Many people get food poisoning from commercially available products, and if you saw what went on in many restaurant kitchens, you'd probably never eat out again. In 2007 there were 4 cases of botulism linked to canned hot dog chili sauce, and there were cases of botulism from Bolthouse Farms Carrot Juice, and an update shows the serious effects of botulism. "All of the victims of the Bolthouse Farms Carrot Juice botulism outbreak developed respiratory failure and required lengthy ventilator treatments. One victim in the United States fell into a coma and died three months after ingesting the botulism toxin. A couple in Canada also experienced lengthy comas and nearly died after drinking Bolthouse Farms Carrot Juice. Two years after the outbreak, in December 2008, two victims were at home, two were at a rehabilitation facility and one victim remained at a hospital. At this time, two of the five survivors were still dependent on mechanical ventilators." Also in 2006 there were a couple of cases of botulism from some home fermented tofu, so it doesn't need to be canned food alone. However, when you think of the thousands of people with e coli from improperly handled beef and salad greens, the salmonella from improperly prepared chicken, from jars of peanut butter, from fresh cheeses, and the countless and endless recalls of everything I can think of, well, I'm a lot more comfortable eating my home canned food and home grown beef, even if I don't have the same equipment and may not have been diligent about following all the "rules". It's a good thing I like to cook, that's for sure. Annie

NO, lemon juice will actually 'bleach out' the color. When the green is gone, its usually from overcooking. I don't steam veggies, unless you consider the water they contain which is heated to boiling in the microwave. I cook all my veggies, either fresh or frozen in the microwave in a covered dish. This includes carrots, pes, beans, broccoli and most anything else I enjoy. If your freezing these, they do recommend that you blanch them as tha will help hold the nice green color. I dislike the pale color of canned peas, so I grow my own, blanch and freeze them. When I want some cooked, I just pour them into a covered corningware dish and nuke them a couple of minutes. I do sprinkle a bit of salt on them just prior to cooking in the microwave. Snow peas are very difficult to keep them crisp. I grew them, and if I blanched and froze them, they would turn mushy once they were cooked even for a very short time. Thats one reason they are so expensive in stores is because they do not keep well, or hold up to freezing. They do sell frozen ones, but these are just too soft and have no crunch in a stir fry, compared to fresh. I used to see a guy in the local Chinese resturant pulling off the tops of a big pail of them all day long. Blanching is actally the same as athe 'shock' method. You dip in boiling water a minute or two, then into ice water. Fresh salads are great with snow peas.

My applique is also Baltimore album type...in fact, I did a whole quilt of Baltimore album blocks, several years ago... a great travel project... but working from the bottom up to the last, top piece, I've not ever had a problem getting things in their proper place. It's always seemed to me that there was a bit of wiggle room. For placement of pieces, I just keep a pic of what it is I'm copying in fabric, to go by...I try to keep the whole process as simple as I can. I can't understand why you couldn't get the glue out, though, unless you weren't using the right glue..... sometimes I get a regular washable glue stick from Joanne's or other quilt shop, if they're on sale...sometimes I use one that is for kids, that says it's washable...and, have never had a problem getting any of it out....and, if you get it in the wrong place, it doesn't matter....a few swipes with a damp washcloth will remove it. I absolutely love the glue to hold a piece in place, and use it for other quilt related projects. I did a grandmother's flower garden, using the plastic templates to make each octagon...to hold the fabric to the template I used the glue stick...then, when the little corners were sewed together, and all the octagons sewed together to make the 'block' I'd pop out the plastic from each little segment...the glue holding all the segs to their fabric made the whole thing rigid,and thus easy to sew the segs together....and the plastic was easily popped out, regardless of the glue. I saw the use of the octagon plastic templates on Simply Quilts, but they seemed expensive when I priced them at a quilt shop...so, I begged from my friends, all their cottage cheese/sr cream, etc lids and cut out my own. It takes a lot of them, but it sure makes making the octagons easy. Needless to say, I love my glue stick!

I take Nature's Bounty Fish Oil, 1000 mg, containing 300 mg of Omega-3. This brand has only 10 calories, and the brand I used to take had 30 calories, which is why I switched from taking two a day to one a day. I guess with the brand that is only 10 calories I could take two a day, but I don't remember why I am taking it, but probably to reduce cholesterol. My doctor did say to me that Fish Oil is the best supplement to take, if you feel you must take supplements. I do have to take vitamin/mineral supplements, due to the diet that my nutritionist put me on. I'm not that good at staying strictly on the diet, but I am very good at taking all the supplements she told me to take. My psychiatrist told me to take Alpha Lipoic Acid to help with nerve damage, but I think you have to take it before the damage occurs. The first supplement I started taking was GTF Chromium because I was diagnosed as hypoglycemic, and taking the chromium reduced the dizzy spells that I experienced when I had low blood sugar. It made a huge difference for me, but of course diet was important also, and I had to avoid sugar.