Everyone, thank you so much for all of your help. I will definitely do this again, next harvest. What I've learned: the cucumbers that I chose were too large. In my tastings, the smaller ones had far better texture. I will use a different variety for the "huge" dills that I love. (Thank you for the recommendation, ksrogers.) They are not at all difficult to make. They do require a little bit of diligence, but even less diligence than "sea monkeys" do. The taste of these is absolutely better than fresh pack pickles, though not as impressive as I expected. Next year, I will use MUCH more dill. And, it is not necessary to buy that HUGE, beautiful crock that I was lusting after....I've got a very inexpensive aluminum stock pot that I lined with a food-grade plastic bag, and a little math tells me that I'm about $150 ahead... Carol, Jim, and Ksrogers, thank you, again, for you patience and advice on this. I was more worried about them being "safe to eat" than I realized, and your comments were both helpful and reassuring! Alright. My bread is in it's final rise, so I'm heading back to the kitchen! Wishing you all a wonderful afternoon, John Scott Smith

Charlene, I'm too cheap to go buy spice jars. I just peel the label off the empty store bought ones, and make my own label. I just pulled 8 half-pints of Cranberry Jalapeno Jelly out of the canner. I'm working on roasting, peeling and freezing the rest of the peppers. Sure wish I would have remembered to put the rubber gloves on this time ... and not touch my face! Does your recipe call for leaving pieces of pepper in the jelly, or straining them out? I'd be interested in the recipe. I kind of want to try the Habanero Gold recipe in the Ball canning book, but I'm a little scared of how hot it might turn out. Jalapeno peach sounds a little less intimidating : ) Finally starting to see the kitchen countertop again. Progress has been made! Bonnie

jkom, that's funny, my mother loved pickled pigs feet, and their similar product, pickled pigs knuckles. The person who taught her to eat them? My Aunt Amy, whose real name was Yoshiko and who came to the States with my Uncle Chuck, he met her and married her while he was in the service stationed in Japan. I always liked liver, although I seemed to be an oddity among my friends for it. I still like liver with bacon and onions, although I seldom eat it now on the advice on my doctor. Peppi, all of those things are also available here, and none are considered particularly odd. In fact, Jiffy muffin mix is made here in Michigan, and I've always got canned salmon, canned sardines and canned smoked oysters in the pantry. I don't particularly like the oysters, but Elery loves them. I don't really like headcheese much either, truthfully, but I can get it and I've eaten it. Ashley still likes the Mrs. Grass' chicken noodle soup in a box as well as the Vienna sausages in a can. So, although I'll eat liver and headcheese, I think "non-dairy creamer" is weird, how can it be creamer, but be non-diary? I haven't figured out yet what exactly Cool Whip is, but my brother eats it frozen, like ice cream. Annie

thanx for answering my question about the sugar. interesting bit of discussion on this "food product". and chase--i can promise you and everyone else that ever sent me a home-made goodie, it was treated with MUCH more respect than what you see in this thread! and i have to say, the idea of the frito chili/pepperbelly dish has caught my attention too! has middle age turned me into a kid or what??? be that as it may, we just ate the first koolickle a little bit ago. yesterday morning i took 1/2 the pickles out of a jar of commercially prepared dills and let them drain while i made a batch of cherry-flavored kool aid. mixed the two together and refrigerated until this afternoon. by then, everything except the skins of the cukes had turned a weird shade of red--think of a maraschino cherry. first munch seemed very sweet, as did the second one. until you got close to the skin of the cuke, it tasted VERY much like a sweet pickle. it was only in that last little bit of the cuke did you get any hint of the dill pickle that it started out to be. but believe it or not, it was sort of tasty in it's own odd little way. and i'll bet a group of kids would think they were fun in some, screaming red fashion! if it's a slow day at camp carol, perhaps your kids might enjoy "making" sweet pickles! and just as sort of a post script... i was one of those weird kids who liked sauteed chicken livers wrapped in bacon. a friend of mine made something similar and said she wanted me to eat pickled watermelon rind, wrapped in bacon and broiled. i was SURE they'd be awful but they were actually quite tasty! do i have to turn in my forum membership to the food police yet?