You are getting worked up about generalized "rules" instead of considering reason. Like the "rule" concerning oil - things are canned with oil all the time - soups with meat, salad dressings, chili, I even canned some olive oil pickles one time from an approved recipe (it just had a little oil). The biggest concern I have when dealing with oil in a recipe is ensuring I clean the lip of the jar as much as I can before placing the lid. And your comment about "low acid veggies," something that makes up most pickle and relish recipes, and just about all get no more than BWB... just like those recipes, vinegar or another acid is used to reasonably increase the acidity as appropriate for canning at BWB temperatures. Think of something like ketchup or salsa, both of the pickling concept, and not all that different from caponata. And we all really WANT salsa to be thick - so it doesn't just run off our chips. I've even made a salsa roasting peppers and onions with a small amount of oil (like the caponata), and it is never a problem. When I'm doing pickling, I usually consider that I can include just about any vegetable combination, so long as my overall quantity is right, so long as my acid amount (vinegar, lemon or lime juice, etc.) is appropriate for the given quantity of vegetables. I stick with approved recipes, but what is coming from my garden at any given time does not always perfectly align with a recipe. So if I include more hot peppers in place of sweet peppers, or add in squash in place of cucumbers (or even an under-ripe watermelon), or include some green tomatoes, or some extra onions, or some okra - these are all low acid vegetables, and the acid that is being added, or sugar in some types of recipes, is designed to properly preserve the combination. So keep it in the fridge if you want, but if you properly canned it, how is it any different from the jar of Pace or Campbells in the pantry?

I would agree that teaching classes is not a guarantee of credentials. I did look at Marisa McClellan's blog and what I've seen so far is very solid. She's definitely drawing upon Extension, NCHFP and USDA information in her posts and is totally up-to-date in her canned pumpkin, pumpkin butter and disposing of questionable product information. So on the whole I think she looks pretty good. My only argument is on her list of resources where she includes Pickyourown.org. We have noticed some inaccuracies and questionable (sometimes out-of-date) information. It's about 90% good but the other 10% can bite you. I am going to take another look at her book when it comes out and have bookmarked her blog. I am a huge fan of Ellie Topp and really promoted her on this forum. Canadians have regarded her as a foundational source far longer than we in the U.S. have. AFAIK, Ellie Topp only has one canning and preserving book out; titles differ depending upon edition and publication date. Some of her recipes don't suit my taste, but I've gotten a lot of wonderful ones from her too. The nice thing is you can try something out in a small batch without wasting a lot of product. Carol

Wish I had known, I just bought a new paperback. It was from E-bay and took a long time to arrive. As yet, I haven't tried any recipes, but they look great, and something to compare to the BBB. For what it's worth, I found some of the Blue Book vinegar recipes a bit strong, so hope to find others that are safe to use and a bit less potent. Bejay

Good recipes are where you find them. :) Most of my mentions below (which I won't edit out in case they're of interest to anyone) are for baking and the cooking ones are for a specific method or flavor. I realized in thinking about this, that most of my cooking is what I learned at home. Another great learning experience, however, was cooking through a bunch of recipes that I was editing, and needed to photograph, for a newsletter. Many were things I wouldn't have otherwise made, most were decent to good, if not great, and inviting people to lunch, regularly, to eat the results made for great socializing. Think Julie and Julia, without the drama. :) So I'd suggest you go through the books you have and make every recipe that has ingredients you like and see what you get. :) I don't make a lot of recipes from cookbooks, but I will use them as guides. I have dozens, and like to read through them for inspiration. When I was trying to raise my game with braises, which I love because they're inexpensive and you just throw everything in a pot, I made a few from All About Braising: The Art of Uncomplicated Cooking by Molly Stevens. The duck legs with sour cherries is worth the price of the book. :) But it's a lot of doing stuff for a braise, and I haven't made it again. Recently, I was given Plenty by Yoram Ottolenghi and it's fabulous, but I haven't made anything from it yet. I also use recipes from the 'net. I like finding ones that have a lot of comments. That's better than lab testing! I have many baking specific cookbooks and couldn't find a good recipe for plain chocolate cake. I wanted it to make cake with an 8-year-old, so I wanted a plain old cake, and not a mix. I could have invented a chocolate pound cake, but I finally found this on Add A Pinch blog. It really is that good, and we made it (twice) without the secret ingredient (espresso powder), and it was still that good (I used Valrhona cocoa). The best bundt cake recipe I ever made was also from a blog, which is gone now. It had a perfect crumb and was truly delicious. My most popular cake is a pumpkin chocolate marble bundt from Sunset magazine. The linked fig pie is also a big hit. The Black Family Reunion Cookbook from the NCNW (which is a from the store, bound volume) is another favorite, with all kinds of different recipes for cornpone and corn muffins, my favorite Passover green vegetable kugel is from a local congregation cookbook, and the "family" matzah ball recipe originated with one put out by the local Hadassah. When I make bread pudding, I refer to the recipe in It's All American Food by David Rosengarten, but I don't make precisely that. I do make the arroz con pollo as directed (more or less--it's my mother's recipe (her book, that is) and I think there are some changes she's made over the years) from The Spice Cookbook by Stuckey, Day and Spier from the 1960's. What I'm trying to say is having a favorite recipe from whatever source, is normal. Don't think of it as underutilizing your cookbooks. Think of it as cherishing the best they have to offer. :)