Patterns & Freezer Paper

Hm. The loss of the bananas hasn't affected me all that unduly. I dislike them intensely!

Except for when I put them in banana bran muffins, that is. And guess what I've been craving lately??? Hnnnnhhh!

Speakin' of coconuts, though, I wouldn't mind a few of those. I *really* dislike the flavour of coconut, but our pet mice just love living in them. I cut out a doorway with a hole saw, winkle out the nasty-smelling flesh, wash it out with hot sudsy water and then let the shell dry in the sun. I drill a couple of holes and insert legs made of coathanger wire. Voila! A Mousie Housie!

Sadly, the mice have a bit of a Hansel and Gretel complex: they like to nibble at their coconut house and it doesn't take long before they've made Significant Holes in it. Just to bring this sort of toward being On Topic, the mice just *love* shredding up scraps of quilt batting to make their nests! ;-D

Ther was one on ebay that sold for 40c with free postage. Was tempted but divided into 4 pieces doesn't give us much each LOL

Dee in Oz

Cats wrote:

we are paying 59 cents a lb here most of the time Pat.

My favorite pie > Well, my NYC Mom also called that lovely dish Banana Pudding. Since

Pat in Virginia wrote in news:GRPqg.314876$5Z.145390 @dukeread02:

I'll send coffee ... it's always ready here ;-)

ahhhh......

T.

Pat > Well, even if it is fully ironed, it can

Tou can get the recipe off a vanilla wafer box . DH's Granny made it for the kids - and there were ALWAYS kids at her house, so there was a never-ending supply. So, I made it for him..never made it, never had it before. Wasn't too bad, different, but I kinda like it. I think it was just called "Southern-style banana pudding"

I like Maya Angelou's recipe for banana pudding. You can find it here:

The story in her book about it was pretty funny too.

marcella

Marcella Peek wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.dca.giganews.com:

Holy cow! 8 eggs?? I think I just passed out......

That's no bargain around here :) Our local Kwik-Trip convenience stores have bananas all the time for 29 cents a pound, and there are a lot of Kwik-trip stores here, so we've always got bananas around.

Julia in MN

Just because I'm going goofy with lack of sleep (it's been some of _those_ couple of days...) here are my recipes. The first time I toted a banana cream pie to a family do, my SIL was boggled. When she does a cream pie she buys a crumb crust and instant pudding. These do not come out bright yellow unless you go mad with the food coloring. *chuckle* all are 9 inch pies.

Cream Pie without cream

1 1/2 cups milk 1/4 cup sugar pinch of salt 3 tablespoons flour 1 egg yolk 1 tablespoon butter half teaspoon of vanilla or thereabouts (depending on if it is a plain cream pie or has additions, a matter of taste)

Mix the salt, sugar and flour together. Scald the a cup of the milk over water, combine the dry ingredients with the other half cup. Slowly stir the mixture into the hot milk. Continue cooking in the boiler stirring constantly til thickened. Cover closely and allow to cook another 5 minutes. Add some of hot mixture to the beaten egg yolk, add yolk back in, cook another minute, remove from heat and add butter and vanilla. Cool.

Cream Pie (with cream)

Pint of cream

1/4 cup of sugar pinch of salt tablespoon cornstarch 4 egg yolks teaspoon vanilla

Mix the sugar salt and cornstarch together. Add a quarter of the cream and blend well. Scald remaining cream and add into cool mix gradually. Return to heat and cook til thickened. Beat yolks til light, stir a small bit of hot mixture into them then beat them into the main mix. Cook a couple more minutes (three minute egg timer long is how I do). Remove from heat and mix in vanilla. Cool

To a white cream pie:

Pint of heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar 2 tablespoons flour pinch of salt 2 egg whites half a teaspoon vanilla (though useing vanilla sugar works better for this one.)

Beat the egg whites til they are not stringy. Mix the sugar flour and salt together. Scald the cream. Pour hot cream over dry mix and stir it well. Put back over low heat (or a double boiler) and cook til thickened, stirring constantly. Take off the heat and beat in egg whites, add vanilla and beat in. Pour into 9 inch shell and bake 15 minutes. This one can only be topped.

To make fruit and fancy cream pies:

Banana- alternate layers of the cream with sliced bananas.

Coconut- mix about 2 cups of freshly shredded coconut in. If you use the bagged coconut you need less, but it is not as good.

blackberry or raspeberry- mix berries into the filling, garnish the top with whole berries.

Strawberry- spread a thin layer of stawberry jam over the bottom of the crust before putting in the cream. Cover the top of the pie with fresh sliced stawberries.

gooseberry- Don't. Just _don't_.

Black Bottom- while the piecrust is stll hot out of the oven, spread grated chocolate over the bottom of the crust. Put the cream in on top after it cools. On my planet grated Hershey bars are the usual, though some heretics use chocolate chips.

Peach- cover the filling with sliced peaches. One of my aunts melts peach jam with a little water and brushes it over the peaches. Sometimes she garnishes with pecans. Very Nice.

NightMist

Ohhhh Nightmist..... next time I have half the day to devote to cooking, I'm going to make one (or more) of your recipes. They sound simply delicious!!!! YUM!!!!

Patti in Seattle

here in Vancouver, we pay only about .35 cents Canadian per pound for bananas ( yes, even though we are supposed to be on the metric system, the per kilo price is really small on the signs, and the per pound price is prominent - for foods) Everything else is priced in metric (for example, gas, distance)

Cathy > thanks Pat. I have a good recipe we have just been cutting back.

I got treated (and addicted to) a lovely treat when we were in Fiji - BBQ coconut. No serious! They BBQ or roast - not sure which) chunky bits of the white flesh until toasty on the outside. Oooooh the flavour is just soooo yummy. and so addictive

Wal Mart sells patterns, McCall's and Simplicity for 1/2 price. I also watch for Hancock's Simplicity's 99c sale. In between sales, I list the S patterns I want to buy "next time." Barbara in SC

"Polly Esther"

I believe that JoAnn's also has their McCall's, Simplicity, and Butterick patterns below list price all the time. They also run frequent sales on patterns. All three companies also have sections of much less expensive patterns; sometimes you can find patterns there that are very similar, though perhaps with fewer variations on the pattern, to the more expensive patterns in the rest of the book. They are usually fairly simple styles. For Simplicity, they're the "It's So Easy" patterns, Butterick has the "Yes It's Easy See & Sew" patterns, and McCall's has "Easy Stitch 'n' Save". I've never ordered from

but they say they always discount Simplicity patterns and it looks like they have discounts on other brands as well.

Julia in MN