Larry, I'll preface my comments by saying I am not at all a canning expert, and I am careful to use and follow safe, tested, approved canning recipes. I never "wing it" and just throw stuff together nor do I use old canning recipes that no longer meet current safety standards. I do not think that the idea of mixing peppers into purchased jelly would be advisable other than if you do it in very small batches that you keep refrigerated and eat within a few days. When we make a pepper jelly from scratch, the canning process makes the jelly safe to eat in several ways. When you are mixining peppers into a purchased jelly, while the jelly itself was safely canned, the peppers were not. Thus, the pathogens that cause potentially deadly diseases like botulism or listeria could grow in your pepper jelly after a few days in the refrigerator. You wouldn't see any visable signs, either, that potentially deadly diseases were lurking in your engineered pepper jelly because they are invisible. What you might see would be the growth of mold in the peppers, just as you would, for example, see mold grow in a jar of homemade jelly that failed to seal properly during the canning process. With the canning process we use when making jellies, one way that the food is preserved safely is that the high heat forces oxygen out of the jars and then the two-piece canning lids form a vacuum seal until opened, which keeps oxygen out. That provides the conditions that help prevent dangerous microorganisms from growing in the jars. In particular, with Habanero Gold jelly, the peppers and onions are first placed in a vinegar mixture which keeps them at a certain pH. That is important because the dangerous microorganisms cannot grow at that pH level. Maintaining exactly the right pH level when canning is very important and, if you added peppers to a previously canned commercial jelly, you don't have that vinegar there serving as the agent to maintain the proper pH. Maintaining the proper pH in the Habanero Gold jelly recipe is one factor that makes it safe. We have to have a specific amount of peppers/onions with a specific amount of vinegar. You cannot put in, for example, twice the hot peppers to make the jelly hotter unless you decrease the amount of sweet peppers in the recipe by the exact amount you increased the hot peppers. That way your total amount of peppers doesn't change so the pepper/onion to vinegar ratio remains as tested and approved. I also wonder this: even if it were safe to mix in chopped peppers into purchased jelly, would you get the same effect? When the pepper jelly ingredients are cooked together, it gives all the flavors a change to merge and blend together. I'm not sure you'd get the same effect from stirring in hot peppers into purchased jelly. By the time the two might have been mixed together long enough for the flavor to blend, then the two likely would be more than a few days old and no longer safe to eat. If you want to hear answers from the expert canners, I'd recommend you go visit the Harvest Forum here at Garden Web and get their answers to your question. The expert canners over there could explain it much more clearly and in much better detail than I did. Carol, I need to make some jelly! The more we talk about it, the more I want to make some. I hope the rainfall and cooler temps quiet things down around here for a while so I can spend more time at home in the kitchen. It rained again last night, almost an inch for us. Too bad it will freeze before the recent rainfall can help the garden produce anything else to can. I have babied about 120 lima bean plants throughout this long hot summer and am just a few days away from harvesting a monster crop. I hope covering up the lima bean plants on the two nights we'll be around 40 degrees will keep the beans maturing on schedule. I'm going to be really cranky if the beans don't get the chance to mature after all the water I poured into their giant container all summer, and after they hung on thru all those hot days and managed to survive until cooler weather arrived. Dawn

Linda in Tennessee, I think I'm the only person in the world that likes cornbread all ways. I like it with sugar or without, with yellow cornmeal or white, with or without corn kernels, bacon, jalapenos, cheese, whatever. (grin) Oh, and I like that casserole too, cookie. Your breakfast cornbread sounds like my Grandma, she used to make cornmeal mush (down home polenta, LOL), slice it the next morning and fry it. It's the only way I'd eat it, fried and with maple syrup. As for the tex-mex thing, I make a batch of Jiffy corn bread, fry and crumble some bacon and add that to the batter with a drained 4 oz. can of chopped green chilies or a small chopped jalapeno, a handful of grated cheese, bake as usual. It's a nice change, and you could probably add a bit of chili powder or cumin, but I don't. Annie

Try some sriracha. It'll heat up anything. Next time you make it, though, try using this cornbread recipe as a starting point to which you add all the goodies. In general, you have the choice of making a savory cornbread (no sugar, little or no flour) or a sweetish corn-muffin type cornbread (sugar and flour added). You'll find partisans on both sides. I personally prefer a non sweet cornbread, but chacun a son gout. Without meaning to make the Cornbread Holy Wars erupt again, my favorite recipe for a savory (as opposed to sweet) cornbread is from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads. I use this recipe when I make cornbread dressing for Thanksgiving; a quadruple recipe just barely fits into a 5 quart KitchenAid mixer bowl, and into an 11 x 14 pan. Absolutely delicious. If you have access to freshly ground corn meal, it'll be plenty sweet. So try to buy your meal in a store that seems to have a good turnover of corn meal. So that's probably NOT in a gourmet store. 2 eggs, room temp 2 cups buttermilk, room temp 1 tsp baking soda 2 cups white cornmeal (but yellow is okay, too) 1 1/2 tsp salt Preheat oven and greased baking utensil (skillet or 9 x 9 pan) to 450 while mixing batter. In a small bowl beat the eggs and mix in the buttermilk. In a mixer bowl, mix the baking soda, cornmeal and salt. Pour in the egg-buttermilk mixture and mix well until smooth. Pour batter into the preheated pan, return to oven for 20 to 25 minutes. It's done when a knife inserted into the center of the pan comes out clean & dry. The link is to a recent cornbread discussion--sweet vs savory, flour vs no flour. Here is a link that might be useful: cornbread thread

It never occurred to me that there were people who had never heard of banana pudding. I'm shocked!!! LOL! I make mine from scratch. About 20 or so years ago someone brought some to a Christmas party at work and it was called Easy Banana Pudding. It was made with French Vanilla instant pudding and called for Eagle Brand milk. It was definitely different from the other pudding, but it was mighty tasty. I have made it a few times, but haven't done so in a long time. I still prefer the original recipe pudding. Here's my recipes: Banana Pudding ¾ c sugar 3Tbsp. all purpose flour dash of salt 4 eggs 2c milk ½ tsp. vanilla extract 5 to 6 ripe bananas, sliced Vanilla Wafers Combine ½ c sugar, flour and salt in top of a double boiler. Mix in 1 whole egg and 3 egg yolks; stir in milk. Cook, uncovered, over boiling water, stirring constantly until thickened. Remove from heat; add vanilla. Spread small amount on bottom of 1½ qt. casserole. Cover with a layer of vanilla wafers. Top with a layer of sliced bananas. Pour about 1/3 of custard over bananas. Continue to layer wafers, bananas and custard to make three layers of each, ending with custard. Beat remaining 3 egg whites til stiff, but not dry. Gradually add remaining ¼c. sugar and beat til mixture forms stiff peaks. Pile on top of pudding covering entire surface. Bake in preheated 425°F oven for 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm or chilled. ** note** Sometimes I don't put the meringue on; I just crumble a few vanilla wafers to make crumbs and put across the top. **another note** I almost always double the recipe because it doesn't last long either around the house or any pot luck I take it to. Here's the recipe I have that uses sweetened condensed milk: 1 lg. box French Vanilla instant pudding 1 can Eagle Brand milk 1 (9oz) carton Cool Whip 1 box Nabisco vanilla wafers 6 large bananas, sliced Mix pudding according to pkg. directions and let stand for a few minutes to set. Add Eagle Brand milk and Cool Whip. Mix well and pour half of mixture over a layer of vanilla wafers and bananas. Make another layer of vanilla wafers and bananas and pour remaining pudding mixture over this. Crumble wafers on top or top with additional Cool Whip. **note** On this pudding I put both Cool Whip and crumbled vanilla wafers on top. **another note** I don't necessarily use the brands mentioned in the above recipes. They were just the ones mentioned when I got the recipes.