Well...Where have I been?

I put out a little garden every year, mostly tomatoes, cucumbers and zucchini.  I have never canned anything before, which at my age is something of a wonder, but this year I was going to learn.  My intention was to can tomatoes from my garden and then with any leftovers, perhaps can a few jars of salsa.

So how has that worked out  for me you might ask?  It is not going as planned, I will tell you that.  My tomatoes are not wanting to ripen for some reason.  I had planted jalapeño peppers to go in the salsa and they have produced and produced until they are about produced out.  I had to something with all these peppers, so jalapeño jelly came to mind.  I simply love jap jelly with cream cheese on a cracker. That sweet/ spicy combination is just wonderful.    So now all my peppers are jelly, no tomatoes yet, and no jalapeños to put in my salsa.

Then I remembered my niece telling me she bought packets of seasoning when she made salsa and just added it to her chopped tomatoes, cooked them up and then canned them.  Off to the grocery store I went for this seasoning packet of stuff.  I found Mrs. Wages seasoning for medium salsa.  That sounded  good to me.  On the back of the packet it says you can use fresh tomatoes or you can buy the petite diced tomatoes right off the grocery store shelf, make the salsa, then either freeze it or can it.  You know of course I had to try the petite diced tomatoes first thing so I could see how the salsa was going to taste.  I can tell you now, even if my tomatoes never ripen this year, I am going to have some great tasting salsa.  I froze the first batch, but the next I make I will can.  Each packet makes 5 pints of salsa when you add the amount of diced tomatoes, and vinegar it calls for.  One day soon I will have 15 pints of salsa all canned and on the shelf.  We are buying a hog to butcher this fall, and there will just not be room in the freezer for everything. 

That is all the canning of any kind I have done this year so far, but later on I will be canning chicken, both white and dark meat, chicken broth and white beans.  Don't you just love learning to do something new?

Until next time,

Glenda