Oh, the flavor will be fine. Dried chiles are good for a long tim, but all chiles, like all grain, can have "guests". I coul tell you a funny and slightly disturbing story about how I know that, but then I might scare you from using them. :) I keep my dried chiles in the freezer. Guajillos can have a little heat to them. I've used them so often that I can sort of tell by the smell how hot they will be. They do vary from one batch to the next. I usually rinse them since the place I get mine packs in the fields, Then I wipe them dry and toast them in a dry pan (less than a minutes) just until they soften. DO NOT SCORCH THEM or they will be bitter. Then I put them in a bowl and pour boiling water over them. Once they are soft, I split and dessed/devein (just depends on what I'm making and how hot I want it.) I have a VitaMix, which can puree darn near anything into a smooth sauce, so one sauce I keep in the freezer uses 5 or 6 guajillos, about a pound of roasted tomatoes, an onion, two heads of roasted garlic, cumin, coriander, thyme, morjarom, and chicken broth. I whir it into a sauce, then freeze it for later. It's good with chicken or pork espeically.

Ci-lantro, I also agree that "fry bread" as we now know it was not introduced until the Native Americans were relegated to reservations and/or introduced to European food stuffs. All nations and people have their own version of "bread", though. I think fry bread most probably started out much like the corn tortilla, as the Native Americans would have little access to leavening or wheat flour. It probably contained grains or nuts available such as sunflower seeds or acorns, whatever was available in specific areas. At any rate, I love fry bread in it's current state. It's much like an "elephant ear" to me and is even often served with cinnamon and sugar or honey, although I like it as you've made it, as a container for beans and meat. It was probably originally used as a utensil or device to scoop foods out of the pot. Annie

I have been preparing Indian food for years now, and have quite a few cookbooks. The first one I got was a terrific introduction...Betty Crocker's Indian Home Cooking (believe it or not) with recipes by Raghavan Iyer. It isn't all Vegetarian, but there are plenty of vegetarian recipes. I have found that ordering used books from Amazon.com is a wonderful alternative to buying books full price. I have never had a problem with any of the sellers or gotten a book that was in poor condition. For example, the list price of the book I just mentioned is $25.95, but under the title on the web page, there are two sections...one says "Buy New" and the Amazon price is $17.13, but next to that it says "47 New and Used from $7.93". If you click on that, the list of vendors selling the book at a discount appears. Naturally, you do have to pay postage, but being that you're getting the book so inexpensively, that's not such a big deal. Another wonderful book that is completely vegetarian is "Dakshin-Vegetarian Cuisine from South India". South Indian cuisine is quite different and delicious and I believe this book is quite authentic, considering the amount of chili peppers in the recipes...unless you have an asbestos mouth, I would cut the recommended amounts considerably. Amazon has a copy of that one for $9...this is the webpage for it, I can't figure out how to provide two direct links in this forum. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b/103-6920553-8739867?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Dakshin-vegetarian+cuisine +from+south+india&x=0amp;y=0 Here is a link that might be useful: Amazon Link for Betty Crocker's Indian

Amy, I always plant sweet bells in Spring but you probably could plant in mid-summer for fall. I haven't tried that. I'd rather have the sweet bell plants large, mature and ready to explode into a riot of blooms as soon as the Autumn weather cools off to the appropriate level. I've always felt like bells planted at mid-summer might not be as large or bear as heavily as those planted in Spring. Katie, You can make the famous Garden Web/Harvest Forum recipe for "Annie's Salsa" with ReaLemon or ReaLime juice substituted for the vinegar. Sometimes I make it with 1/3 vinegar, 1/3 ReaLemon, 1/3 ReaLime, but you can use either vinegar, ReaLemon or ReaLime or any combination thereof as long as you use the proper amount. It is an approved substitution for that specfic recipe. The reason ReaLemon and ReaLime are specifically listed is because they consistently test at the proper pH for use as a vinegar substitute in canning, while store brands of lemon and lime juice often test at a lower pH that would make them unsafe to use as a vinegar substitute. Here's a thread with the Annie's Salsa recipe that includes Malna's notes, including the note about using bottled lemon or lime juice. I don't remember if this thread has the explanation about ReaLemon or ReaLime being the approved bottled substitute or if that is in another Annie's Salsa recipe thread (as there are many, many threads about this very popular salsa). I can at least 200 jars of Annie's Salsa a year, and never make it with 100% vinegar, now that we know we can use bottle ReaLemon and ReaLime. We give it away as Christmas presents and our friends beg for more of it year-round. Yes, it is that good! Annie's Salsa Recipe and Notes I also roast and freeze tons of peppers, especially jalapenos, to use in cooking in the non-gardening season when I don't have fresh peppers. Rebecca, I grow pimentoes every now and then, but not really often. A few pimentoes go a long way at our house. Dawn