Hi Todd!  First...I LUV your site and your work.

My name is Diana and I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

One of the better deserts I've made was a last minute deal to use up some leftovers from Thanksgiving.  My mother had made, and left with me, 2 kinds of cranberry sauce...one plain, one with orange.  I didn't want to just throw them out (they're really good!) so I poked around the cupboards and my Joy of Cooking and found I had the ingredients for a fruity pound cake.  I embellished the recipe a little with a can of Bing cherries I found in the back of the cupboard.

Anyhoot.....I mixed it all up, put it in a tray larger than I thought I would need and BAM I had a huge amount of fruity pound cake.  I live with my husband, dog and kat.  There's no WAY we could eat all that!  I passed some over to a neighbour (I think the husband got a crush on me after tasting the cake) and I still had way too much left.

At the time, I was an overnight supervisor at a one night a week shelter for homeless people.  I cut it all up, put it on paper plates, wrapped it in plastic wrap and went off to my shift.  About 2 a.m. I saw a guy with a slice of the cake and a coffee.  He sat near me.  After he'd taken a couple of bites I asked him, all nonchalant like it wasn't my cake or something... 'How is the cake?'.  He paused, looked at the cake, looked at me and said 'Ya know?  It's not too bad!'.  I was elated!  A guy that lives on the street and is drunk most of the time, likes my cake!!!!

But seriously....the volunteers tried it and said they liked it, too.  My husband has been bugging me to make it again.  And I think he means it :)

Here's how I made it:

2 cups of butter
2 cups of sugar
9 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
4 cups of flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup each of cranberries, cranberries with orange, canned (pitted) cherries

Mix it all up.  Pour into a pan.  Bake at 325 degrees for about an hour,

P.S. you can add any other kind of fruit to it....dried anything, raisins for example, pineapple, what have you and it'll work just the same.

P.S.S. I'm now in chef school.

Hey Todd,

I was looking around, and perhaps I'm mistaken, but I didn't see a
standard salsa recipe. I believe that store-bought salsa is the devil.
It's so simple to make at home and the taste is by far better. Here's
mine, albeit I am Trinidadian born, and so used to heat.

Simple Smokin' Salsa:
(Makes the equivalent of around 16 oz of salsa)

-4 fairly firm plum tomatoes
-1 medium yellow onion (reduce amount if you don't love onions)
-4 peeled cloves of garlic (again, reduce amount if you don't love garlic)
-1 yellow habanero pepper (the contrast allows you to know it is
indeed pepper; limit pepper if you don't have a high tolerance for
heat, or replace with milder jalapenos if necessary)
- 1 bunch of fresh cilantro (essential)

1. Cut the tomatoes however you prefer your salsa (personally I like
chunky salsa and am satisfied with just a rough chop).
2. Repeat process for yellow onion.
3. Finely mince garlic.
4. Don some gloves if you're not used to habaneroes and finely chop
the yellow habanero. I usually use the seeds, pith and all because I
love spicy food. Most of the heat is located in the white pith, remove
if desired (along with seeds), as this will tone down the heat a bit.
5. Remove the now spicy gloves if you put 'em on, if not, skip to 6.
6. In a bowl toss chopped tomatoes, yellow onions, garlic, and
habanero together. Mix thoroughly.
7. Tear fresh cilantro into the bowl with salsa mixture, varying
amount to personal tastes. Combine mixture thoroughly.
8. Allow salsa to remain in the refrigerator overnight so the flavors
can meld together.
9. Enjoy.
10. Repeat.

Hamida (no_one on the TV Board) from Ann Arbor, Michigan