The following message was recently posted on the Troy Irish Genealogy Mailing List and the Rensselaer County Mailing List. It triggered a lot of memories from people on these lists. It may be of interest to list members on the Schenectady, Saratoga and Albany mailing lists who have not seen it. COPY: How many people out there continue that yearly ritual of making chili sauce? A year did not go by that our mother's and grandmothers did not do this chore. And chore it was as it took an entire day from early morning to night to complete. Not sure where the practice came from but most of the Irish families we knew followed it. You knew which house it was being made in as the aroma spread through the neighborhood. I can still recall the spicy smell that lingered for weeks in our house on Burden Avenue long after the cooking and canning was done. My mother, (Mary Elizabeth O'Connor - 1901-1981), labored all day, while we were in school, washing and grinding bushels of tomatoes and peppers and then standing at the stove stirring the mixture for hours while it cooked down. As hot as the chili sauce was from the long red hot finger peppers, my father's, (James Joseph McGrath - 1900-1974), standard comment was "it's not hot enough!". Tell that to my mother who for days afterwards had burning hands and arms from handling the hot peppers and standing over the steamy pot that made sure the burning feeling entered your pores. My family still makes the chili sauce according to my mother's recipe which most likely came down from her mother. I consider the recipe to be "McGrath's 100 Year Old Chili Sauce Recipe" and I do SHARE it. Two of my siblings, Peg and Bud, make the "recipe" this past week and yesterday it was our turn at our house. I spent Thursday in the Engel farms field (near Albany Airport) picking a bushel of tomatoes, a bushel of sweet red peppers and a few dozen of the hot finger peppers. The last time I was in that particular field was on September 11, 2001 and the farmer came out to tell me the World Trade Center just collapsed. I was a frequent visitor to the World Trade Center when I worked since the Department of Labor had it's New York City offices there. Being in that same field Thursday brought back memories to me of that tragic day. I will bring a jar of chili sauce to the next TIGS meeting so attendees can try a taste. Regards, Bill McGrath Clifton Park, NY