kgardininma, Botulism poisoning is rare. I do like to remind people of this because it's easy to get the impression from the talk of "unsafe" recipes that if you overdo the basil by a pinch one day by mistake there is a 90% chance your family will die, which is WAY far from the truth. The risk of serious illness from any canned tomato sauce is small. Everyone decides their own level of comfort with risk. BUT, botulism DOES happen, and it is SO dangerous when it does, and the idea of possibly making someone you love sick with what was meant to be a wonderful, loving food gift is SO awful, that most of us figure the level of risk we're comfortable with regarding botulism is pretty much 0%, which is what you get if you follow approved recipes and processing instructions. The good news is that it's not hard to find a tested recipe that is great. You'll find you won't miss the saute-ing in butter --- the canning recipes with added onion, garlic, herbs, etc. taste great, especially with fresh tomatoes. Do you have the Ball Blue Book? That's the place to start for basic recipes that are known to be safe. I also like the university of Michigan website. Personally, based on the amount of added other ingredients I've seen in tested recipes, I will happily throw in a sprig of fresh basil and a chopped garlic clove into each pint of plain tomato sauce. If I want to go further than that, I follow a recipe with minor substitutions of very similar ingredients, such as using more garlic and less onion, or substituting one fresh herb for another. It helps to think of canning and cooking as separte things, not "can I can these recipes I love to cook?" but "what great things can I can that I'll love to then eat or cook with?" With that in mind, if you look through some resources (the BBB, the website below, the recipes shared here), you'll soon have a canned sauce you love and that you know is perfectly safe! I highly recommend the "Chunky Basil pasta sauce" from the Small-Batch Preserving book, for starters (you shd be able to find it if you do a search on this forum --- also, look for a thread called "Your Greatest Hits Recipes for Leesa" --- but if you can't, just ask and I'll be happy to repost it for you. Zabby Here is a link that might be useful: Preserving Foods Safely

Bellatrix, maybe Annie or Linda Lou will comment on the proposed changes to Annie's salsa. Here is some info: swapping tomatillos for tomatoes: As Carol posted in the other thread, this is ok, because tomatillos are more acid than tomatoes and similar in texture. omitting the salt and sugar: From the thread at http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/harvest/msg0808435219855.html Linda Lou said: "Sugar does NOT preserve foods, not other than a full sugar jam where you have over 50 % or more sugar. It makes no difference at all in the safety of a spaghetti sauce, chili, or canned fruit, etc. It is for FLAVOR only. So, she did not need sugar in the sauce. Same for salt, it does not preserve foods,unless for a dried jerky or for fermenting foods. Not in canned veggies or spaghetti sauce, etc. Again, only for flavor and can be left out. Both sugar and salt can be left out in most all canned foods. Valereee, don't worry about the sugar not being in your sauce." trading cilantro for green peppers: Probably not ok...cilantro seems like it has a lot less water, but maybe Linda Lou knows better. Generally you can't increase the amount of fresh herbs, but you can freeze cubes of cilantro to add to the salsa later, which will avoid the faded flavor you get after cooking and processing. omitting the green peppers: You are reducing the amount of low-acid ingredients which is ok in terms of acid. You are changing the density, which can affect heat penetration, but since you are ending up with proportionally more liquid and less solids which is less dense, this may be ok, let's hear from our Master Food Preserver LL. Hmm I'm not sure dense is the right word here because water is heavier than produce but it has better heat transfer properties, although probably greater heat capacity. Maybe viscous is the right word? Salsa is definitely more viscous than vinegar (which of course is mostly water so has similar properties to H2O). But which property is the best determinant of safety--is it density, viscosity, thermal conductivity, convection heat transfer coefficient, emissivity?! Is plum salsa safer to process than peach because it is closer to a blackbody? Speaking as an engineer who didn't learn a whole lot in heat transfer class, I think you can see why they use empirical testing rather than differential equations to figure out which recipes are safe. Math is hard, let's go to the farmer's market. ;-) As for the pickles, botulism doesn't like fridge temperatures, so you are only at risk for all the usual fridge science experiments. If you are young and healthy and willing to eat raw eggs, these pickles are probably ok, but if you have kids, you would be better off with a more official source for a refrigerator dills recipe. You might want to look up listeria, I think that is a possibility with some types of fermented pickles, not sure about those refrigerated immediately. I know this paragraph sounds obnoxious, but I really mean it about being young and eating raw eggs. I myself eat things I wouldn't serve to pregnant guests or even to my dog. But only if I think it's worth it...there are a lot of other pickle recipes out there. Melissa

flutterby, The USDA is the US government organization that issues guidelines for canning. They are VERY stringent guidelines, probably the most stringent in the world---we know from some European posters here that they are stricter than British and European guidelines, for example. So a recipe from the USDA website, or the National Centre for Home Food Preservation site, or the most recent Ball Blue Book (makers of the jars and lids; their book follows those guidelines, presumably as they don't want to be sued!), is pretty much a 100% guarantee. The Ellie Topp book you mention is by Canadian authors; it came out of a Canadian cable show, Put a Lid on It! The authors have food science credentials, and their method for making flavoured oils, which they came up with themselves, they say they had approved by Health Canada. So that's a pretty high standard, too. So maybe the general answer to your question is to read the introduction of any canning book and see where it came from and what its authors' credentials are. This forum is also a great source of info---lots of dedicated canners here, with lots of experience. So you can get a lot of good info from asking about a book or recipe here. You shd remember, though, that this is a *discussion forum.* It's a public forum where anyone can post their thoughts, opinions, and information. So sometimes people on this forum disagreement on whether a recipe is "safe" because there IS no objective definition of "safe." Is it safe to eat food from the store? I'd like to think so, but then I see recalls of billions of eggs, and people getting sick from supermarket lettuce! And sometimes people here with opinions can be, well, opinionated. I hope you enjoy your canning, and the Ellie Topp book (my copy is getting all splattered and worn, the sign of a great kitchen book IMHO)!. Try the Roasted Vegetable Pasta sauce. I also love that she has some recipes that are from non-Western food cultures (LOVE the Indonesian Peanut Sauce, and the Thai Chili Sauce, and the Madras Pickled Eggplant!). Best wishes, and welcome here, Z

Check out the recipes found at the web site link below. I think you'll find lots of possibilities. Although the recipes are geared for children to help make, they are also kid choices. Kids' Quesadillas Prep Time: 5 minutes Cook Time: 15 minutes (source: Just For Kids (sponsored by Birds Eye, Hershey's, French's, Oreo, and Lawry's) Prepare the quesadillas ahead of time, cover and chill, and cook just before serving. 8 slices American cheese 8 (10-inch) flour tortillas 1/2 pound thinly sliced deli turkey optional: 6 T. Honey Mustard or mayo 2 T. melted butter 1/4 t. paprika 1. To prepare 1 quesadilla, arrange 2 slices of cheese on 1 tortilla. Top with 1/4 of the turkey. Spread with mustard or mayo (optional), then top with another tortilla. Prepare 3 more quesadillas with remaining ingredients. 2. Combine butter and paprika. Brush one side of tortilla with butter mixture. Preheat 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Arrange tortilla butter side down and cook 2 minutes. Brush tortilla with butter mixture and turn over. Cook 1-1/2 minutes or until golden brown. Repeat with remaining three quesadillas. Slice into wedges before serving. Makes 4 servings. (Fun note: If you have some small cookie cutters in fun shapes, cut a shape from the piece of cheese to add to the top of the quesadilla, on the second side, just before serving.) Here is a link that might be useful: Kids a Cookin