my genious idea was to gather a thread that will contain only information no chat about subject. this you can't find in here. I had to try to realize that it's not possible to be done since there will always be person to chat in thread. thats ok it's not possible and I learned from it and move on. see when I came here the first time I got a lot of information and still today but after a while I realized that I spend a lot of time to search for answers. That's normal but being a techky worker I learn from thick dense information manual and figured that newbie could have a good benefits from one subject thread(no chat). This would help reduce the duplication of questions. it's not everybody that know how to search it's a learning curve even or me. thats all right... I pretend that life is a question of degrees 360 degres of perspectives for one situation while we can handle only few of them ;o) that's why now i build my own bible on the subject from thousands of users ;o) later will build my web site to share with people the document.

I never got sick either, but a bunch of family members got sick from eating my Aunt Midge's pickled mushrooms at a family party once. It kind of takes the fun out of an evening, watching Aunt Esther barf in the bushes..... It does happen, although it doesn't happen often, in my experience. Some cases of botulism do come from home canned foods and some people do die, although not many. The risk is relatively miniscule. Many cases come from the same area, like a whole bunch of people in Alaska that ate badly canned salmon. Others come from commerical items like that Bolthouse Farms carrot juice and the baked potatoes at the restaurant that were wrapped in foil and left sitting on the counter for hours. The "rules" in Canada are different than the "rules" in the United States because we are loathe to take any risk at all, IMO. The extension services do not want the liability of someone coming back and saying "you said it was all right and now I'm sick". I don't think it's necessarily the government's job to protect us from our own cooking, but many people do. The guidelines are extremely conservative, IMO, but very safe. I do not know Canada's testing specificiations, or any other country's, for that matter, so do they know something we don't know or are they more independent or bigger risk takers? Beats me. At any rate, there's a risk, albeit extremely small. Maybe even smaller than that, LOL. I choose to take it, and it's my choice. I'd eat LindaC's jelly too. Oh, that's right, I already have! It's the "don't" part that got my back hairs raised, I'd rather see a "did you know that it's not tested, I just thought I'd let you know" approach. And agmss, I agree, the Search function here is abysmal, next to useless. Ugh. I don't even try to use it anymore, I just Google "gardenweb" and whatever I'm looking for. Annie

This is a recipe I found and MUST try, I love this type of bean but I am sure you could use another type of dry beans if you can not find these (but if you can find them they are wonderfully good beans). It just sounds like our kind of soup. The website is listed at the bottom if you care to go there. I always have chunks of ham in the freezer just for soup! Anasazi Bean and Cabbage Soup (Makes about 8 servings; recipe created by Kalyn.) 1 pound dried Anasazi Beans, soaked overnight in crockpot 1 cup diced celery 1 cup diced carrots 1 cup diced onion 2 cups very finely chopped cabbage 2 cups ham, cut into small dice ham rind if available (remove for the last few hours of cooking time) 8 cups water (you can also use partly ham stock if you have it) 2 T dried parsley 1-2 T garlic powder 2-3 tsp. onion powder 2-3 bay leaves fresh ground black pepper to taste ham flavored concentrate or ham bouillon (optional but good) balsamic vinegar for serving, optional I used a 4.5 quart crock pot to make the soup in these photos, and it was filled to the brim (including the ham rinds) so if you have a smaller size you will need to reduce the recipe. Soak beans overnight in cold water in the crockpot. The next morning, drain beans, discard soaking water, and put beans back in the crockpot with 8 cups water (or a combination of water and ham stock if you have it.) Cut up celery, carrots, onions, cabbage, and ham. Put all ingredients in crock pot (including ham rind if you're lucky enough to have some) with dried parsley, garlic powder, onion powder, and bay leaves, and start to cook on high. (It may look like there isn't enough liquid, but in the crock pot foods give up liquid and you end up with more than you started with.) (I cook this soup on high for 10 hours or longer, until about half of the beans have disintegrated into the soup and the cabbage is mostly dissolved. My large crock pot is the original "slow-cooker" type, which may cook a bit less hot than some. If you have a newer model, you might want to cook on high 4-5 hours, then reduce to low.) After about 8 hours, remove ham rind if using, then taste for seasoning and ham bouillon or ham flavor concentrate if needed. (I like Goya Ham Flavor Concentrate or ham buillon from Penzeys. Use of this is optional, and will depend on how much flavor is in your ham. If you have really good ham you might not need it.) I often add more garlic powder and onion powder at this time too. Cook until beans are starting to break apart and the cabbage has mostly dissolved into the soup. Serve hot, with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar if desired. This soup freezes well. Stovetop Instructions: You could cook this on the stove if you don't have a crock pot or want it done sooner. For stovetop cooking, add all ingredients to heavy soup pot and simmer about 3 hours, or until beans are very well done and cabbage has disintegrated into the soup. I would increase the amount of water I started out with by several cups if I cooked it on the stove, since some of the liquid will evaporate. Check for seasoning after a few hours, and add more ham buillon, garlic powder, and onion powder as desired. This recipe from KalynsKitchen.com.

I've been posting this thread for over 2 years. That's over 700 recipes. As much as I'd like to have tried them all............there's no way. DH doesn't like half the stuff I do, so alot of them are recipes I'd love to try but can't. I usually mention the ones I do cook. For example, today I cooked the Shredded Brussel Sprouts again, but this time, used pistachios, instead of pine nuts. Not nearly as successful. But there you go. Sometimes they sound alot better in print than in reality. However, I'll still post recipes that I think are worth a try. Hope you don't mind.