Berrybusy inspired me to try baking. Draining off the *water* has saved me time but I haven't been satisfied with the flavor of the resulting sauce. I had about fourteen quarts of tomatoes sitting around and I have just about canned my limit of sauce for the year. I halved the tomatoes and dropped them in a twenty quart pot with a little red wine on the bottom of the pot to get them started. After they heated up I removed the skins with a pair of tongs. Then into two large stainless baking pans and into the oven at 250 F for a few hours. I set the oven to 185 F overnight. In the morning the sauce was thick and very tasty. My wife said it was the best sauce she has ever tasted. The texture was better than my canned sauce as it didn't go through a strainer. I didn't notice any flavor from the seeds. I saved some for eating and the rest went into the freezer. Surprisingly the baking pans were easy to clean. I'll definately try this again. Zeuspaul

Carol, Re your peach example. You are talking about mixing the leftover peaches in with the next batch then canning all together right? NOT taking the leftover full jar from the fridge and just processing with the next batch. NOT going from fridge straight to canner, rather go from fridge to mix with the new stuff to canner. Going down in size... for gifts or something, is ok then? It's only up that may cause problems. I do hate to waste as well. For the dilly beans, I put the parts I cut to make them fit in the jar in a seperate jar. It doesn't look nearly as pretty, but I think it will pickle fine and taste the same, you'll just have to pick them out with a fork. =0) Teenage boys do not seem to mind things like that! *LOL* When you are canning, does it seem like you are making an awful lot of stuff and there's no way you're going to use it up in the next year? Like right now I have 6-7 jars of 5 different kinds of jam and while making them didn't seem like a lot, looking at them all in one place does. Then when I consider that those are only the strawberry recipes..... Do ya'll keep a notebook or something that tells you how much of what you canned this year, so you can make adjustments next year? I'm thinking I want some kind of way to keep track of that. Maybe with the recipe or page number on it. The books I already have are the Big Ball Book, the Blue Ball Book, Small Batch preserving (NOT exactally what I thought it was) and Blue Ribbon Preserves. Then there are the recipies copied from here. =0) Right now, any that I look for online, I'm running against the basic recipes in those books to see if there is a great difference in acid (Does the TYPE matter? Vinegar vs: Lemon or Lime juice?) or amounts of fresh products. I'm kind of using this year as my "learning year". As in I'm not going to get too upset over something that doesn't work for us, and I'm trying lots of new stuff.... like chutney. =0) Learning things like yes, you DO want to take the seeds out of the peppers if you like your tonsils, even if the recipe does not specify. Peppers get hotter the longer they are in, and Chutney taste terrible if you forget to add the sugar. And I did not make nearly enough Strawberry Lemonade. Anyhow, thank you for your answers and taking the time out of your day. =0) It's a little frustrating to hear "I don't know" from my mom, and what I know to be unsafe things from the other ladies I asked about it. And since I only know a little, it's kinda scary. Can I ask about a specific recipe or should I do another post? The recipe is Strawberry Lemonade. It calls for half fruit (6c hulled, which turns out to be about 4c pureed), half lemon juice (4c), and half sugar (6c). It it canned in pints, and I'd like to do quarts. I'd also like to change the lemon juice to lime juice.... and maybe decrease the sugar by a cup or two. You heat it to 190 degrees, then put in pint jars and BWB for 15 minutes. (Pg 192 in the Big Ball Book) I'm thinking that there shouldn't be a problem with changing the lemon and lime juice as they would both serve as the acid, and I'm not looking to change the amounts. Other than sweetening, not sure what the "preserving" quality of the sugar is. And of course going from pints to quarts. Thanks again. Mil

Try water, goof-off, acetone, and lacquer thinner, in that order. From weakest to strongest. Use a soft cotton rag so as not to scratch the chrome (or other) finish. If you need to use steel wool, use it dry and only on chrome, not brass, ORB or nickels. Casey

If it's the same 'texture in a can' that I've used, it should just come off with warm soapy water. Spray it with water, leave it on a few minutes and then wipe with a plastic scrub sponge.