From the Better-Late-Than-Never Category: We won't discuss the condition of my recipe collection coming to the end of the canning season, but here's the Orange Pickled Beets recipe I promised long ago. I haven't made this for a long time, but it can be canned and served as pickled or thickened and served Harvard-Style. Orange Pickled Beets (by Florence Fabricant in the Garden-to-Table Cookbook) Makes 6 pints 8-9 pounds beets, without tops 12 narrow strips orange peel, an inch or so long 3 1/2 cups apple cider vinegar 3 cups sugar 1 cup orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed 1 tablespoon pickling or kosher salt 1. Wash beets, leaving an inch or so of stems. Place in a large kettle, cover with water and bring to a boil. Cover the kettle and simmer the beets until tender, about one hour depending on size. 2. While the beets are cooking, simmer the orange peel in water to cover for 15 minutes, then drain. 3. Combine vinegar, sugar, orange juice and the prepared orange peel in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and boil for 5 minutes. Set aside. 4. When the beets are tender, drain them and rinse in cold water. Slip off the skins and lsice the beets. 5. Fill clean, hot pint jars with hot beet slices, leaving headroom of 1/2 inch. Add 1/2 tsp. salt to each jar. 6. Return the orange syrup to a boil and fill each jar to within 1/2 inch of the top with boiling syrup. Include 2 strips of peel in each jar. 7. Adjust lids and process the jars in a boiling-water-bath for 30 minutes. Carol

Bulk foods has the tomato powder in many amounts, as well as the calcium chloride, citric, dried soup greens, and so many old timey candies, granolas, dried fruits.. etc... I love their sugarless turtles, caramel, pecans, and chocolate. All kinds of stuff there, and the tomato power is free flowing. I keep it in the fridge, as it can darken a bit if left out a long time. Also get a lot of other stuff like starch, powdered eggs and whites and all sorts of goodies. Where else are youb going to find Japanese style peanuts. These are coated with a sslightly sweet/salty soy, and are hard to stop eating. Remember Mary Janes and maple nuts, Kits, rock candy, 2 1/4 inch jaw breakers! You wil go nuts! (pardon the pun) Your right Zabby.. For dried garlic and onion in tomato sauces I tried a dried, sliced, roasted garlic from somewhere, but it was unpleasant tasting . I use the dried minced and granulated stuff , even sweet pepper flakes and because its dry it soaks up the tomato liquids as well as absorbing the necessary acid. Has never failed me yet.. Garlic, is perfectly safe to can by itself is its pickled in a vinegar salt brine. Like eating peanuts, you just can stop ourself., I used to make quart jars for a friend who would go through a jar in a couple of weeks, and used it in almost everything. Placs like Costco and BJ's used to carry the granulated onions and garlic and smome minced. But both seem to now only offer powders (which clump!) and chopped. Here's my favorite source for these now. Used to also get stuff from the Ingredient Store for many years, but the original owner has recently passed away, just 2 weeks after we had a nice converastion about his efforts in the food industry for 50 years. His kids are running the business for now, but are just too busy to effectivly run it with as many selections of items. Its still the ONLY place I can find the modified food starch called FREEZER FLOW, which is even more stable once cooked and frozen and refrozen if needed. Freezer Flow's nicest property is it will still hold up better to high acid foods and freezing that tend to break down a little in Clear Gel. The same people make FAB marinades, for beef, pork and poultry. These mixes are added to water and injected or marinated. Some of the secret recipes of BBQ people use it. Then there is the '11 herbs and spices', which is about as close to KFC as you can get. Unless the Prudhomme stuff is cheap at a local Christmass tree shop, I just use what I like. Big jars of italian seasoning, dried peppers and onion, basil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, oregano, savory and a few others. Goes well with almost any italian things, inlcuding adding to bread dough, and pizza doughs. Nothing like crusty bread for dipping in an olive oil and balsamic vinegar with herbs added.. Don't get me started!! Here is a link that might be useful: Bulk foods

here it is I have it saved in my recipe file now. sausage rice casserole 1 pound Breakfast Sausage ^^use sage sausage 1 6-ounce box Uncle Ben's long-grain and wild rice 2 small onions, chopped 1 4-ounce can mushroom pieces 1 10.75-ounce can condensed cream of mushroom soup 4 tablespoons butter Steps Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook rice according to package directions. In a heavy skillet over medium heat, cook sausage until thoroughly done, about 4-5 minutes. Drain. Combine all ingredients except butter and pour into casserole dish. Dot top with butter. Bake until bubbly, about 25 minutes. I used the Tennessee Pride mild breakfast sausage tube.

Interesting the impressions some have :-) There is a big difference between a department store......of which very few exist these days.....and large clothing stores. Nordstroms has never been a department store!! It started as a shoe store.....period! I remember shopping there in my late teenage years, as they were one of the few places around that sold Capezio shoes (which I loved and had a vast collection :-)) It wasn't until it combined with a woman's apparel store (Best's Apparel) that it became a clothing store, known as Nordstrom-Best and finally just Nordstroms. But it only sold shoes and clothes. That is NOT a department store!! Back in the day, Seattle had two, semi-upscale department stores - The Bon Marche and Frederick and Nelsons. The sold everything from soup to nuts....clothes, toys, furniture and antiques, appliances, kitchenware, fine china and crystal, linens, fine art, etc. And food.....both already prepared food, imported goods, a bakery and several restaurants. The Bon was acquired by Macy's in 2003 but still remains as the largest department store in the area. Frederick and Nelsons was even larger than The Bon and a step or two up in both quality and price. And F&N was where Frango's originated. F&N was acquired by Marshall Fields in 1929 but always operated under the F&N name. It was a huge store...12 storeys and occupied a full city block. It had multiple restaurants, a fantastic bakery, a candy kitchen (where Frangos and other candies were made), a post office, beauty salon, infirmary, a daycare facility and a reading room. It was known for its fabulous, animated Christmas windows and was where all the best Santa photos were taken :-) It was a Seattle institution! It closed with the demise of Marshall Fields in the early 90's. But that massive store is still there in the heart of downtown Seattle and is now the Nordstrom flagship store and corporate office.