuals and why others aren't posting to it. I have never posted anything like that before and I wasn't trying to mean. I was really just giving you a reason why people may not be posting here Carla, if you had continued reading you would have seen my apology for making a bad connection. It seems you like to stir the pot and like to post controversial issues and then like to slam people. I think you need to look at yourself a little more and quit with the sarcasm. It seems most posters here are handling your somewhat controversial posts well with the exception of you. You sure can dish it out... but you can't take it too well. I don't post to "slam" people and I don't think I have ever been sarcastic on this forum. I think I am a pretty good person and don't need to "slam" anyone. But mostly I start my threads with knowledge from experience. And yes, I truly love to stir the pot, not in a bad way, but to bring back the days where we could post and not get feeling hurt. I post honest questions that make people think from their insides, and what is really important than what this forum has become. And I absolutely can take it as well as I give it. Considering I was truly trying to be nice... your last comment to me wasn't funny sarcastic, it was just mean. Carla, I wasn't trying to be mean nor sarcastic in my last post to you. I would love for other people to chime in with posts that others find interesting, I was inviting you to come up with some good, thoughtful posts, not trying to be mean at all. I am sorry if you took it that way. ps..I find it odd how often you don't post your opinions on the questions you ask. It's almost like you are "trying" to stir the pot or start fights amoung people. Most of my threads I do give an answer immediately, there are just times that I choose to post the question and then I will answer later. I never meant to hurt anyone's feelings, but I guess I will have to tread even more lightly. I truly am sorry, Carla, I never meant to upset you.