Thanks to all for your helpful advice. The shower was a wonderful success. I did make quiche - 6 of them ---2 each of spinach/feta, artichoke/swiss and bacon/cheddar. To my surprise, the bacon/cheddar was the first to go, followed by artichoke, then spinach. I thought it would have been the other way around. Anyway, I had way more than enough and after most of the people left, some were going back for "seconds". Even the guys who came over later enjoyed it. My sister made five different breads, I had a fruit tray and roasted potatoes with green, red and yellow peppers and sliced ham. For dessert we had a large assortment of finger pastries!! It was all wonderful. For the quiche ---- I ended up using Pillsbury as I knew I would be in a time crunch. It unrolls so nicely and is quite thin. I pre-baked the crusts late on Saturday night. I covered them with foil, put in weights, baked them for 10 minutes at 375, then uncovered them, brushed on an egg white/dijon wash and baked for another 5 minutes. I prepped all of the fillings on Saturday. Sunday morning, I beat the eggs, half&half, added the fillings and baked. It was so easy. By noon they were cooled, but just slightly warm ---- thought I would share my success. Thanks again for all of the insight.

linelle, if I lived in another state, the vodka would be cheaper, but here in Michigan it's taxed like crazy. I've been known to bring a bottle back from Chicago, but that's illegal. Ahem. Here a pint is $11 and that's for the cheap Popov stuff. Another poster said you had to have good vodka, that affected the taste, so that ups the price. And I'd rather die of whatever ailment than to ever drink vodka, LOL, although I did spring $22 and buy a bottle to make Lemoncello. We drank a little of it mixed with cranberry juice and I ended up dumping most of it out after about 14 months in my refrigerator, I'm told THAT won't last forever. Hey, I wonder how lemoncello would work in pie crust, for a lemon meringue pie. Hmmmm..... Annie

here's the link to the swap... Here is a link that might be useful: Seeds-n-Stitches October Haunting

Live mealworms may also suffer from relatively slow sales since even people that feed mealworms to their pet lizards, birds, and so on probably don't buy in bulk unless they're a breeder of such critters and therefore would have a constant and possibly even a daily need for such fare. As to a reasonable size to start with? The giant size might feed a few general population birds but without some care, it seems that you'd go though a container pretty quick. The smalls look tiny and you'd probably have to ration out a few more than you'd like to make a container last any amount of time. The medium size is what I'd try if I were that interested in feeding mealworms to draw in certain species. Price is right and there are enough that your mealworm experiment could last long enough for observation of any species that are drawn in just because of that addition to whatever you've been feeding on a regular basis. Long ago, I decided that within reason, if I had to ration what relatively small amount of funds I use for feeding the wildlife that comes to my little backyard compared to the enjoyment it brings me, I'd probably just take down my feeders and quit buying raw peanuts for the blue jays and that one damn ornery (but cute) squirrel that visits daily. I fully realize that not every budget is flexible enough to do that but I figure that I'm only here on this earth for a short while so why not enjoy what impacts my life and brings joy to my eyes while I'm here. Perusing a few websites on raising your own mealworms seems to be quite popular and while it doesn't look like the initial outlay would be much, would you use enough of the little buggers to make it worthwhile even if you just counted time and what space is required? Reading over those sites does remind me of a time not that long ago when every fishing and hunting magazine in existence (and they may still have them) had ads touting raising your own bigger and better fishing worms! "Yes Friends, you too can raise enough of my extra special extra large energetic red wigglers and nightcrawlers to go fishing any time you want and you'll never run out of fish bait!!!! Get your starter pack of worms NOW and in only days you'll have more worms than you can use. Send only $19.95 to PO Box XXXX, to get started." Not... Problem is that nightcrawlers won't live south of the Mason Dixon line unless you keep them in a refrigerator and most little red wigglers are just on the borderline of being so small that you almost have to use tweezers to put them on your fish hook. Too, both types have to be kept practically n the dark to keep them happy, temperature and moisture levels have to be maintained and appropriate worm food is not as easy to manage as they would have you think. Oh wait... the subject was mealworm acquisition, not fishin' worms. It appears I have strayed off subject again. Sorry bout that.