There are 2 safety issues with home pressure canned foods - pH and density. The problem with noodles, pasta, rice, etc. is they are thickeners, they change (increase) the density of the food in the jars. Increased density requires higher pressures, greater temperatures and increased processing times. How much time and pressure increase is unknown but the implication is that it would be so much that the end product would be inedible or at least undesirable. Commercial canning equipment is very different from the good old home pressure canner. They run at much higher pressures and temps than we can achieve at home. In some cases as much as 50-100 degrees higher. Plus the commercially canned foods are often irradiated first and have additives and stabilizers added to maintain the pH of the food during shelf storage. We don't add those items when home canning nor have irradiation equipment. Home pressure canning will never be able to duplicate commercial canning so we have to live with some restrictions they don't have. Using such thickeners is one of them. So when possible we learn ways to work around them. For example, you can make up small bags of pre-cooked rice or noodles and freeze them and include them with the canned food to be added at preparation time. That way you have the safety and the convenience. Another alternative is to make the chicken noodle/rice soup and freeze it rather than canning it. Hope this helps. Dave

Agree also about God's will. Plenty happens that is NOT His will---because WE have the free will to do as we please. It is the discernment of His will that is the difficult part... trying to figure out which path or action would best serve that will.... and those are usually found by following the commandments, the golden rule, etc. By acting in accordance with those tenets we have a better chance of placing our actions in God's will than by doing whatever we damn well please, regardless of the consequences. I know many people think religion useless, but I am a pragmatist and think quite the opposite. If a person is truly trying to live in accordance to God's will, by looking carefully at his or her actions in the light of the commandments and the example lived by Jesus (or Buddha, or other revered prophets), that process makes the person a better citizen and improves our society.

Rhome410...why are you cleaning up?!! :-) With 8 children I'd think one of them would be cleaning up! I'm the oldest of 6 and when I was growing up we kids rotated having dish duty for a week each. My mom did all the cooking until she started working outside the home when I was in 6th grade or so (my youngest sister was in Kindergarten). Come to think of it, most of the chores were done by us kids...they were broken down into 6 sets of chores & we each had a particular chore set for a week. Cotehele...one of the advantages of drawers, IMHO, is that they have higher sides that help keep things from falling off when pulling them out. However, to each his own! We have almost all drawer bases in our new kitchen with the exception of the "Pet Center" that has 2 FE pullouts + drawer--we'll be removing the pullouts (was supposed to be full-height/no shelves or drawer, but KD ordered incorrectly), sink bases, and two 6" filler pullouts. I do think Jessie21 has a point though...I think the two pullouts flanking our cooktop do look better than if I had had all drawers on that side. (The other side is broken up w/DW, sink base, & trash pullout) Things I do not recommend: regular shelves (adjustable or not!) in base cabinets (obvious, I know!) shallow cabinet above refrigerator...even if you have to pull a 12" deep one out to make it flush w/your refrigerator, do it! not having a utility cabinet for broom/mop/dustpan/etc. We tried to fit one in, but couldn't so now I'm trying to figure out how best to put them in our step-in pantry. We had them in our previous pantry but they were always in the way. I'm trying to figure out a better method for handling them this time other than just mounting them on the wall next to the shelves or on the door (our door has a frosted glass inset so there's no place to hang them there.)

Different strokes for different folks...... LOVE LOVE LOVE our trash compactor. Took one out of our last kitchen remodel and replaced it with 2 pullout trash cans. I *hated* the trash pullouts! They were twice as bulky, and we had to empty them every day. The trash compactor is one unit (though we have a separate bin for curbside recyclables), and we empty it maybe once a week. I also love my corner lazy susan cabinets. I have 3 of them; one for spices, one for medicines and coffee/tea supplies, and one for little-used small gadgets. They totally make our corners useful, and I don't have things fall off the sides. Things I would not recommend: -OTR micro. I agree about that one. I hate how close to the cooktop they are, and the totally inadequate venting. -Open kitchens if you have teenagers and you don't have a house with enough "getaway" space for everyone. OUr last house only had one living room, which we opened to the kitchen in the remodel. It looked beautiful, and when it was just DH and I, we loved it. But when we were sitting down in the evening trying to unwind and watch a show and teaming throng of teenagers burst through the door and starts fixing food, getting ice, etc., we quickly began to hate the setup. We moved to a house with doors on the kitchen and 2 living rooms and couldn't be happier. (For now!)