Happy birthday. I'd make you a cake if I could! Thanks for posting this, and reminding me that there's hope for happiness (or at least a lessening of misery) as time goes by. Hugs, friend. :001_smile:

Interesting. I know what a Pavlova is, and how to make it, but here in the U.S. I've never actually seen one.

I'm only trying to decide about which desserts to prepare in what quantities. There are a few other things: crackers & cheese, strawberries, grapes, an assortment of nuts.

Why won't it allow me to have the option of selecting more than one choice? :confused: ETA: Got it!

Let's say you go to a wedding that has no meal, but does have a beautiful dessert buffet. Which of the desserts would you probably go for? The servings will be purposefully small, so that people can feel free to try more than one.

Bled & cramped with most of my 5 dc. Can't remember clots, but maybe. As hard as it is to wait, and I do know it's miserable, there's usually nothing they can do if it is actually a miscarriage in progress. Praying for you and sending you (((hugs))) while you wait.

Thanks all! I ended up adding a teeny bit of xanthan gum, a fair amount of cream, and simmering until reduced. Yum. :drool5:

The recipe I have calls for dredging the chicken in flour. I know that this is not only for a nicer browning on the chicken, but also to thicken the sauce as the chicken cooks in it. Leaving the thickening agent out is simply not acceptable to me, because that sauce needs to be thick enough to coat whatever I serve it with, kwim? So, should I dredge the chicken in cornstarch instead of the flour and then proceed as usual? Should I brown the chicken without dredging it in anything and then stir a little cornstarch + water into the sauce at the end? I'm a little hesitant because I need to make this meal and then send leftovers to someone to be reheated later. I don't want a cornstarch thickened sauce to become too thick & gummy as it's chilled and then reheated. Advice? :bigear:

I love this! Too bad I can't "like" it twice. :thumbup:

Okay, you asked for an honest assessment, right? I think it's great, but there are a few small changes you might consider. On one section, you have the phrase "gain back", I'd remove the word "back" from that. In your "About Us" section, the phrase "history for", I'd change to "history of". Your enthusiasm shows so clearly, you can remove some exclamation points. The enthusiasm will still come through loud and clear, but it will probably look a teeny-tiny bit more professional. I love your picture, and I'd certainly feel encouraged and comfortable with the idea of having you in my home. Great job! ETA: I replied too slowly, and now my comments are mostly duplicates of things other people have already mentioned. I think it's wonderful. :-)

Can I like this twice? Attitude is either going to make this an adventurous and growth-oriented time of life, or it will turn it into a disaster.

I've (obviously!) shared really personal stuff here. I have one really good friend IRL whom I can talk to about pretty much anything, but she's really busy, and I hate to take up much of her time. One thing though, is that nothing I share here is really a secret. If someone IRL found what I'd written here, it might be a little awkward, but nothing more. The reason I feel fine about sharing here is because it doesn't feel like I'm imposing upon anyone. WTM'ers come here when they have time, and they can choose to read & respond (or not). It's not like talking to a friend who might be sitting there wishing I'd quit talking so they could get on with their work. I also share here fairly freely because it's cheaper than therapy at $100 per 50 mins. :huh:

Yes, I've collected four of the pans, searching often and snapping them up whenever I can find them at a price I can afford. They're not really that special, just tradition, you know? The last kid might have to end up with mine, if I don't end up with one more. That'd be ok too. :-)

I love it that people whom I've never even met IRL are taking care of me & looking out for me. I'm not at all worried about what dh thinks about the gift, and actually it's a sign of progress that we could discuss a rather mundane detail of life without having the hard stuff intrude. I'm going to go ahead and do a basket with the pan, syrup, batter bowl, etc. I am going to ask dil if she'd mind very much if I tiptoed into their apartment to leave a surprise in her kitchen while they're gone. I just won't tell her what it is, so she can be surprised when she arrives home. I think that would be the best thing. Gives her the opportunity to say that she'd rather not have me in there while they're gone, but still lets me surprise her a little (or a lot!) if she's comfortable with the idea. :)

I had thought that it would be a wonderful surprise to her if I set the mixer in her kitchen with a bow and a note, so she could come home to that after their honeymoon. Then I decided that it might feel intrusive to her for me to come into their apartment while she's gone. When I was a new bride, I lived in our home alone for about 6 months prior to the wedding. When dh and I came home from our honeymoon, I found that one of my SILs had come in the house and cleaned while I was gone. Right down to arranging my underwear drawer. :huh: I found out a couple of days later that she'd had some of the church ladies come help her with this "surprise" for me. :ohmy: I was mortified. I guess I'm kind of super-sensitive about that issue now.

Ha! Wouldn't be the first time... :rolleyes: :p

Here's the thing: I know that she'd never ever ask for a mixer or put it on her registry, because it would be "too big a gift to ask for", but I also know for a fact that her heart would sing at having this mixer. It's exactly the size she'd ask for, and it's *exactly* the color that she'd ask for, if she were the type to ask for such a thing. Right down to it being the bright red that matches her toaster and her dishes.

I kind of like finding shortcut recipes in with scratch recipes. Some of them are really, really good, and superior to what I'd make using a scratch recipe. I shouldn't confess this, because you all will probably think a 'lil differently about my baking skills after this, but some of the very best recipes I have start with a cake mix. There is a carrot cake that I'm *known* for making, and it really is one of the best I've ever tasted. It's based on a yellow cake mix. (Shh...don't tell!) I even like the reviews in which the cook has made drastic changes to the recipe and had it not work. Then I know not to try those things myself!

My ds is getting married on the 20th of this month to a wonderful, sweet, kind, eager-to-please young woman. There is a bridal shower for her this Saturday, and I'm not sure what gift to give. She has registered at a couple of places, and I think people are doing well with fulfilling the items from the registry. I don't know what to give her, and I have three choices: 1.) it's a family tradition to make Dutch pancakes (basically crepes) every Saturday morning on a particular pan that is no longer made. My mil had two of them and gave me one. I found one on ebay a couple of years ago and bought it, thinking that I'd love to pass that tradition on to my children. She's been a part of that Saturday morning tradition for years now, and I'm thinking of giving her the pan that I've been saving, along with the recipe for the pancakes, along with some of the Lyle's Golden Syrup that we always use with the pancakes. I can't buy the syrup locally, so I order it online. It would not be something she'd likely order on her own because of expense. 2.) This one's tricky. Because I bake professionally, I have a large mixer that I use routinely. A couple of months ago I bought a second, smaller mixer because I thought it'd be handy to have. It would be, but the mixer is just a little too small for my purposes. So, I have this extra red Kitchenaid mixer (red is the color she's chosen for her kitchen), with an extra bowl, beater, & whisk, along with a nice Sidewinder bowl-scraper beater. It is a *MUCH* nicer gift than I could afford to buy for her, but because I already have it and don't need it, I could give it to her. Is that tacky? I don't think I'd do it at the shower, 'cause that would look...weird, to give someone a used gift. My dh doesn't like the pancake pan idea or the mixer idea, because he thinks it's odd and would look cheap. :001_rolleyes: 3.) I could scrap both of those gift ideas that might be strange, and just buy her a small gift, either from her registry, or I could just pick something I know they will want but don't yet know they need. It will need to be a small gift, because of other wedding expenses, etc. I don't really want people to think that I'm only giving her a $25 dollar gift though. I love her, and don't want people to speculate about whether she and I have a good relationship, or wonder whether I'm perhaps not happy about the marriage and am being stingy towards her. :001_unsure: So what's the best thing to do here? And yes, I do care what people think, because dil is someone who will be anxious if she hears any noise about me maybe not being happy with her, and I don't want anyone to have that impression.

But...but...but...we went to Men's Wearhouse (there is one only 25 miles away), and the suits they said would work were around $600-$700! My dh is a dairy farmer. This will be the 2nd time in his adulthood that he's worn a suit, so it's not a frequently worn item of his wardrobe. Still, it's the first of our 5 kids to get married, so he might need one a few more times in the next 5-10 years. Is $600-700 or renting the only option? Seems like it shouldn't be this hard.

Grrrrr..... If I look at suits that have a 50L jacket, then the pants that come with it are a 44. He needs a 38. If I look at suit separates that have a 50L jacket, then I can't find the pants that match. What am I doing wrong??

I guess it could be considered both. Wearing a sheer dress that everyone can see through isn't, in my opinion, desirable. Nor is wearing clingy fabric that hugs in all the wrong places when a slip could smooth it out and make it hang correctly. Sure, women do both of those things, but I don't think of it as stylish. Then again, I'm no fashion plate, lol!

We don't have a Big & Tall store anywhere nearby--like, it'd be at least 100 miles away/200 miles round-trip. I'm not particular about how well it hangs, it just needs to kind of fit, and be good enough for maybe 4 wearings over it's usable life. Men's Wearhouse was ridiculously expensive, and they didn't seem to understand that we're not looking for a $600 suit. :huh: We checked the JCPenney near us, but they didn't have his size. I looked at jcpenney.com and they have tons of affordable suits, but I couldn't find his size there either. :willy_nilly:

Dh needs a suit for ds's wedding in (eek!) 20 days, and I'm having trouble finding what he needs. Charcoal or graphite suit, jacket size 50 long, pants 38x34. Under $250-300 would be nice. I just want to click "buy" and have this be over.

Dh needs a suit for ds's wedding in (eek!) 20 days, and I'm having trouble finding what he needs. Charcoal or graphite suit, jacket size 50 long, pants 38x34. Under $250-300 would be nice. I just want to click "buy" and have this be over.