Posted on 12/01/2025 5:54:31 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
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APRICOT ALMOND BARS / makes 36
A lot of deliciousness with simple ing, not too much time in the kitchen.
Crust: pkg Pillsbury Plus Yellow or White Cake Mix 1/2 c ea butter, melted, fine-chp almonds 1 c apricot preserves FILLING: 8 oz pkg cr/cheese, 1/4 c sugar 2 tbl flour 1/8 tsp salt 1 tsp vanilla 1 egg 1/3 c apricot preserves Topping 1/2 c coconut
Method Elec/mix on low cake mix and butter til crumbly. Stir in almonds. Reserve 1 cup. Press rest in generously greased oblong pan bottom. Spread w/ 1 cup apricot preserves. In same bowl, beat well cr/cheese, sugar, flour, salt, vanilla, egg. Stir in 1/3 cup preserves on low. Carefully spread over Crust. Sprinkle w/ combined 1 cup Crust, coconut. Bake golden brown 350 deg 30-40 min, center is set. Cool completely; cut into bars. Store in fridge.
Can you recommend a good catalogue(s) with pictures for buying rose plants. I just cleared an area on land in Atlantic coastal Virginia and want to plant in the spring. Cheers
Beautiful pictures - thanks for sharing! Christmas lights are one of my favorite things. I’m also grateful I don’t have to deal with the snow in the Portugal picture (yet ... Winter is far from over!).
Lots of choices for you for coastal roses at these sites. ANY reputable rose seller can get these for you. Of course I recommend Jung’s-owned Edmund’s Roses. ;)
https://www.edmundsroses.com/ecatalogs
Research sites on which roses are best for you with info and pictures:
https://www.meadowsfarms.com/blog/traditional-climbing-roses/
https://gardeninggurus.org/rose-garden-for-coastal-climates/
https://www.tipsbulletin.com/roses-for-the-beach/
I’m excited to see the ‘Knockout’ series of roses in that last link. Those are the ones I have the best results with up here in SW Wisconsin. They are tough as nails!
Nice to see you! Looks like we’re all pretty much in for lower temps, ice and snow this upcoming week. :(
Can you post a link again to the seedling/planting flats you found at such a good price? I’m going to have to bite the bullet this season because I REALLY need some. I want the tall sides and drainage holes in the bottom. Thanks!
Good luck with all of your vehicle repairs. You sound just like Beau, LOL!
Thank you, Mairdie! :)
I’m pretty sure it’s NOT a Mortal Sin to propagate another plant from it. *WINK*
I’ve had ‘Miss Peach’ for close to 20 years, now! If yours is in a spot where she blooms, do all you can to keep here there - because the conditions are obviously right for her!
My trick? When I have an ‘empty’ gallon of milk, I do NOT rinse it - I fill it with water and anything that blooms gets a watering with that calcium-rich water. Works like a charm on Miss Peach and any Geraniums I bring in for the winter. My Bay Laurel seems to like it, too.
Miss Peach had an accident last week - Beau knocked her over when he was vacuuming (I will NEVER yell at a man who is doing chores for me!) and she lost a good 1/3 of her branches. I had to trim off even MORE to get her to be able to stand up straight, and then I slipped her into another pot for more stability. She really did need re-potting this last summer, but I neglected to do that. The main plant is still OK and should recover, but I’m taking cuttings from her and rooting them to make some more ‘Miss Peaches’ just in case.
Disaster somewhat averted. ;)
Here's the standard 2.5" deep 1020, available in black or white. https://www.bootstrapfarmer.com/collections/1020-trays-and-flats/products/extra-strength-1020-tray?variant=44275514474654
Here's all 1020 trays, shallow, deep, mesh, domes, many colors. https://www.bootstrapfarmer.com/collections/1020-trays-and-flats
Yes, they have pink trays. I've always hated hardening off in black trays. Sucks up the heat and drys things out. I know black plastic has the most UV protection but these things don't live outdoors 24/7 so I'm thinking about white or green next time I get some.
I don't remember where I got any others before that. Lemme see if I can find a brand on them.
brb
I'm back
Green Garden Products, Norton, MA; 1020 trays, fairly sturdy. Looks to be dead. No fb posts for 5 years - https://www.facebook.com/greengardenproducts/
green + garden + products = too generic for searching. Amazon has green garden products which just means they're green as in recycled content etc
Shame because they're decent trays. Massachusetts commie covid rules probably put them out of business.
CK64001 humidity dome, also fairly sturdy - evidently Hydrofarm brand. I think it came as a seed starting greenhouse kit with the below tray which is junk. The squares make it flimsy even though the plastic isn't real thin. It also makes it so things don't want to slide in either direction.
Yep this is it. 
Hydrofarm - Jump Start - same thing. Also Sunblaster and many other names. Hydrofarm is the main company.
The trays I got from bootstrap are actually cell trays. Sturdier than any of the flats I have.
Hyrofarm has double thick and quad thick trays and quad are getting up to bootstrap price and probably thickness
Neither the double or quad mention plastic thickness. The only one I see that does is this one - 1.8 mm - same as bootstrap. The ridges don't look very pronounced though so I'd bet the bottoms sag like the one I have with the squares.
I just put 5 trays in my cart on bootstrap, filled in the address and it came up with $20 shipping. About the going rate these days I guess.
Just checked Neversink farm/tools and they want $15 for what they call indestructible bottom tray.
I'll be getting bootstrap even though they're a little pricey. The market gardeners on youtube all rave about them. They've got a complete system that all fits together. Half thinking about getting 1010 trays. Getting through a door with the 1020s is a pain. Can't carry with one hand.
Wind must have knocked a tree down on a powerline nearby because the power just went out. My laptop battery is junk so see ya. Good luck with choosing a tray.
I’ll have to remember to do that before I toss any milk cartons.
good gawd the temp has dropped from mid 70s to mid 40s in two hours. Gonna be mid teens by morning.
Our temps are supposed to ‘crash’ by evening tomorrow & we have high wind warnings for the day ... gusts 30-50 mph & maybe some snow squalls in the evening. I am not looking forward to that kind of weather.
Would you do me a favor? You seem to have a knack for finding/identifying things online. I made a cat shelter out of an old cooler & I think I did a decent job cutting a round entrance hole, but it was an absolute pain to do. After I had the hole done, I ran across a video where a guy was making a cat shelter out of a cooler & he had some incredibly easy way to do it. It looks like he had the same tool I was using, but he had some sort of jig to guide the blade around the hole for a super neat, clean cut. I had to sand the heck out of the entrance hole I cut to get it relatively smooth & I did tape it, just like he did.
Here’s the video link - cutting the hole is very early on, you won’t have to watch long:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht7efNutAi4
The tool I used was something I found scrounging around in dad’s stuff. It’s a Rockwell SoniCrafter (high frequency oscillating tool). I figured out how to use it & it worked better than any other tool I had for cutting the entrance hole.
Thanks in advance for any info!
BTW, I waded through a lot of the comments on the video, hoping to find what he used to cut that hole. Other people were also asking, but I never ran across the answer in the comments I reviewed.
Looks like a big dremel. possibly a roto tool which is a generic name. Here we go, RotoZip is what I was thinking but that’s a brand name. Rotary Tool is the proper generic name of the tool.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=roto+tool&ia=images&iax=images
It’s half way between a dremel and a small router. In fact, a trim router would do the same and is a one handed tool unlike a full sized router.
I’m sure the compass thing is an accessory for the rotary tool.
But yeah, Dremel but bigger. I think Dremel might have made a big version too. Not a new tool concept but younger people just discovered it. Maybe RotoZip was able to popularize their heavy duty dremel like thing.
I would use a jig saw because it’s what I have and I have hundreds of hours of experience with them. I was in the sign business and had to cut letters from various materials, plastic, aluminum, wood etc. Can’t use a compass on an O but it still has to be smooth on the arc.
It’s just about here (line of strong t-storms). There have been tornado warnings north of us (Mt. Vernon, IL) to over near Evansville. The line seems to be stronger up there.
IIRC, when I made a cat house out of a cooler I cut the hole with a jigsaw. The blade was for thin metal / very fine teeth. 32 TPI or something like that. The next time I’m in my shop I’ll look at my jigsaw blades to confirm.
I should explain that I’ve freehand jigsaw-cut thousands of round holes in plywood, particle board, MDF, etc., that had the round cut mark (circle) penciled on to the panel, so, I’m pretty good at it (accurate cuts.)
SOME jigsaws can be set up with a circle cutter attachment — might be better for someone doing infrequent cutting.
Another possibility is a router with a circle cut attachment.
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