Newer version of Annie's Salsa - BWB only Annie's Salsa 8 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained 2 1/2 cups chopped onion 1 1/2 cups chopped green pepper 3 to 5 chopped jalapenos (for milder leave out seeds and ribs) 6 cloves minced garlic 2 tsp cumin (optional) 2 tsp pepper 1/8 cup canning salt 1/4 c fresh cilantro (optional) 1/3 c sugar (optional) 1 cup cider vinegar (see note on subbing lemon or lime juice option) 16 oz canned tomato sauce (to adjust density) 8-16 oz canned tomato paste (to adjust density) Mix all ingredients, bring to a boil, boil 10 minutes. Pour into hot jars, process pints for 15 minutes in BWB. Makes 6 pints. _________ A lot of changes have been made to this recipe over the years. Some people like lemon or lime juice in place of some or all of the vinegar, that's fine. (Note from Sheila - I like half lemon half lime.) Some people leave out the cilantro, that's fine too. Do not increase! Some people add more hot peppers or fewer onions, fine as long as you keep the same total measurements. (Note this is what NCHFP does in their new Choice Salsa recipe.) Some people leave out the sugar, that's fine. You can scoop out the goo in the middle of the tomatoes with your thumbs when I'm peeling and chopping for a less seedy version, so it's 8 cups of chopped tomatoes without the seeds and goo. Most who make it regularly as well as Annie recommend using a variety of different slicing tomatoes, not paste types, for best flavor and consistency. (Note: use the tomato sauce and paste to adjust the consistency of the final product to a "sloshy" consistency.) According to Annie "My salsa is not as thick as Heinz catsup but it's thicker than taco sauce. If you don't like it quite as thick or sweet, cut down the amount of paste. I would add some, then taste. Reducing that ingredient shouldn't affect the safety of the recipe. I use equal amounts of sauce and paste. You can pull it off the heat at any point and adjust for flavor. Before I cook it I check for salt, sugar, check the consistency. Add more pepper or cumin if I want. When I first started making this salsa, tomato sauce and paste came in 8 and 16 ounce cans. Like everything else, they've now been downsized, so now I have to use partial cans." Does anybody have good versions of the other recipes that have weird symbols in them for measurements?

If you use a saucepan type Foley food strainer with the crank on top, its usually easier to soften them. That design is very slow and today the side crank type food strainers are much more efficient. You do NOT need to cook the tomatoes, or even expose them to any heat whatsoever to fun them through a Villaware/Roma strainer. I usually will cut them in halves though, just to dig out some of he watery liquid and some seeds. Doing this easy step helps to give a thicker sauce, which would probably need less cook down time. The exact same question has been asked here many times in the past, and some people insist on cooking or blanching tomatoes prior to straining. It is not necessary and is just an extra laborous task that can be eliminated. The food strainers will remove all seeds and skins, and these get pushed out the narrower end of the conical sieve. For a harder thing like apples, it does make sense to partiall cook them but even there you can leave skins on, but dig out the seeds. Apples are quartered, and seeds removed, then a partial softening will help to get them through the strainer. This method is for apple sauce. If your not familar with a Villware/Roma fod strainer, suggest that you do a search for the word 'Villaware', as it will bring up thousands of posts, as well as photos of the machine.

Jane has given permission to post her recipe for Rugelah. NOTE: the @ is an example of how the roll should look. Also, I use my own strained Raspberry Jam and the Flame Raisins from Simonian Farms. Rugelah Dough 8 oz. small curd cottage cheese 8 oz. softened sweet (unsalted) butter 2 cups flour Mix butter and cottage cheese. Add flour. Mix like for pastry using cutter or forks. Form into 6-7" flat square. Refrigerate overnight or at least several hours. Cut chilled dough square into 3 equal sections. (Re-refrig. other 2 sections.) Roll out the section between an 18 inch length of wax paper folded in half lengthwise. Rolling the dough the length only brings the dough to about 4" wide by about 14" long and 1/8th inch thick. (Keep chilled, handles easier.) Filling 8 oz. seedless raspberry jam 8 oz. raisins 8 oz. walnuts Chop raisins and walnuts together in food processor (or grind together in meat grinder.) Spread each rolled-out dough with 2 heaping tsps. of the jam. Spread 1/3rd of the nut/raisin mixture evenly over dough. Using the wax paper to help, roll-up dough jellyroll style - about a 1 1/2 roll - @. Topping 1 tsp. cinnamon 3 Tblsp. sugar Mix together and sprinkle generously over top of each log. Roll the log up in the self-same wax paper and refrigerate for at least one hour. Baking Preheat oven to 375º F. Remove one log from frig.; unroll and cut log into one inch pieces; place on parchment covered cookie sheet so turned-under part is down and "roll" is standing upright - @ . Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely . Repeat for other 2 logs. Makes about 45 cookies from 3 logs.

Re-post the info. I posted in June. Today Old Port is a BS-fest & doing nothing as of today, August 30. Last month I scraped off red-lava-rock, and replaced with horse manure plus high-phosphorus NPK 4-10-7 (blood meal, fish bone meal, sulfate of potash, and kelp meal) . I should had done what I did in spring: chicken manure NPK 5-3-2, plus red-lava-rock for potassium. Lesson learned, I find that minerals (in rock dust, or Azomite, or red lava rock) is great to INCREASE the yield in crops. The problem with MG-potting soil is it's not rich in minerals like clay or rock dust. Here's an excerpt from below link: http://remineralize.org/2007/11/soil-remineralization-and-the-climate/ " Remineralization also enhances and speeds up the process of composting, so if you are composting for your garden, consider putting on some rock dust. Remineralizing by adding rock dust to compost is a very practical way to apply it to soils. For Forests The results of long term experiments released in 1986 showed that in a forest where pine seedlings were remineralized, after 24 years the wood volume was four times higher than in the untreated area. Remineralization trials of a dying forest on Mt. Mitchell by Dr. Robert Bruck, Ph.D., showed that twelve weeks after application of rock dust, height of growth of red spruce was increased by 27% over non-treated controls, and height growth of Fraser fir was 19% greater than the untreated controls. (Forestry Research packet) The Men of Trees organization in Australia is doing remineralization trials with many species of trees in Australia with phenomenal results, such as five times the growth of trees seedlings of one variety of eucalyptus, over the untreated controls. (See Forestry Research packet) For Agriculture The best source of soil minerals is simple crushed gravel dust. In 1976 John Hamaker spread gravel crusher screenings on part of his ten acres in Michigan. The following year, in an area of sparse rainfalls and dry summers, with no irrigation, his corn produced 65 bushels per acre, compared to yields of under 25 from other local farms. Moreover, when independent analyses were done, Hamaker’s corn was found to contain 28% more protein, 47% more calcium, 57% more phosphorus, 60% more magnesium and 90% more potassium than the same type of corn grown with chemical fertilizers nearby. - See more at: http://remineralize.org/2007/11/soil-remineralization-and-the-climate/#sthash.3RNlqfTo.dpuf Here's the result of my top-dressing Old Port with red-lava-rock, the free-sown snapdragons go beserk. Old Port got winter-killed to 4 inch. tall early April. Pic. taken June 8: