An update - popped open a jar of our tweaked chili sauce tonight (we're calling it our "North of the Border" chili sauce - did another batch tweaking the spices to make a "South of the Border" flavor). DH's comment - "Don't you dare change a thing - it's gooood". I think it just needed some time to meld all the flavors back together. Weird how that happens - in the future I certainly won't start making notes on what to change without tasting it after being on the shelf for a couple of months.

Ya... some confusion going on it seems. Chilie is a pepper. Chili is a dish. So in a literal sense you can have chilie powder made out of dried ground peppers. Now... to make the dish most in the U.S. consider chili you have to add a spice mixture know as "chili powder". As I recall Lars has a fondness for Mexico and lives in the South Western corner of the U.S. I'm not surprised that he would think of powdered peppers before a spice mixture. One of the things really interesting about his cooking is that he is doing different things with his food. Much as I'd love to sample Lar's cooking someday I'm going with Arley on the cumin. Cumin is the heart and soul of the dish we call Chili. My pot of chili often contains several kinds of hot peppers but it also takes a load of cumin. People walking into my home will exclaim in delight when I cook chili because of the fragrant cumin. I found whizzing my whole cumin seed in the blender with some tomatoes chops the cumin up pretty good. Not as good as hand chopping. My first lesson with cumin seed was to chop it up on a cutting board with a knife. Still strikes me as the best flavor. Our friends on the CF from India have recommended toasting the cumin... very good but I'm not 100% sold. The seed does require considerable cooking to release the oils that account for the intense flavor. The very best cumin I can purchase at the moment is bulk ground cumin from GFS which is a restaurant supply company. Tops even Penzey's whole seed. Still ground does not get the full spectrum of flavor so I add mostly ground GFS cumin and top note my flavor with some freshly chopped seed. Somehow ground cumin even when fresh and strong still does not have the high aromatic essence of whole seed. Chili powder often contains garlic that I've removed from my chili. Garlic is great and garlic is good but it is also sweet and not the character I want. Maybe sometimes it is alright.... I used to add sliced fresh garlic to my chili. Goodness that warms your entire body when the mood is there for it. Cilantro, in particular fresh cilantro provides an intense aromatic flavor and scent that many associate with north of the boarder "mexican" cooking. LOL!... sorry don't mean to go on so much. Chili is one of my favorite dishes. Fresh garden tomatoes are priceless if you want chili with star power. Different peppers add heat with different characters as Lars noted. Peppers at different stages of ripeness also display remarkably different characteristics. Green habeneras are not ripe but they are milder and have more tang then mature red habs. Then the amount of time a pepper cooks will change the flavor and heat profile of a pepper. My chili is tested and approved by Luna! Suppose I should admit I don't use chili powder in my chili. Not powdered peppers or any branded spice mix. Cumin and cilantro with hot peppers being part of the vegtable mix. I top coat much of my food with salt and black pepper and always do so with chili. : ) lyra

Lars - thank you for the response. I also got an email from CindyMac saying that she used the Siracha, and liked to double the sauce ingredients. In the end I doubled the sauce ingredients, but only used 1 tablespoon of the Siracha and 1 tablespoon of the garlic chili sauce - a good move, because it was plenty hot. But nothing that a glass of sweet and spicy Gewurtraminer couldn't solve LOL. We really enjoyed it, and I'll make it again. The only thing I'll do differently next time is to let the rice sticks soak a little longer than 10 minutes - they were still a little on the chewy side. Becky

Linda C, close your eyes. I guess I broke rule #1 "be sure you have all your ingredients before you start". I didn't have pickling spices, never, ever having made pickles. I have just been to 2 grocery stores plus Dollar General. What they have are pickling spices for specific pickles...dill, kosher dill, bread & butter and pickling lime by either Mrs Wages or Ball. If I had to guess I'd say bread & butter. This whole canning thing says stick to the recipe which I'm trying very hard to do. It's now 6:30, I have smooshed the tomatoes, chopped the onions, which I deposited on top of the tomatoes. Can I just cover the pan, refrigerate and start over tomorrow, when I can go in search of the elusive pickling spices? I hate to be such a pain in the rear, but I obviously need a little pickling advice Again, TIA. jude