The best thing about Annie's salsa is that you can make changes as long as you keep the total amount of peppers the same. I make mild, medium and hot types to satisfy everyone. I just mark the jars so they know which one they have. Annie's salsa rules, everyone likes the flavor.

I do the same as vic...I actually use lots of my Annies salsa as a cooking sauce...just like tomatoes or tomato sauce in other dishes I am cooking so I like to vary the hotness of it.

Sounds like you had a pretty good first year. There was a really good thread on here for drying tomatoes that was started by someone that does it for a living. I thought I saved it, but I can't for the life of me find it. Maybe someone else has it.

One thing I did read on here that was really helpful when drying tomatoes is to spray the trays with cooking spray first. It really helps with clean up.

Would you mind sharing your recipe for dill pickles? I really wanted to can some last year, but didn't have the cukes. I did do dilly beans and dilled green tomatoes and they are all gone already.

Thanks for posting the results of your work. It is really helpful reading.

Carrot cake in a jar? Was this an actual flour based batter like a regular cake and baked in a canning jar? For Ball canning jars, Ace and True Value hardware stores also carry them, as well as some larger supermarkets. Usually they start to show up around mid July when home canning is starting out. If you have a Big Lots store nearby, they sell the 'generic' Golden Harvest brand, which is also made by Ball. Suggest that if you don't see any in the hardware stores that you ask them to stock some for you. Also, suggest that any gifts you give out, you kindly ask them to return the empty jars so you can refill them with more goodies. I usually print this on the labels too.

My dills are made with gresh garlic slices, and fresh dill weed and dill seed heads when the seed heads are still swelled and green. I also like using part of a package of Mrs. Wages dill pickle mixes for these, as it seems to add more dill flavor without a ton of fresh dill being added. I also use the same dill mixes to make half sour dills that are simply salt and water for the brine. To get more long term crispness in vinegar based dills, adding a teaspoon of calcium chloride granules to each quart jar prior to filling them with brine, can keep the cukes crisper in the long term. The CC is found at Bulk Foods, but Ball used to also offer it up until last year.

Never-give-up, the recipe for Dill Pickles came from the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving. I'll have to look it up, but will be glad to post it if you'd like.

Ksrogers, no this wasn't a real cake. This was also a recipe out of that same book. It was a jam that was made using crushed pineapple, diced pears, grated carrots, and some cinnamon. I did use the calcium chloride in my pickles, at your suggestion I believe, and they were nice and crisp. I just was nervous about it, so I erred on the thick side. Thanks for the suggestions on places to get jars, but I live in a small town, and there aren't many shopping options nearby. When Walmart puts theirs out this year, I will be sure to stock up. I doubt I'll get any of the jars back, since they were shipped out of state. That will just be part of the gift, I guess.

Bonnie

If there are Salvation Army or thrift stores nearby, they too an give you some great deals. Although ACE and True Value stores are everywhere, you can even order on line and avoid paying shipping if you pick them up at the store you designate. Check Craigs list, and any small local news papers for people who have yard or garage sales. Many people here have had great luck finding canning jars cheap. Walmart will put out canning supplies about June. By September, they usually sell out, or are on sale. You be there at the right time. The closest Walmart near here is about 10 miles away, and they are not even a super store. The closest super Walmart is almopst 60 miles away in NH.

I own the Excalibur dehydrator. I thought it was huge too until I started loading it up. There were a lot of days it didn't hold enough! You will really enjoy it.

Keep in mind though that home dried food does not have an indefinite shelf life. I keep the whatever was dehydrated in the freezer until I'm ready to use it. I can keep dry apples, peaches, etc. on the shelf for several weeks without difficulty, but I try to use it up within 2-3 weeks.

Bonnie, I only have the Ball Blue book. There's a Hamburger Dill done in 1/4 inch slices the other one is done with the cukes cut lengthwise, so I am guessing that the Hamburger Dill is the one. Unless there is something else in the other book.

We have been searching since last year for a dill pickle recipe that tastes like ones you get at the store. Thanks Ken, I'll check out the Mrs. Wages. I did get the CC thanks to your suggestion last year.

A gas powered generator is a life saver. My parents lost everything in two freezers as they had no power for over 3 days. That meant no water (well) and no heat (oil furnace only). I decided to buy them a 400 watt generator and wired up the fuse box to handle it without allowing power to be restored and destroying the panel. In any case, since that time I have yet to use it again, but will run it a few minutes every year just to make sure its still running fine. I even added wheels to it. It rolls out to the open garage door and works to give me power to the freezers as well as the oil burner. I do have to shut off the water heater though as thats a bit too much.

When I slice the cukes I use a crinkle cutter as it gives me nice ripples. Bread and Butter pickles also look nice. I even crinkle cut onions and add some dried sweet red peppers for color. I have both a hand too crinkle cutter as well as a crinkle cutter disk for my electric food slicer as part of my Oster Kitchen Center.

Ken, our local power company has said to NOT wire the generator into the fuse box; it can possibly electocute somebody working on a line (I don't begin to understand all that electrical stuff and how it works, just repeating what they said.) I do want a generator; have been saving up for one, but everytime I get close, something else happens (my car is in the shop today, as a matter of fact... GRRRR.)

I know quite a lot about electricity and have even wired may fuse boxes and a lot of outlets and indoor and outdoor lights. My brother in law had me wire his playroom and bar with color lighting. He even bought an older style well used pinball machine and juke box that I had to fix and get running again. 200 lights inside and many relays and switches. Luckily it came with schematics. I even added power to my glass green house, as it uses PVC plastic electrical boxes and PVC tubing to carry the wires. Also a GFP has been added. The house fuse box has a main fuse block that is two 100 amp cartridges and that fluse block is removed and replaced with a modified one I wired with a big long heavy cord which goes to 10 gauge wire. I also added a 220 volt neon lamp indicator to visually show me that regular power has been restored. Even for that, if regular power is back on, it can't get to my fuse box as the modified 100 amp fuse holder block as no fuses inside, so no power can get past that block and into the buss. I took courses in school for electricity and electronics. Always got straight A's every year. After a while the teachers wouldn't even call on me to answer questions, as I always knew the answers. My biggest wiring job was a 440 volt 3 phase box with 6 gauge wires. The power was boosted through a big transformer outside the building to give us 200 amps and higher 440 voltage. Use this for creating a 100,000 volt X-Ray device.

There are a devices you can buy that will allow you to switch to an external power source. A friend of mine has a diesel powered generator that self starts within 1 second of a power loss and then monitors the incoming line for it to return. Right now, I use a UPS for my computer and also have a big 1400 watt one for my sump pump that runs 24/7.