Newer version of Annie's Salsa - BWB only Annie's Salsa 8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained 2 1/2 cups chopped onion 1 1/2 cups chopped green pepper 3 to 5 chopped jalapenos (for milder leave out seeds and ribs) 6 cloves minced garlic 2 tsp cumin (optional) 2 tsp pepper 1/8 cup canning salt 1/4 c fresh cilantro (optional) 1/3 c sugar (optional) 1 cup cider vinegar (see note on subbing lemon or lime juice option) 16 oz canned tomato sauce (to adjust density) 8-16 oz canned tomato paste (to adjust density) Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil 10 minutes. Pour into hot jars, process pints for 15 minutes in BWB. Makes 6 pints. _________ A lot of changes have been made to this recipe over the years. Some people like lemon or lime juice in place of some or all of the vinegar, that's fine. (Note from Sheila - I like half lemon half lime.) Some people leave out the cilantro, that's fine too. Do not increase! Some people add more hot peppers or fewer onions, fine as long as you keep the same total measurements. (Note this is what NCHFP does in their new Choice Salsa recipe.) Some people leave out the sugar, that's fine. You can scoop out the goo in the middle of the tomatoes with your thumbs when I'm peeling and chopping for a less seedy version, so it's 8 cups of chopped tomatoes without the seeds and goo. Most who make it regularly as well as Annie recommend using a variety of different slicing tomatoes, not paste types, for best flavor and consistency. (Note: use the tomato sauce and paste to adjust the consistency of the final product to a "sloshy" consistency.) According to Annie "My salsa is not as thick as Heinz catsup but it's thicker than taco sauce. If you don't like it quite as thick or sweet, cut down the amount of paste. I would add some, then taste. Reducing that ingredient shouldn't affect the safety of the recipe. I use equal amounts of sauce and paste. You can pull it off the heat at any point and adjust for flavor. Before I cook it I check for salt, sugar, check the consistency. Add more pepper or cumin if I want. When I first started making this salsa, tomato sauce and paste came in 8 and 16 ounce cans. Like everything else, they've now been downsized, so now I have to use partial cans." Does anybody have good versions of the other recipes that have weird symbols in them for measurements?

Emmers! Welcome. I cannot imagine moving my 5 cats without serious trauma .. for ME! Good luck with this new home, new place, new people, new everything! It's a wild ride!! Shicksal, what happened with the builder and his estimate? Did you have conversation? I still have a feeling, as someone else mentioned, that the house will be a wreck before anything's done, then what the city will do? require? Who knows. I, too, like MTDoug's philosophy. I am also one of getting rid of crap. ' Texas_Gem, that's wild. I'm willing to bet this weekend you'll be showing us the entire place closed in and ready for insulation! Unfortunately it quickly packs up with new crap. The difficult thing is, too, that I have purpose for the crap. In the last month, I've made several things out of crap, without having to buy anything. Well, the raised garden bed was a bale of hay ($6.00), the potting bench a piece of corner bead ($8.00) and today, inside, my apothecary drawers. I find these spice/apothecary drawers to be the most useless pieces of crap in the world. Almost as useless as base, reach-in cabinets or 12" wall cabinets. However, on a 16' run, they give the eye a break. Plus, I have 4 sets of them. Don't ask. But, I'd already bought the corbels from a true artist on Etsy. Absolutely lovely. No idea what I was going to do with them. I've used primer I have, I'm going to use a SW sample paint for the bottoms, sealing it with the dark, paint base I already have. So, crap already here. I also came to a roadblock with the lovely oak I've been planing. It's dimensional, with live edges. I mean, BARK on the edges!! What can I build to showcase that, since it's incredible? I was planning cabinet doors, probably, but I'd have to joint that off. Noooooooo... Ideas? Hmmm... No phone. Pizza and Martinis? I'll take the latter. YEAH! Martinis and pizza!! What could be better, except talking on the phone with someone about how great it is. Sorry for the inconvenience. I hope all is uploaded somewhere. Shicksal, the reason for stealing the phone isn't to use it, it's to sell it. With a SIM card, anything's possible. Interestingly enough, many phones now have GPSs or programs to shut them down, so even that lucrative activity is slowly thwarted. In the meanwhile, Crap of a different sort. Ok. Off to sand and paint. What can I make with that gorgeous oak? We're talking 6-8' boards. 9-11 3/4" wide.... I have hung 90" of upper cabinets in the last 2 days, though. Gotta put the doors on, but oh, so pretty. And OFF the counter. Cal_quail, I'm so relieved for you. I was holding my breath.

Great comments folks, thank you so much! Bit late now, will have to review carefully tomorrow. A few initial thoughts though- Lily's mom- thanks for that thoughtful discussion....you are correct that in hand-drawn version I put the door opening the wrong way.... ARG- your insight is always much appreciated. Our architect doesn't have a strong opinion one way or another, he is trying to accommodate our specific wants...Our architect does like the bath and shower to be continuous, with bath ledge continuous with bench ideally (which we don't exactly have)...he kind of got us in the bench mindset...maybe we should reconsider...regarding the bench depth Lily's mom, he thought 1'8" is optimal but perhaps a bit less deep? Never knew or considered issue of external walls...new construction and hopefully will be well-insulated so didn't really consider that shower against exterior wall could be less warm...We like the bathtub against the exterior wall/window which puts vanity on opposite wall (which I think we may reduce to 6' from 8'). Question for all- what are the ideal dimensions for shower, both with or without bench. Remember that even if there is a bench you still have the spaciousness of airspace above it. Personally, we feel like a dimension more than 5'6" starts feeling too long and we would want a minimum of 3'6" for either dimension....Also, having trouble figuring out layout of sprays in shower especially in hand drawn version where entering on the short end of the shower. Our goals are to have one main shower head as well as total 2 body sprays on opposing walls, and possible a hand spray which would be near the bench. Also want to be able to reach in turn on water without any spray hitting door (and controls should also be easily reachable while standing in shower sprays). Lot to consider as you said LM. If switching WC and shower is so helpful, we might consider doing that while also rotating the shower 90 degrees, thus shower door would be on its short end which might work better with sprays. If we only want short dimension of shower at 4', that would give 7' to WC which seems a bit deep? Unless we put shelves in there (my library;) Guess that wasn't so brief. Open to further input as always. Thanks again- you guys are amazing!

A dear friend had this for her husband when he was ill and dying. When he died, her children insisted she continue to have the 24/7 help and she did. The day woman was wonderful; the night people, not so much. Their job description required them to stay awake all night and be available if she called for help. They would just go to sleep and when she called them to help her to the bathroom, they didn't come, she would try to get their by herself and a fall inevitably occurred. I can't tell you how many different helpers the agency provide for the night shift and nearly all were not good at all. My in-laws had always had a live-in cook/housekeeper. When their wonderful woman finally retired after over 40 years with them, they hire another woman, but she would only work M-F - no weekends. They had someone come from an agency for the weekend, but it was not always the same person. They were not required to stay awake all night, but there was a "baby monitor" so my FIL could call if he needed help getting to the bathroom. The weekend help often ignored his calls and multiple falls were the result. My late mother had many friends who had in-home caregivers, and by the time she had died, they had all managed to steal all her silver and jewelry - and there was a lot of it. I would strongly advise using an agency where the workers are bonded, and locking up anything valuable and high "portable". Even then, someone needs to keep a close watch to be sure they are actually caring for the person and not also robbing her blind. Many children object to this kind of care as they don't want to have to be involved with hiring them (one still must be involved, even when using a reputable agency), and it is nearly always far more costly than assisted living in a home. In some cases, it is not - the home may be more. After my MIL died, my FIL announced to his two children that he was going to move to a retirement home in a nearby town. The "walk-in the door" fee was $500,000 and if one dropped dead two hours later, none of this money was returned. There was also a monthly charge. My DH and his sister looked at one another and both thought "That's a LOT of money and we will inherit that much less!" He was nearly 92 at the time. It also meant that my SIL would have a 30-40 minute drive each way to see him on a daily basis. That is how she approached him - it would be a huge inconvenience for her, and she WAS going to visit him daily. She still had two school-age children at home and it would have been very inconvenient. FIL was a dear, dear man and there was no way he was going to inconvenience his beloved daughter (my DH did not leave nearby). We were very glad he made this decision for innumerable reasons. It gave DH and his sister 13 months to clean out a very large house in which they had lived for over 50 years. My husband would drive down from Maine for the weekend, and they tackled the huge 3rd floor attic, the basement, and all closets with things not in use. It took them all that time to go through all this. And he only lived another 13 months. Sometimes reality must come into these decisions.