I never cut my lily stems, I do leave them until they finish turning brown. If any seed pods develope, I do pinch those off though.

Ok, that's a relief. But were you using the grill burner or the stove? When you said couldn't get the flame lower to drop to 11 I assumes the grill burner. Ok, so gauge reads 16 so it is accurate enough for now. Now the goal is to get it to read 11-12 (for your altitude) and hold it there for at least 20 mins. Learning to adjust the flame to control the pressure to the right level is the main goal of practice runs and the hardest thing to learn it seems. So you need some more practice. Keep in mind that the counter-weight will not be rocking this time - you'll be going by the gauge only so shoot for 12 and don't let it fall below 11 at any time. Climb up to 12 slowly and make very small changes in the flame at a time and then wait for the gauge to change. Second goal is to eliminate siphoning of liquid out of the jars. Was the water in your canner still clear when finished or did some of the color leack out of the jars? Amt. of water in the canner - some canner manuals say 3 quarts, some say 2-3 inches before inserting the jars. But corn has a long processing time and you don't want it to run dry so I suggest you use enough water so that the canner looks half full after you set the jars in it. That way you'll be sure of enough. Let us know how it goes. Dave PS: Be sure to double check your altitude as there are places in IL that are over 1000 feet. ;)

There are very few (only 1 I can think of and that is the Roasted Tomato and Garlic one) approved recipes for canning tomato soup. It usually contains oil and butter not to mention milk or other dairy products which is prohibited. So the solution is to just can your tomato sauce plain in pints or 1/2 pints and then make it into tomato soup at serving time by adding the other ingredients (milk, butter, thickener, and seasonings) then. Dave PS: tell hubby that not everything can be safely canned so his requests all depend on if there is an approved recipe for it. ;)

A massage gift certificate, which I just used last week. I always save it for a time when I need a deep tissue massage. Euphoria lotion, since I can't wear perfume anymore. I drug my husband to Macy's to buy it for me. Charms for my "Nana" bracelet.