I don't know how you concluded it's because I said so from the information provided. I'm not going to backtrack and read the entire thread but the gist is this. 1) There is still one flour-thickened mustard pickle in the Ball Blue Book. Generally flour presents pH and density issues in canning; it's not that it can't be used, it's that little testing has been done to determine the correct processing time to compensate for the properties of the flour. ClearJel is today's preferred thickener. It presents less of a barrier to heat penetration and doesn't break down during heat processing as flour does. So in many regards it's the superior product. 2) Eggs or egg-thickened products don't hold up well to home canning and have short shelf lives. Again, except for an NCHFP lemon curd, I don't know of any egg products which have been tested to determine whether there's an optimal processing time which is both safe and results in a quality product with a reasonable shelf life. 3) It's futile to compare home canning and commercial processing. They're quite dissimilar. Aside from the fact that commercial processors have access to sophisticated equipment and labs to test their products and maintain quality control, all you have to do is peruse many labels for their lengthy list of preservatives, acids, sugars and gums to determine how they manage to make many of their products shelf stable. It's the obverse of home preserving. Frankly, I think it's an insult to the good people here to claim they're falling back on because I said so when time after time they explain and re-explain why some of these foods can't easily be re-created in a home environment. If Bill Gates wants to direct some of his money to the NCHFP (which last year shut down for lack of funding) so that new research can be done, maybe some of the commercial clones people are interested in can be tested. Carol

Boop, Barrowman is just slobberworthy in Torchwood. You're in for a treat. Funny, too, because he can get a little campy sometimes, and the writers give him some great one-liners. Ianto - Gareth David-Lloyd - is pretty easy on the eyes too, and he's much more interesting in the second season than he is in the first where he's just sort of a coffee-fetching drone. You'll also want to slap Owen on a regular basis, he's one of the most obnoxious characters I've encountered in a long time, except maybe Jeff in BBC's "Coupling" (which may be the only sitcom I've really liked in many years, raunchy as hell but very well written, especially Steve's rants about things like naked bottoms and cushions). If you get BBC America, don't watch the 5-part miniseries coming up in July until AFTER you've watched the first two seasons on DVD, or else it won't make any sense - Torchwood IS one of those series where you sort of have to start from the beginning or else it's pretty confusing. But, you're're in luck, as the miniseries is being released on DVD July 23. Doctor Who's Martha Jones pops up on Torchwood from time to time and there are perpetual rumors of her having a more permanent role on the team. (When it's shown on Sci-Fi Channel it's quite heavily edited. Some of the funniest parts are also some of the rudest, so they get chopped on Sci-Fi and the show loses something in translation.)

Thank you all for the thank-yous and compliments! Jan, thank you for the lovely video - I do adore that quirky house. If I had someone else to do the cleaning, mind the garden, and pay the property taxes ;-) I would drop everything and move in tonight. hhireno, it would make a lovely gift for your doctors' office, although I think I'd bypass the brandy/rum "dousing" and aging - wouldn't do for the office to be reeking of booze, no? LOL (Most of the alcohol the fruit is marinated in evaporates during the lengthy baking.) Once I made this in "mini-muffin" tins (I love those things) and piped the cream cheese topping below on top with a star tip, which made an elegant presentation. I wonder how it would be made in cookie form, sandwiched with the cream cheese filling? (Fruitcake whoopie pies! Must try this!) We usually make four or five batches, in a range of different sizes ranging from the 1" diameter mini-muffins to the big bundt pan, which is how it gets so expensive (especially since these can be outright ghastly when made with cheap, harsh hooch!). Almost every baking pan we own is pressed into service, and thus we can tailor the size of the cake(s) to the recipient. This is way too acidic for the disposable foil pans, BTW. awm03, ah, Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory. :-) Mama says it was one of those old back-of-the-package recipes from the 1960s, from the mincemeat jar. I forgot to include the cream cheese spread I always serve with it in lieu of frosting, although you can use it that way if you like. This is enough to serve with the bundt-size cake for a party. You want the spread rather tart, not sweet like cream cheese frosting, because the cake itself is quite sweet. Beat together: 1 pound softened cream cheese, the best you can get finely shredded zest of 1 orange 1 tablespoon orange juice 1 tablespoon whatever rum or brandy you used in the cake (or a dash of the rum/brandy flavoring if you skipped the alcohol) 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (and if I catch you using imitation vanilla I'll find you and turn you over my knee LOL) 1/4 to 1/2 cup sugar, adjust to taste Plain old cream cheese is good on the fruitcake too. When leftover fruitcake is starting to get kind of weary and stiff, we pop slices in the toaster oven or under the broiler until warm, softened, and the surface is a tiny bit crusty and spread them with real butter (I'm addicted to Kerrygold Irish butter!) or cream cheese. My birthday is January 21 and sometimes DH will make me a birthday breakfast treat of toasted fruitcake with cream cheese and orange marmalade on top of that, with a cup of tea - lovely! BTW, one of our closest friends is allergic to nuts so we made one without nuts for him (portioned out his cake, using a special pan so it would be easily identifiable, before adding the nuts to the rest of the batch - luckily he is not so severely allergic that cooking something with nuts at the same time would make him ill) and it went over marvelously well even without the nuts. Halfway through his Yule party we had to snatch what was left of it off the table and hide it in the fridge so he would get some of the darn thing, people scarfed it down so quickly! This year, he'll get one of his own. :-)

Oh, yes, I would like to know, also.....I love the books; I gave a couple that I had to my daughter when she broke her arm. She was pleased as I usually give her Ruth Rendell or P.D. James; she loved the "lightness" of the "Ladies" books.