Hmmm - now I'm really straining my brain - because I am not sure what ratio of home-made citrus pectin is used per cup of mashed fruit - but perhaps I have it somewhere in my "saves" - which right now is at the bottom of some other "saves" because we have our grandson occuping the space I was using - well you get the idea. Anyway, when I made the pectin (you remember the postings recently - so I won't repeat it here), I froze the "gooey" stuff in cup-size portions - for a whole season, mainly because it was at a time when fruits were in season, and I couldn't get to it right away. Hopefully, I can find the ratio of pectin to use. But a good way to save pectin is freezing it. I think lemon pectin would be great, because I add either lemon or lime juice to ALL of my fruit jams and jellies anyway - brings out the flavor. Just my 2 c's. Sorry to be so confusing - Bejay

thanks for the advice! I was packing the grapes to within 2" of the top, then topping off with juice to 1/4", per the Ball Blue Book advice on juice. maybe I'll try 50% with the fruit next time. and yep, I try to leave the jars in the canner for awhile to gradually drop pressure and temp, b/c I noticed that if you open it too quickly they will start boiling over right in the jars! cheers

Thanks everyone for your help.....And Carol that peach and pepper relish looks great and may be up next for some trial runs. Here is what I ended up with (my heavily amended hab gold recipe..;)) 4 cups peach nectar (45%fruit juice) 4 cups apricot nectar (45% fruit juice) 1 cup black cherry extract 1 cup each diced finely (used food processer for finer dice) of dried peaches, dried apricots, and dried tart cherries 2 cup finely chopped onion 1/2 cup finely chopped fatalli peppers 3 cups vinegar 7 cups sugar *still let sit overnight like original recipe* I let the fruit juices simmer while I did the chopping and that reduced their volumes a bit. I found that using the food processor on the dried fruit worked wonderfully. I eliminated the red bell pepper because with the addition of all that fruit the flavor was lost plus I wanted to make sure you got some onion flavor and this allowed me to increase my onion amount. I used fatalli pepper which is awesomely hot (one of the very hottest habaneros) but with all that sugar which counteracts the capsaicin, it is actually only reasonably hot. I left the pectin out because with all that sugar I was able to just cook to 225 degrees or so and it turned out just syrupy/glazy just like I wanted. Plus the extra fruit juices added some volume so this batch was not soooo chunky and full as the last batch. Tried some on some shrimp last night and it was wonderful. We just used it as a glaze in the last few minutes of cooking time. I was licking my fingers the whole time. Thanks everyone again for your help Kendra

I put any very ripe bananas in the freezer for just such a time as this. any combination of banana, blueberries, strawberries-(any berry), (actually any fruit you like), add a cup of flavored or unflavored yogurt in a blender for a few seconds makes a great smoothie. The frozen banana takes the place of ice and it becomes nice and thick. I suppose I would not use any melons because of the consistancy!! I also really enjoy putting 3 tablespoons steelecut (uncooked) oatmeal in a container of yogurt-any flavor- let it set overnight, and eat for breakfast. It's chewy enough to be satisfying and so yummy.-provides good fiber, too.