Arline, The amounts really do seem to work fine, even for that number. If you look at the picture, you'll see there is a bit of everything in the pot. Green pepper is one of the cornerstones of creole cooking (the trinity is onion, pepper and celery), but green pepper can add a bitter taste if not used comparatively sparingly. The chicken, once cooked, adds probably 5 cups of meat, which spread through the pot, seem to work out fine for the quantity. But you're right, it does look like too little on paper. hope this helps. Jo

The Saveur recipe is closest to mine. I cut the broth and the mixed greens in half, (and we like to use use some okra). I use aprox 4 cups of homemade veg broth. And a fair amount of mixed, sliced fine, greens. -A mix of any that look good in our market . Never weighed them but probably 1 and 1/2 lbs. DH is the roux king, probably the most important step. I like lots of 'Trinity' for the flavor. And a fair amount of spice. Agree that it should never be overly spicy. Subtle. I find it freezes really well !. I made a batch over the holidays and froze a couple qrts. One later became an oyster and sausage gumbo. It is the base roux and veg that is the most time consuming. So we froze some. A trick for freezing you might want to try is to take out a couple pints or a qrt way early in the green cooking stage. As little as 20 minutes. It will finish cooking later on. And roll those washed greens really tight and slice very thin. Breaks the cell wall, cooks more even and releases more of the green veg flavor. They will also become tender a bit faster than big leaves. Especially meaty greens like collards. Often why many do not like it. Needs over-cooking to get tender and then often has a bitter green taste. We like a splash of ac vinegar and a bit of fresh lemon...fresh parsley and celery leaves to the table. It can be a bit boring so i have to give it a bit of fresh. z'Herbes

What is the ingredient list on the purchased box? (or is it a box). I'm not familiar with Marie. One odd thing i noticed is 5 dollops of whipped topping on the pie. Is that not hard to cut evenly? We don't have pie much and an inch slice is about our limit and only holiday time anywho...(can't cut across that first cut) It is standard practise with larger companies to use the actual product advertised and on the box photo...and in tv commercials. It is the law and any cheats would be so easily leaked by those working on the project. Styled food 'photos' do cheat sometimes in later touch-up but the original set-up is the actual food product. Hours with tweezers. I worked on so many years ago to fill in down time and then again during the writers strike for a short time. I'd rather stick pins in my eyes it is so boring. Smaller companies and most import products are not regulated at all. Why what you see on some package/can/jars is nothing like inside and why it is often impossible to re-create something after looking at the ingredient list with all the preservatives tweaks in a laboratory. One commercial for a checkerboard ice-cream that served up perfect slices had a half dozen chest freezers brought in with the actual boxes from the factory that one would buy in your local grocery. They sliced and sliced for three days to get the perfect one over and over. On a PizzaHut commercial they tractor trailered in the ovens used in their 'establishments', (fast food joints) lol. And large boxes of chilled bags of goop sauce with a dozen in-house cooks to prepare it just the way it is done by the food staff on site in your neighborhood. I think it was for their pasta offerings, not pizza. Besides all that, trying to re-create a good flavor combination at home with fresh ingredients is noble and i think important. Less processed and maybe not so pretty but much healthier. (really who cares with dessert) Actually with trial and error a pretty slice can happen...not likely in my house as some are often perfect and others are goopy but still taste good. A warm knife run under the sink then whipped dry helps with slicing cold pie. The entire history of food advertising and when the ball dropped is interesting. like GainsBurgers for dogs. Basically play-dough with zero food value and considered a real treat!

The Specific Carbohydrate Diet, or SCD for short. It's a very successful diet for Crohn's disease or Ulcerative Colitis. All of my jams and jellies are made with honey because there are approved recipes from Ball using the no/low sugar option. When I do go back and have regular jams, I cannot adjust to the sweetness. I had to have honey for so very long that it now tastes better to me. Most fruit spreads I don't sweeten at all, though, preferring the natural flavor. So back to peach pie fillings.... the apple pie filling I made with honey is 2 years old at this point and we had some this weekend. Delicious with no decline in color, texture or taste. So perhaps I will try with peaches that way. The only question is, where did I get that recipe? I am pretty sure I got it off from pickyourown.com on the internet and posted it here for approval, at which time I got the go ahead. I never use internet recipes without running them by the wizards here. So by extension, I posted the same for the peaches. The alternative would be to just can plain peaches I guess. Is that what you meant by unsweetened pie filling that you ad clear jel to after you open them? Just plain peaches? I've seen a recipe for honey syrup, but could also just use water.