Lawrence, The skins will come off in the processing, break into pieces, and roll themselves into, as Dave says, little "red twigs." Teeny little things, like the size of an apple stem, say. I find they are not chewy or tough, but can get caught in one's teeth. I have canned tomatoes this way and eaten the results and it was fine, but I've decided I much prefer the results without the skins. The easy solution, as suggested above, is to can SAUCE rather than whole tomatoes; just throw 'em in the pot whole (cut out any bad bits, but you can leave the cores in), and when they're cooked down, run them through a food mill or sieve. The skins, cores, and some seeds will be kept behind and you'll have a lovely sauce. I do this when I'm in a hurry, when I have a zillion pounds of tomatoes harvested that day, or when a lot of the toms are small and a pain to peel! THen I can a smaller amount of whole tomatoes or crushed tomatoes, which I peel first, when I have a smaller quantity of larger toms. That way I've got some of each to use for whatever I need later --- MOST of my canned-tomato needs are for sauce, but I like having some with actual tomatoes on hand. Hope this helps! Happy canning. Let us know how it goes. Zabby

Foodie3, thank you for the coding breakdown! Now I know my ebay seller was really confused, he has listed an aluminum finish with the 610 number (besides telling me at first it was right hinged with the 231 prefix, then changing it to left after I called). Thank goodness the hinging worked out for me; I guess that I'll just have to see what I get for a finish when it arrives. I am pretty sure it is aluminum otherwise why would it be on clearance and discontinued? The ebay seller is markdown madness and he is very nice to talk to.If anyone is purchasing from him they may want to call first and have him physically look at the unit before bidding to verify the hinging and the finish. Also, great advice bout the door. thanks! gizmonike, that is a beautiful wall of cabinets (actually, I peeked at the rest of your kitchen and it is drop dead gorgeous)! I love your pullout pantry, that is a clever solution. Those stainless ovens are great together! Does your friend have her aluminum oven paired above a stainless steel oven or is it a little further away from the stainless steel? Do you think I could install the 27 inch oven towards the right side of a 36 inch cabinet and have the cabinet maker create doors for the remaining 9 inches, to hold those extra baking trays? How wide is your pullout, is it about 9 inches?

Tankless propane vs tank style propane heater. the newer propane and natural gas tank waterheaters are required to be equipped with safety components which has driven the price of gas-fired tank style heaters up in the past couple of years. List prices around $800 for a 40 gallon good for a family of 2-3. Tankless already have the safeties in place and list for $1200 for the unit. If an "average" family of 3 uses 30 gallons of gas a month thru a 70% efficient tank style , the tankless at 84% efficiency would use 24.9 gallon of gas per month. At $2.50 per gallon of LP the savings per month would be $9.75. In 41 months the savings has paid the difference. The warranty for the tank is 6 years, the tankless exchanger is 12 years. The savings over an electric tank is vastly greater. If you burn Natural Gas, the cost to operate is even less. I hope all this helps. I have installed Rinnai, Bosch/Aquastar, Tagaki, Thermar, Saunier-Duval, Paloma tankless and Bradford-White, State, Rheem/Ruud, American, Master Mechanic, Sears tank style waterheaters for over 20 years. Rinnai excels over all the others. The vent is simple and the only caution is against a high mineral/lime content in the water. And the factory support is the best in the industry.

Thanks everyone. I've done some searching today and looking for the keyword "hot". Seems like several models have complaints of them being not well insulated and hotter than the user thought it should be. The B&D I had several years ago didn't get this hot. I don't think I'll keep it. Reminds me of a space heater :o Don't need THAT in Texas 9 months of the year. I wanted to cut down on the energy and heat. Monica ps...momj, are we (THS) oldtimers or what! (lol) This is my 7th year on this site. I know you've been here at least that, right?