Every time I leave the house, which is usually to go grocery shopping, I find comfort in knowing that if I wind up stranded on a desert island, I will have everything I need to survive. I’m always adding new things to my “just in case” assortment of essentials and I think I need a bigger purse. Here’s what’s in it now…

Wallet – Scratch pad – A pen – A backup pen in case it runs dry – Breath mints – Reading glasses – Sunglasses – Folding glasses (for Denis) – Tissues – Handywipes – Bandaids – Neosporin – Teabags – Floss – Tooth soft-picks – Measuring tape – Roll of quarters for parking – iPad – iPad car charger – Cell phone car charger –  Hand lotion – Lip moisturizer – Sunblock – Vaseline – Hand sanitizer – Nail file – Nail clippers – Ear plugs for too loud movies – Chewable aspirin for anyone having a heart attack – A comb.

What do I still need?

The contest is on my new Healthy Home Cooking page on Facebook.

Here’s the link: http://www.facebook.com/JennysHealthyHomeCooking

If you’re lucky, I might include a lovely soft pair of homemade rabbit slippers… 🙂

As a standup comedian, I adored Phyllis Diller, who passed away today at the age of 95.  Not only did Ms Diller pave the way for all women comics, she was really, really funny. I was beyond excited when she appeared on my talk show in 1991 while it was only a test run in Las Vegas called Just Between Us. What a genuinely nice person she was. Thank you, Phyllis, for the decades of laughter.

Congratulations, Kari !! You should head for Vegas right now because you guessed 1,721 tomatoes and by 10 this morning, I picked exactly 1,721 tomatoes!

Kari says, “I am a mom of two wonderful children and an avid gardener.  My husband, the kids and I plant a garden every year as a family and we too are having a booming tomato season. We love to cook so sauce, salsa, toasted tomato sandwiches, we’ll have enough for it all… Thank you so much. You just made back to school shopping a bit easier.”

Kari guessed 1,721 and when I counted my tomatoes up this morning I was shocked that someone hit the exact number. I still can’t believe it! And Lee (from my hometown – go, London!) came close with his guess of 1,758. A lot of you missed the blog posting just below where I said that I had already picked 1,014 tomatoes by July 29th.

This tomato plant is still producing like crazy! I thought it would be almost spent by now but it looks like I will eventually get about two and a half thousand tomatoes. Enough for me, the rabbit, and the mangy, rat-faced, no-good, low-life, beady-eyed, scum-sucking, tomato-eating squirrel. Thanks, everybody, for playing. Kari, your gift card is on the way!

UPDATE 6:00 pm

This is crazy! Here’s what I just picked tonight at 6 o’clock. Sixty-two more tomatoes for a new total of 1,783!

All you have to do is guess how many ripe cherry tomatoes I will have picked from this plant by Friday morning. At 10 am on Friday, I will go out and pick all the ripe tomatoes I see and add it to my running total. Whoever comes the closest to the total, whether over or under, will win as $100 American Express gift card!  Sounds like fun! 🙂

Here’s all I can tell you:
~~It’s one humungous plant that showed up on its own and I started picking ripe tomatoes on July 6th.

~~They are large (and delicious) cherry tomatoes.

~~The plant is around 25 feet long, 6 feet tall, and around 15 feet wide.

~~I’ve been picking tomatoes every day.

~~One guess per person.

~~Here’s a close-up view…

~~Someone is picking & counting tomatoes while I’m in Vegas, too.

~~We won’t be counting the ones eaten by the mangy, rat-faced, no-good, low-life, beady-eyed, scum-sucking squirrel.

Good luck!!

I just came across a video of highlights from my show from 1998. That was our 8th season on the air and there was so much fun stuff that year. Watching it made me realize how much fun we all had and how much I miss the audiences in Chicago. I feel like they were my co-hosts with the energy and excitement they brought every day… not to mention the best guests ever! I hope you enjoy the video and seeing why I loved doing this show.