Hilde was a busy bee with my canner... Sunday she brought it back with V8 juice, ketchup, chili con carne, pizza sauce, etc! It even came back cleaner than when she took it! I still have a gallon of puree frozen at a friend's house, plus everything in the basement freezer still. Plus plants are still producing. Maybe next up will be the tomato garlic soup. I asked the puree volume question (also see this thread: Is this pizza sauce recipe for canning safe? to 2 different places, one was that edu canning site (Elizabeth Andress/National Center for HFP) and the other was Ball/Jarden. Since the one has a Confidentially Disclaimer, I'll post Ball's reply below; basically, I asked this: > question -> I processed in an electric tomato strainer (Spremy) an unknown amount of homegrown heirloom tomatoes. The Spremy removes the skin & seeds and delivers a puree-like juice.... I have 8 gallons of this, fresh and uncooked in any way, some refrigerated and some frozen. How would I adapt volume (gallons, quarts, etc) to your recipes which are often based on pounds or cups of tomatoes? I would like to make pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, V8 type juice, etc, but don't know how much of this puree/juice to use when your recipes call for pounds or bushels or cups of tomatoes. Ball's reply, to me, sounds like you prep/measure the puree based on the final yield. Here's their reply: Thank you for your message. For pizza and spaghetti sauce: puree tomatoes, cook pulp (puree) until it is reduced by one-half. Measure 7 quarts (or volume equal to recipe yield) and add other ingredients as instructed in recipe, process according to recipe. For juice: puree tomatoes, measure 7 quarts (or volume equal to recipe yield) and add other ingredients as instructed in recipe, process according to recipe. We hope this is helpful and appreciate you contacting us. Sincerely, Consumer Affairs Jarden Home Brands

I'm a scale convert, and am even becoming a metric convert, because my scale does grams, kilograms, ounces and pounds. My King Arthur cookbook gives weights, (as well as volume) but only in pounds and ounces. Well, they'll give a measurement of, say, 1.3 ounces, but my scale breaks down ounces into 0.2 ounces. What am I supposed to do with that .3 ounce? (rhetorical question - I do my best to guess the amount I've placed is somewhere between .2 and .4 ounces, and not fret too much). However, if I'm using a recipe that gives measurements in grams, I'm happy because I know I'll be able to measure that exactly, and one reason I like to bake is I'm anal! lol. I've read the advice, I believe it was in one of my Dorothy Greenspan cookbooks, that one should use the same measuring method that the author of the recipe says to use. When I first started baking, the cookbooks I read all advised to spoon the flour into the cup, then level off. So that's what I've done for years, until the last few years, when everyone started using the fluff, scoop and level method - that is, everyone that doesn't use weight measurements. So, Sapphires, that being said, if you wanted to follow Greenspan's advise, and she's an excellent person to listen to, use the measurement method that the author of the recipe says, if you want the recipe to come out the way it's intended to. Good luck, and have fun! Oh, and what Grainlady said. Scales are useful for lots of things. I've even weighed small postage on it before! Sally

If it doesn't work out - my tried and true carrot cake recipe is the one from Better Homes & Gardens. It always turns out fantastic! I make it in a sheet cake pan, so the baking time is shortened a bit. Here is a link that might be useful: BHG Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese frosting

I'm sorry, I've been off line, my 27 year old daughter had a stroke, and then the doctors discovered a hole in her heart. She's home now, recovering, and I've been babysitting with her two children, ages 2 and 3. So, I've been tired... You sure have some faith in my rebel ways, LOL. I do tend to sidestep the guidelines when I think the risk is very small/miniscule/minute/nearly non-existent. I also know it drives the food safety experts completely batty. You do, realize, of course, that it's a risk anyway, no matter how small and that no one can guarantee the safety or quality of a recipe that was never designed to be canned? That's my disclaimer, gotta add it, as the risk is yours to take. Anyway, if I were set on canning this, I'd probably cook the chicken with the seasonings and can in the broth. The problem is that if the chicken is already cooked, it may be far overcooked after processing for 90 minutes or so. It also will not be just simply sauteed with seasonings, it'll be pressure cooked, more like boiled. I don't see much difference in adding the garlic, ginger and curry paste and adding onions, garlic and/or other seasonings to soups or chili, which can be canned. The coconut oil is an unknown to me, I don't use it or can with it. All meat has some fat content, so it might be OK. Maybe. I think I'd can the seasoned meat like I'd can chicken in broth with vegetables, then add the coconut milk and noodles when reheating. I'm not optimistic about the final quality of the product if you do this, though, as I believe the chicken will be overcooked (I don't can chicken for that reason, only broth) and the cooking methods are far different. Good luck, I hope it turns out better than I expect it will. Some things just don't can well, unfortunately. I think I'd be more likely to chop the garlic and ginger, mix it with the chili paste and freeze single soup-pot portions, you could even do that along with the appropriately portioned and prepared chicken if freezer room isn't an issue. I'd can my chicken broth for storage and then take out a package of the chicken, cook that, add the broth and then the rest of the ingredients. You'd cut out the prep time, partially. Oh, and if you do decide to can the chicken, be sure to bring it to a boil and boil for 10 minutes before adding the coconut milk, just for good measure. Yeah, I know, that'll cook the chicken even more. (sigh) Thanks for the recipe, too, it sounds delicious! Annie