Sorry I've been a little quiet for a few days, I got to bring my DD home from the hospital for the first time on Thursday, so I've been a little distracted since then...

Some really good recipes coming out here - if you have a recipe that matches the list of open requests on the front page, then feel free to add it.

Netix - My Stock Pot is a huge 80 liter monster of a thing, doesn't fit on a stove, so it goes on a gas burner on the balcony!

BG - I use a mixture of different preserving techniques, you can preserve lots of things that don't contain much protein without refridgeration using jars - I use resealable preserving jars for high turnover things that we will use a lot (tomato and chilli jam, tomato and ginger preserve, home made mustard, marinaded eggplant/zucchini, picked cabbage that sort of thing). For longer term preserves (jams/marmalades/passatta, preserved lemons, etc) I buy trays of jam jars from a catering supplier - we preserve stone fruit (cherries, peaches, apricots) over the summer and citrus (blood oranges, seville oranges, ruby grapefruit, etc) during the winter - we're going to make some ruby grapefruit and rose petal marmalade this week - last years stock of seville orange and calvados marmalade is nearly done, so I'll probably make another batch of that too.
For anything that contains protein, then you need to find other ways to preserve it - a vacuum packing machine is a great tool (it might also allow you to make a broader range of boil-in-the bag stuff for you DH's truck) Produce survives the fridge/freezer much better in a vacuum packing, and it also gives a huge boost to any marinades. I also use old fashioned traditional preserving techniques - confit where the meat is initially cooked and stored in jar of fat (works well for pork, duck, goose) - the fat is removed before the final cooking, so it isn't as unhealthy as you might think. I've been getting into salting and curing of meat too which is proving to be very interesting and rewarding, if you've got dibs on some whole animals then it's something that you might want to consider yourself - home made bacon, ham, pancetta is pretty simple and similar techniques can be used for other cuts and animals.

I did a little wander around the supermarket looking at some of the sauces that have been listed, so I'll be posting some more alternative recipes soon.

Creamy Country Chicken has me stumped though, couldn't find it...what's in it?

A couple of people have mentioned cost, I'll see if I can put together some cost breakdowns, but at first glance....the going rate for a 375ml jar of sauce seems to be about $3 - most of the tomato based sauces are >90% tomato...400g of tomato are less than $1

One more from Tali's list...

Chicken Cacciatora (We had this for dinner tonight - nice simple bit of one-pot cooking)

for 4-6 people

A chicken cut into pieces (2 x breasts - each cut in half, two thighs, two drumsticks)
A carrot - peeled and chopped finely
A stick of celery - chopped
An onion - sliced
A clove of garlic - chopped finely
A red or green capsicum - cored, deseeded and cut into strips
A 400g can of tomato
150ml of white wine

Get everything chopped and prepared before you start.
heat some oil in a saucepan, coat the chicken pieces with seasoned flour and fry in the oil until golden, then remove from the pan and put on a plate nearby. The flour will help thicken the sauce.
Add the onion to the pan and reduce the heat, fry the onion until starting to turn golden - a low heat will stop you burning the onion.
Add the wine, and increase the heat - whilst the wine is boiling use a wooden spoon to scrape all the caramelised bits of onion and chicken from the sides and base of the pan - let the wine boil for at least 30 seconds.
Add the carrot, celery, garlic and capsicum and stir briefly before adding all the chicken pieces except the breast - they will not lead as long to cook.
Add the tin of tomato, stir again and cover the saucepan - reduce the heat right down low so that the sauce is barely simmering - allow it to simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the breast pieces and simmer for another 10-15 minutes - remove the lid and place the chicken pieces on a serving dish or plate in a warm oven whilst you finish the sauce.
Taste the sauce and add salt and pepper to taste, if you would like the sauce to be thicker then crank up the heat and boil the sauce, stirring regularly until it is at the desired thickness, then pour over the chicken and serve.
The whole thing can be made in advance and reheated, or you could make the sauce without the chicken and keep it in the fridge or freezer until it is needed. Just use it like the simmer sauces - fry the chicken then pour over the sauce and simmer till the chicken is cooked.