I think I can blame the cherries for my fruit fly infestation. I plucked some ripe cherries and carried them inside in a plastic bag. I cut one open and taste-tested it. Yuk! Sour! So I decided that the birds could continue to eat them. Trouble is, I forgot about the bag until all these nasty little flies starting turning up. I discovered the bag about three days later (don't ask), and tied the top in a knot and put it on my garbage to go out. Somehow the little, um, larvae got out, so I had to bag everything up triple before putting it out. Eww! I have the creepy-crawlies just thinking about it! I tried the yellow sticky mats. I hung one on a hook to one side of my sink. A couple days later I came home from work, and I notice my Ragdoll sitting by the back door looking pitiful and not wanting to move. When I tried to examine him he walked away, and he had the yellow sticky mat glued to his butt! He'd also somehow gotten a plastic grocery bag glued there, too. And he'd been walking around all day like that. No wonder he felt pitiful. I bet all the other cats were laughing at him.

Great package! Love the penzey's stuff! I picked up a small container of the creamy peppercorn dressing mix last time I was there but I have yet to try it (had to use up all my other salad dressing stuff first!!) Everything else sounds great too -- esp. the eggplant pesto!! Looking forward to pix!

The cookbook is wonderful and so full of information. I haven't had alot of time to enjoy it, but I pick it up every chance I have. I am still taking lunch to the field, but we should be through with harvest in a few days so I will have a little more time. I use the applejack soap in the bath and the pear in the shower. They smell so good. I have already been on the parsonagesoap.com website. DD and DDIL will have some sweet smelling soaps in their stocking this Christmas. The cake mix, I think I will fix it for one of my Thanksgiving desserts. Thank you again Jeanette! I love everything!

Well, I like this forum! I rarely post, consider myself a great cook but am far from fancy or traditional with my cooking. I've gotten great results from postings when needed and have not been insulted once. Hey, not bad! I enjoyed reading this topic especially since I have a great deal of trouble using packaged foods due to sodium content. I DO use packaged foods though! I've never made my own yoghurt--never even tried to. Same with butter, cream cheese, aged cheese (I have made paneer by heating milk and adding lime juice), pasta and that is all I can think of that I need packaged food for. I've made lots of things by just trying it out. Ketchup wasn't that hard, no-sodium tomato paste, vinegar, garlic and onion powder (actually, I like the dehydrated granules), black pepper, cumin, dash of lemon juice, dash of water. I just read the bottle to get an idea of what went in the stuff. And, yes, I buy the packaged no-salt ketchup quite often. So quick and easy! There is no way I'm going to pay for packaged dressing; I make my own even though I almost always just use straight balsamic. My guy makes a great vegan Caesar dressing using nutritional yeast, almond meal, lemon juice, vinegar, no-salt stone ground mustard and an unbelievable amount of fresh garlic. Think of all the oil we are avoiding this way! I do love olive oil though~ Canned soups are a no-go mainly because of the salt. I can't actually taste the can but sometimes I can taste the plastic when I buy things in plastic bottles. We made our own "power bars" for the first time a few weeks ago. We had made granola bars and similar things before but never with the intent to get protein, carbs and low calories all in one bar. They are great for hiking! Yesterday, my guy made bagels from scratch for the first time, just for me as they had no salt and almost zero sodium. Did you know that a regular sesame bagel has over 600mg sodium?! The ones he made were topped with black sesame seeds and tasted very good. They were missing that salty taste but, oh well. I think one of the biggest factors with packaged foods is that they are very inexpensive, especially mixes and things like rice a roni or hamburger helper. They can also make things go very quickly in the kitchen for those who have limited amounts of time to feed entire families. There are lots of things we make that cost more than buying pre-made but there are also lots of savings involved in making things ourselves. We may not be rich but we make the effort to allow a good food budget so we can eat as much natural and organic things as possible. We try to stay away from preservatives but that is hard to do with packaged foods. I'm pretty darned impressed by some of the things people make on the board. Pickled veggies and other home-canned items are the most intriguing to me. It was a good read. Thanks, Jennifer