LOL Ok y'all........I have to stick up for fruitcakes! LOL My aunt is from British Wales and her mom could make the most wonderful fruitcake.....and yes it was heavy and yes it had all those little unknown fruits in it.....but man it to die for!! I always looked forward to Christmas time......that's when my aunt's mom would fly over to the US and she'd cook and cook and cook! She made thee best pasteries on earth! Bless her heart.....after the last time she was here....in 1985...she was hit and killed by a drunken driver in England. He's still in prision. I sure miss her and her fruitcakes!
Hope everyone had a Happy (and painfree) New Year's Eve!

roxie..i have a wonderful recipe from grandmother. it uses gum drops instead of dried fruit. she came up with during the depression. she couldn't afford the fruits or or much sugar. it really does fool people, but sure does taste good.

That darn dog has eaten everything including baggies. Some comes back up...some goes thru. He has eaten grapes...usually only the expensive ones I buy organic. My hubby keeps threatening to do away with him, but one sad look of those big green eyes...(yes green) and he wins ya back over.

He has dined at the compost bin, downed a few chicken bones from left over dinners, eaten doggie bags, bag and all, the contents of which were intended for ME, and once I found a bottle of Ambien on the floor, open. I am so fastidious about my meds and keep them in a drawer.....I never accounted for 5 of them but none of my dogs ever slept much, so who knows, they may be in some trim or floor crevice or down the heat vent!!! I absolutely panicked when I found that--- picking up pills and counting them as fast as I could.

Oh, and he HAS eaten chocolate....HE is a 'bad dog'....but I love him. He has sent me to phone the vet many times...luckily the vet is not far away...she says I have 'weird dogs'. My dog walker loves 'em.

I really am safety conscious, but I can't watch every one all the time...usually hubby and my kid leaves stuff....like the fancy Brazillian Chocolate he ate.

When I was canning, my dogs used tomatoes as doggie toys.

This dog can open doors, or eat thru them...yet he is the most loyal creature on earth. If I am sick, he is on the bed, on duty watching the door for any one who dare enter....he barks up a storm but in the long run, ends up kissing any guest on the lips.

I have gotten Invisible Fencing for the outdoors and indoors, as not every one is so fond of a large Scooby doo kiss as I am. We have dog free zones in the house, but this stinker has learned how to circumvent one of them..the one into the kitchen. It is quite an elaborate, circuitous route he takes....but as soon as we leave, he is up on the table, jumps to the counter, sneakes under the upper cabinetry...I figure he gets as far as the sink. I can get another zone, I suppose....I prefer to use him as an incentive to keep the counter clean. We love to catch him at it....he looks guilty, and literally slinks down and away to 'his' chair.

If you are not an animal lover, you may think we are crazy. Maybe we are.

And as far as fruitcake goes....it is tradition, and kinda like family...so you smile and take it all in.

For all you fruitcake lovers out there (and I have no idea why you guys like the stuff), but I bet you've never tried this Irish dessert.

It's called Trifle.

I had it at an ex-friend's house for Thanksgiving once and I couldn't get enough of it. I just looked it up on the net.

Here's the link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trifle

Oh my god, you'll die and go to heaven.

Oh, about 50 or so years ago, my grandmother made some kind of dessert with lady fingers and sugar and some little chocolate thingees.

She called it Beahn cu man chatay!!!

Don't ask me what this means. I have no idea. But I once saw the actual recipe on the side of a box of corn starch. In english the recipe was Vanilla Blanc Mange.

All I know is whenever I went to my grandmothers' house, I would eat plates of this stuff. It was custardy like and between that and the lady fingers around the plate, I went to town.

No wonder I ballooned up!!!! lol

mel
P.S. I'm so glad I now eat sprouts.

My wife has a couple of old "from scratch" recipes for fruitcakes that are very good - even long time fruitcake haters have enjoyed her fruitcakes.
Alkymst

Nope don't think your dog crazy or anybody is,,but i'm crazy for that dog.
We had a Itaian neighbor 'sacross the street who lived to a ripe old
on Spghetti. Sue