Camp, I too cannot stand butter beans from a can nor frozen, these are just as terrible and overly large and tough as the green peas found in tv dinners, yuk. Wayne, thanks for the Fordhook bush tip but my bush days are over except for snaps (green beans) which is the best way to freeze large fresh batches at once. My back ain't what she used to be so my days bending over to pick BBs is behind me. Last year while I was expecting a dismal repeat of King of the Garden limas I planted Butter Peas bush variety as a back-up, these were productive and tasty but way too much effort bending over to harvest. Sticking to pole picking. PN, wonder what the heck happened to Sieva seed beans? If King of the Hill seed wasn't offered around here we'd have zero pole varieties on the market today. Wish too that I had saved some Sieva seed :(

It maybe a bit out of sequence (sorry utahs.f.) but I keep meaning to post my experiences this season with apple butter, which is highly popular around here. I used Roma apples - roughly chopped, wormy bits (few) removed, and enough to fill a 3 gal stock pot, stems, seeds, skin and all. Added a couple cups of water and simmered on low until soft, 2-3 hours. Let that cool overnight, then I ran it all through the tomato strainer, resulting in a thick applesauce, seeds, skin, and stems removed. I ladled all that out (approx two gallons)and used the dehydrator to make fruit leather. Started another batch of chopped apples in the stock pot. The next morning, the leather was done, the chopped apples cooked and cooled, so I made apple sauce from that, tore up the sheets of fruit leather, and added brown sugar, cinnamon, and a bit of lime juice and put the whole thing in the 2+ gal crock pot. Turned it on 'high' until it started to blurble, turned it on low. It was all done, deep brown and so thick a fork would stand up in it, that evening, 7 hours later. Yield was 13 pints. So, I dunno, I still used a lot of electricity, with simmering the stock pot twice for a total of 6 hours, 14 hours of food dehydrator, and another 7 hours of crock pot. Pretty good stuff, though. We did this twice, used about 2 bushels of apples, and ended up with 30 pints. It seemed to me that cooking the peels and all made for lots of pectin, which thickened it up. It was really easy to run it all through the strainer, only took a few minutes. Making fruit leather with half of it kept the intense apple flavor, which went back into the final result. I think we'll do this the next time as well.

I do so love these cookalongs! I wasn't able to participate this time, due to being sick as a dog during most of it. I had the flu and now a bunch of fluid has taken up residence in my lungs and refuses to leave. Anyway, here's my two peanut butter contributions, neither of which I was able to make this time, but both of which I have tried and are good, and relatively healthy. Peanut sauce for pasta (from the Smuckers Peanut Butter jar lid) 1 cup natural peanut butter (not the hydrogenated kind with added sugar) 1/2 cup warm water 1/2 cup ketchup 1 TBLSP soy sauce (I use low salt) 1 tsp. garlic powder (or 2 cloves garlic, minced) 1 1/2 tsp. rice wine vinegar (or cider vinegar, but rice is great!) Can add some ginger, hot pepper and lime juice if you want it with more kick. Combine to for a smooth sauce. Pour over pasta and sauteed vegetables. Saute an onion and a green or red pepper at the very least for this pasta. You could add broccoli and many other veggies if you are a veggie lover like me. Can also add pork, chicken or tofu. Serve over pasta--lo mein noodles, or any other shape of pasta you like, or rice pasta or buckwheat pasta. Garnish with chopped roasted peanuts and cilantro or parsley if you like it. Frozen Banana Treats (these are GREAT to make with kids, and are at least a little bit on the healthy side with milk and peanut butter providing protein) 1 large banana 3/4 cup chunky peanut butter 1 1/2 cups milk 1 TBLSP sugar 5 oz. chocolate chips Blend banana, peanut butter, milk and sugar in blender. Put chocolate chips in the bottom of 6 oz. wax cups, pour banana mixture into cups and freeze. Add popsicle sticks after about 1 hour so they will stand upright. Yummy!

Thank you for your helpful page! I am a first timer at at making body butter's & I am gathering supplies currently. Is 1 part liquid oil to 2 parts solid oils the approx. proportions for a basic recipe as mentioned by athena. Ingredients are costly & I would hate to waste them. This one question seems difficult to pin down, I want to make a larger batch to share & most recipes are all over the place with amounts. Also I have seen many recipes where they add cornstarch to make product less greasy, do you have any idea of how much to add, to say like 1/3 cup oil to 2/3 cup harder solids? Is there a really good book you could recommend? Also where to find a good lip gloss recipe? Much appreciation in advance? Thank you , Lola :)