You're not canning this are you??? Hope not! No dairy for canning. It got me to thinking though..... Can you can broccoli? If you wanted to use it for cream soups, the texture wouldn't matter, right? The "cream" part could be done later, but what about just broccoli and maybe onion in chicken broth? Susan, have you tried googling for canning recipes for soups? KatieC's roasted garlic soup is fantastic!! I will buy tomatoes this year to can this if I don't get enough!! I did mine in pints and could just grab a jar and take it to work with me. Here's the recipe: Roasted Tomato Garlic Soup (2006, YUM!!! my note) Recipe By :Katie C 12 tomatoes -- *see Note 2 carrots -- cut in 1" pieces 1 large onion -- quartered 2 whole heads garlic -- peeled (or more, to taste) olive oil 2 cups chicken broth -- (or 3) 1/2 cup chopped fresh basil -- (or 1 Tbsp. dried) cream -- to taste DO NOT CAN WITH CREAM. Core tomatoes and cut in half. Place, cut side up, on foil covered cookie sheet with carrots, onion and garlic. Brush with olive oil. Bake at 400F for about an hour, or until vegies are roasted and a little blackened. Place in a large saucepan with the chicken broth and basil and simmer for about 10 minutes. Blend with a stick blender (or in small batches in a blender) until almost smooth. Add cream to taste. To can: Process in a pressure canner, pints for 60 min. and quarts for 70 min.For dial gauge canners use 11 pounds pressure at 0-2000 ft., 12 lbs. at 2001-4000 ft., 13 lbs. at 4001-6000 ft. and 14 lbs. above 6000 ft. For weighted gauge canners use 10 lbs. pressure at 0-1000 ft., and 15 lbs. over 1000 ft. *Note: These measurements are approximate...I use whatever it takes to cover the cookie sheet. This makes 1 1/2 to 2 quarts of soup. Note from Annie: I didn't have a stick blender so I just put the veggies through my Foley food mill after roasting them. It worked great. Deanna

Jennifer, I LOVE, lovelovelovelovelove Stouffers spinach souffle! I can make a whole meal out of just thatand eat the whole thing. Oh, my, its rich! But its SO good. When theyre on sale I buy a whole bunch of them, and I think the cashiers must think Im nuts sometimes! Something I used to make (invented, like most of the things I make) was kind of like a soufflebut not as collapsible. I beat up a bunch of eggs with a tiny bit of milk, poured some in a glass breadpan (to cover the bottom), put in a layer of cream cheese and cheddar cheese and topped that with spinach (frozen, squeezed dry), put in more egg, another layer of the cheeses and spinach, poured the last of the egg over the top and topped it with a nice layer of the cheddar. Then I baked itdont remember how hot or how longprobably about 300 and just until the cheese was brown and toasty on top. Yum! Hadnt thought about it in a long time. Might need to make it again. Bet it would work with wilted fresh spinach too. BTW, if youre gonna grow chard, you really should put in some spinach too. My friend who lives out there grows Bloomsdale Long Standing and says she has really good luck with it. And consider peas, lettuce, radishes, and kohlrabis, they should all work well for you. And I think maybe you could at least try beets and parsnips and carrots since they can be planted as soon as the ground can be worked and since they can stay in until its getting really cold again (I had freezing temps a few times before I finally got them covered with leaves). And they may not get as big as they would somewhere with a longer growing season, but theres no "lower limit" on size for eating the root crops, so however big they get is the size you eat them! And you should be able to grow other cole crops besides the kohlrabis, too. I dont grown any of them, partly because of space, but also because theyre so inclined to get aphids. Maybe that wouldnt be such a problem at a cooler higher altitude. Check out the last page of the chart Ive linked below for more info on planting times for veggies. Digit, I totally agree with you about radicchio! I dont quite understand why its considered edible! Tried red orach last year, and dont like that eitheror endive! Just dont like bitter! And Ive never even tried some of the less-than-usual veggies youre all talking about above, like salsify, chicory, sorrel, fennel. Actually I have a couple bronze fennels, but Im growing them for the feathery, bronzy ornamental valuenot to eat. (Tho I have one of them growing at the back of the tomato patch, and may be tempted to dig up a root from that one just to check it out!) And none of that was about SOUPso heres my soup connection! Bonnie, I made Ham Bone soup last weekso Id have something easy when Im coming and going over the holidaysyet something with "body!" I call it ham BONE soup, cause back right after I got married we were poor (not that Im rich now!) and when I made it, it was made with a bone with virtually no meat left on it! That was the only way we could afford it! Now when I have a ham I save the bonewith LOTS of meat, to make soup. And this time I made it with Anasazi beans. Much better than the great northern or navy beans I used to use. Thats the only way Ill make it from now on. Oh, and since you were talking about parsnips, when I made it I had just gone out to dig some carrots (for the soup), and while I had the leaves pulled back I dug some beets and parsnips too, so when I was making the soup I decided to put in a few parsnips too to see if it workedand theyre great in ham bone soup. They need to be the very last thing put in, because they cook very quickly. I just cut them up pretty small. Ill add more next time. When it comes to soup, I pretty much stick to the old standbys, chicken noodle, ham bone, and vegetable beef barley. And when I make them, the WAY I make themjust keep adding a "little" bit more of this and that and this and thatI usually wind up with TWO big soup pots full, and freeze most of it in 1-gallon plastic "sherbet" containers so I can get "a gallon" of it out whenever I dont have time for anything else or am just to brain dead to even try to think of something else to make. Its fast, and easy, and always there! And sometimes I make ones that are a little less common for melentil, potato, leek, and a few others. When I was looking up the leek recipes recently I found a parsnip soup recipe that I printed out to try sometimeif sometime ever comes! I have SO many recipes Im gonna have to have them buried with me so I can bring them back next time around! I dont collect cook books anymore! I had a whole bunch I sold at my garage sale before I moved to this house. I still use my 1962 Better Homes & Gardens looseleaf cookbook that I got right after I got out of high school! Its (needless to say) getting REALLY beat up by now, so I bought a new onebut I dont use it! I like the recipes in the old one better! When it comes to eating, I do believe in moderation, but whats the point of eating it/anything if it doesnt taste good! Besides that I still have thealso very beat up3 x 5 cards my mother wrote her recipes on for me that I use over and over and............ And besides that I just stick to the web! Its so easy to look up a whole bunch of recipes for the same thing, and then pick out the best ingredients from eachto create your own version of whatever it is youre making. Computers rock, Skybird P.S. Jennifer, Im glad to know I can become a vegetarian just by "switching" meats! That sure makes it easy! Here is a link that might be useful: Veggie Planting Guide - pdf

Here is a recipe that was featured in the New York Times. I have made it, and my family LOVES it. I will never make another kind of white bread. This bread is mosit and chewy on the inside, and crusty on the outside. YUM! Plus, it is very easy to make. No-Knead Bread 3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting ¼ teaspoon instant yeast 1¼ teaspoons salt Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed. 1. In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt. Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended; dough will be shaggy and sticky. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees. 2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes. 3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal. Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours. When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. 4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack. Yield: One 1½-pound loaf.

I've been reading these and all of trailrunner's post. They are just great. All the hints were great. I bake bread out of boredom, I rarely use a recipe, for better or worse and like the wet doughs as well as quicker higher yeast doughs for pizza. Someday I'll get that "super peel" with the cloth belt thingy. I am forced to pre-cook my thin pizza crusts without one- My favorite bread is an olive bread that is made locally in the East Bay and sold now only at the local Berkeley farmer's market- you can go to their bakery, and they will sell stuff to you, but it's not a store front, no sales help, no hours- if they are there they'll sell it to you- they're also fresh pasta makers- 'Phoenix Pastificio'- if you're ever in the area. I've never tried to make that bread, it's almost Holy to me...( although I know he uses a biga and those black Kalamata olives). It has a thin almost black burnt crust, with large ciabatta holes to the crumb and flavor to die for.