First, let me address the option of boiling the canned tomato sauce that is now sitting on the DR table at my SIL's where we put it to cool after BWB last week. I am not at all comfortable with doing anything with that sauce in an effort to save it. My jar contents are going into the trash. Sad, since I hate the waste of any food, but there's no way I am taking any chances. Unfortunately, I have seen the medical records of someone that contracted botulism (not in any way related to home canning), and it isn't pretty to put it mildly. Even the most remote possibility of that becoming a result from the ingestion of something I created by being a novice, and not having done my homework insofar as the safety precautions necessary with canning, makes me more than uncomfortable, seriously embarassed and feeling very fortunate that my intuition led me here to ask questions about some things done that didn't seem to be 100% okay with what we canned. Thanks to the great advice I've received here, I've enlightened my partner in crime in this endeavor, and I believe she's on the fence about it being okay to eat. I can't make her discard it, but I sure wish I could. I've given the information gleaned here, and from what I can tell, she believes I am over-reacting or over-thinking the whole issue altogether. Don't misunderstand, she's not ignorant, she's a college educated, MBA, just not a chemist, lol. I wanted to clarify something I posted above that I think might be interpreted in a way that I did not intend. The canning/preserving of foods in a plain manner is fabulous if done safely, and can be part and parcel of all sorts of fabulous recipes. My point about not preserving plain things was phrased poorly, and I sincerely apologize to all of you who preserve your harvest, feeding your families wholesome foods through the hard work associated with growing food and with canning. Yes, the crafty part of cooking is one of my big hobbies. If I were fortunate enough to tend a huge garden that yielded me lots of healthy fruits and/or vegetables, I would certainly be more than thrilled to preserve all of what wasn't eaten throughout the growing season. That said, I've wanted to "can" for years, but had no idea of the amount of built-in safeguards when you are knowledgable about what you're doing rather than what I tried to do. Yes, "The Art of Preserving" by WS is a beautiful book to look at, has all sorts of delicious recipes, unfortunately, it isn't at all reliable for a novice, or anyone for that matter, to use as their only source of information on preserving foods safely. Since I've now learned a hugely valuable lesson (~thank you to each and every person who took the time to respond to my post ~), that lesson being that I need to read and absorb as much as I can about the science of canning, why certain foods can be canned safely, following vetted recipes from reputable master canners in a strict manner, and basically learning as much as I can about this craft. In speaking with a cousin who is an actual chemist about this whole issue, I now realize that playing it fast and loose, as someone on the HDF characterized the WS "The Art of Preserving", isn't an option. Education is foremost on my agenda prior to even filling my new BWB with water to process anything other than the Peach Jam recipe that has been pretty much ok'd by those in the know here on the Harvest forum. I am saddened to read that the NCHFP isn't updating any longer. For a good portion of the past few days, I've been reading the loads of information provided there. The funding loss is a political issue, and not going to go there. One of the reasons that I am a "cook", and don't do much baking, isn't only that I'm not really a sweets lover, but more that I really enjoy cooking which isn't an exact science. Baking is. Canning makes baking look like child's play when you compare it to learning to can, and adhering to strict methods to produce not only great tasting food, but food that is for-sure safe to eat or gift. The difference being, I am very interested in learning to can, and learning to can safely. Once again, many thanks to all of you who took the time to respond to my question!

Oh, man!! I'm just itching to make a gigantabird!! Seriously!! With the old kitchen I was practically standing on my head to make a single protein in sufficient quantity that 25+ people would be willing to eat and would fit in my dreadful old oven. Gagantabirds are a lifesaver! Only you know what's worth the price to you. I could cook and bake with the crappy old oven even though controlling the temperature was like working with a wood fired oven and there were hot and cold spots. My soon to be installed 30" Gaggenau is the opposite. :) A long time ago, someone posted a comparison of the engineering of ovens. I knew going in that I was getting Gaggenau, but I was shopping anyway, to confirm my choice. The top ovens had a temperature variation from the set point of about +/- 7 degrees. So a really good oven set at 350 might be 357 or 343. An average, old style household range oven had a variation of about +/- 25 degrees. The variation comes because once the oven reaches temperature the heating reduces to a maintenance level. When the oven senses that it's cooling, the heating goes back up, when the oven senses that it's now at temperature it settles back, but the increase might actually be warmer than what the sensor senses. Gaggenau had a variation of +/- 4 degrees. There is no functional difference between 4 and 7 degrees, but that might be the difference between the Gagg and the Frigidaire. What I love about my mother's Gaggenau oven is that, for instance, the same holiday recipe, year after year, puts pans in at the same temperature for the same amount of time and they come out perfectly, pan after pan. No checking if they're perfectly golden at the corners. No putting them back for another few minutes. No rotating pans. First pan to last, year to year to year, it's always the same. I LOVE that!! That, plus the side opening door, are my top reasons for shelling out the big bucks. The best chef at the caterer my mother uses for her big annual holiday bash requests her job because he likes that oven. That tells me something too :) He's in a lot of very fine kitchens, and likes her oven. :) I just hate fighting with equipment, so I want the things that will do what I want them to do as requested without any backtalk or negotiation. :) To compare the Fagor, the capacity is similar to a countertop catering oven. You can probably make anything but a gigantabird, or perhaps even a big ol' bird. But you could make a standard roast, a family sized bird, etc. Perhaps for only one oven it would be too small. Gaggenau also has the hideously expensive lift oven, where it's mounted in the upper cabinetry and the bottom lowers to counter level. You can bake right on the floor of the oven. It has the same capacity as the Fagor. BTW, the net volume of the 24" Gaggenau side opening is 3.6 cu.ft. Oh, and the net volume of the Gagg combi-steam is 1.7 cu. ft. That's my second oven. Search on gizmonike for more on Gaggenau ovens. I'm not trying to sell you. It's not an amount of money to spend lightly. Just letting you know what I like about it.

One thing that no one seems to have commented on... the OP says he/she has "an old fashioned exhaust fan that vents outside." So it looks like ZoeCat17 already does have and is used to a form of ventilation...if ZoeCat17 is talking about the kind of exhaust fan I think he/she is (like a bathroom exhaust, through the wall?) the biggest differences a "real" hood would make are (1) more effective/quicker because of the capture area containing smoke/grease before it spreads, which may be minor given his/her comments on cooking style, and (2) the addition of a filter. The filter is where a safety improvement may actually lie...if you use a fan without a filter, then grease *can* build up on the blades of the fan itself and the internal mechanism, and/or on surfaces outside near the outlet, and these *can* be a fire hazard. Both of these issues can be addressed through cleaning, of course, assuming the fan mechanism is accessible, but it is far easier to clean a removable baffle. I would also note that as someone else who has lived a loooong time without a vent hood, the 2 things I really look forward to more efficient venting of are steam and heat - neither is a safety thing, and an open window helps with both, but when I work in a kitchen with "real" ventilation I am astounded at how much more comfortable it can be. This especially comes into play if you regularly make stock or big pots of soup/stew, or anything else that simmers on the stove for hours....depending on your cooking style, YMMV.

So, okay, I really can read most of it, but your translation is much better for getting a sense of the poetry. When I was in college we read some modern Hebrew poetry, which was all about reducing it as much as possible to morphemes rather than separate words, and using words with similar shoreshes rather than rhyming. Works great for poetry, not so much for song, but this one is really pretty. Thank-you. Though One Fish Two Fish is very elegant in Hebrew, if I remember right, and it rhymes. :) Blessings to the translators! I'm surprised you don't like the sound of Hebrew. English used to have velar fricatives (ÃÂ and ÃÂ with no dagesh (not that ÃÂ is pronounced in Hebrew anymore either)). You can see it in the spellings of lots of old words, and sometimes you can hear it in Scotland and Northern England still, but not much. I like a full range of sounds. :) Of course, I was reared more on the sweetness of Geula Gil than the power of Moshe Dyan. :) Back to topic, I hope you've gotten a cooler bag for your lunches?