Salsa Eatin'

Remember when I said that I had a problem and just wanted to look at the canned jars and not eat the contents? Well, Hubby has no such limitations. He literally was eating canned salsa the night after I canned it. The. Night. After.  All of that work!  And to add insult to injury, there's an open jar of store bought salsa in the fridge.  He 's the yin to my canning yang, I never want to open them and he wants to open them immediately.

Can It!

We had a bunch of tomatoes that were piling up so I made some roasted salsa. It's pretty isn't it?  It's made from tomatoes and some roasted banana peppers from the garden.   I searched high and low for a safe salsa recipe since tomatoes are in the borderline pH zone and found this little beauty.  The salsa tastes great, very similar to the type that a local restaurant serves. Mine came out a bit liquid-y because I used a regular tomato and not a meatier plum type. Next time, I'll definitely take most of the seeds out to reduce the liquid. Live and learn!

Aren't these jars cute? We scoured the thrift stores looking for used jars but there are none to be found anywhere.  I mean anywhere and we looked hard. So we wound up at Walmart and even those shelves were picked over with some sizes completely gone.  But we were lucky to find some and snagged a few of these cuties.  Can't wait to do more canning, it's really enjoyable. My only problem is that I want to look at it and not eat it!

Can It!

Fresh from the garden

Before the cold temperatures set in last week, we swept through the garden and picked all of the tomatoes that we could in order to save them from frost damage. When tomatoes get frosty they thaw out all squishy and gross, they don't take freezing well at all.  We tossed around a few ideas to use them up but no matter what we do, we will not eat this many tomatoes before they go bad. So we canned it!

Oh no, our skin!

I removed the skins by scoring the blossom end and dropping them in boiling water for a few minutes. Next up was a dip in an ice water bath and the skins just come clean off.

Tomatoes in their birthday suits

I've read that the skins get bitter so that's why you see so many recipes taking them off.  The tomatoes aren't acid enough to can safely in a hot water bath without a little help, so I added 2 tablespoons of lemon juice to each quart and then jammed in as many tomatoes as I could.  They spent 45 minutes bubbling away in a big pot of water and then it was time for their photo shoot.......

Can It!

What do you do when a bunch of cucumbers and jalapenos ripen at the same time? You pickle everything in sight! This is my very first pickle experience and I love how they look in the jars. I've made cherry and blackberry jam before so I'm not afraid of the canning process. I got the recipe from one of my favorite food/garden blogs and I love how simple it is.  Now I have to wait 4-6 weeks to have a taste. I forgot how hot it gets when canning. Imagine hovering over 3 pots of boiling liquid while it is 80+ degrees outside. Yeah, hot and humid to the extreme.