Salsa success.

After the FAIL at tomato juice the other day, I did a batch of salsa the other day that looks amazing. I didn't try it yet, as I have no chips, but looks and smells are fantastic. I roasted either on the grill, or in the oven, the tomatoes, jalapenos, and the banana peppers. This made 6 pints.

• 6 cups roasted tomatoes
• 3 cups chopped onions
• 3  jalapeño peppers, seeded, finely chopped
• 3 banana peppers, seeded, finely chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 cups bottled lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt

Simmered all ingredients for half an hour. I could have gone longer and let the salsa thicken some, but I like runny salsa. Filled the boiled pint jars to a half inch of head space. Screwed on the two piece lids fairly tight. Added to my water bath canner. Filled with hot water to two inches above the jars. I did have to add a a quart jar of water, just to take up space so the pints wouldn't tip over. It does take a long time for my canner to get up to steam. Once at a boil, I reduced the heat to a gentle boil and let it rip for 20 mins. After 20 mins, I took off the lid, turned off the heat, and let the water and the jars cool. After about an hour I pulled them out onto a towel on the counter and let them finish cooling over night. 

Now I just need some corn chips for a taste test. 

What kind of mess did I make? and the laziest pigs ever.

So I've been processing tomatoes. I grilled a batch, and last night I put two roasting pans full of tomatoes in the over till they were bubbling in their own juices. I did this twice. I peeled off the skins, and de-seeded. I ended up with a whole mess of tomatoe pulp  and 7 quarts of tomato juice. I tried canning the quarts tonight. Stuck them all in my big old giant pot. Took forever to to come to a boil. The whole time rocking and making horrible noises. I let it finally come to a boil, boiled for 20 mins, took off the lid, and turned off the stove. I have a lot of floaty junk in the water, and when I pulled out the jars, this is the mess I had. One jar looks like I thought they should all turn out. All the jars seemed to have sealed fine, they are all sunk in the middle. I should add this was my first practice run for the salsa and spaghetti sauce I want to make from all the tomato pulp. What is this mess, and what did I do wrong is the question for the Homesteading Today forums.

I get a kick out of watching my piggies eat. How lazy can it get?

My house smells like corn and pickles

Today was a long busy day. Went out this morning and spent a bunch of time in the garden gathering veggies and checking the ears of corn and picking the ones that were ready to go. Some of the corn I picked out was ready to go before the stuff Scott picked, but I think his is prettier, bigger, and more uniform. All told I ended up with 52 ears that were ready. I filled a whole garbage sack full of corn husk and silk. The pigs, chickens and horses were so happy to see it. Piggies got the majority of it. All morning and most of the afternoon I spent blanching it five ears at a time, cooling it, and either vacuum sealing three ears at a time, or cutting the kernels off the cob and bagging it to seal after it was frozen. I'm officially out of room in my freezer. Breakfast for Scott and dinner for me was sauteed corn mixed into scrambled eggs with cheese. YummiE with a capitol E.

I decided to try my hand at pickles today. I had all the ingredients to make my brine juice, but I'd also bought one of those already packaged kits for pickles. I ended up using both and still had four pint jars left over sitting on salted water in my fridge. This is really the first time I'm caning more than the three jars of apricot jelly I made last year. I did the pints in my regular sized stock pot. I really didn't have the recommended 2 inches of water over the top of the jars without everything boiling over, but do you have any idea how long it takes for the gigantic pot I have the quarts in to heat up to a boil? The pints are done and the big pot Still is heating up. Oh, it's making all the noises that you'd think says I'm boiling, but alas, it's still not yet. And oh man, what a mess I made. Water on the floor from moving the corn from the pot to the sink. Cats trying to trip me as the clamor for attention. Dogs under foot cleaning up the corn kernels that seemed to leap off the cutting board and go everywhere but into the bags.

I've been running the dehydrator almost non-stop for days. Put in another tray and a bit of cherry tomatoes. Already have a whole quart jar and a start on another one of yellow squash.

I've been doing laundry and laundry and more laundry. I wanted to get all the towels, sheets and blankets on all the beds washed and changed before I go in for surgery.  I couldn't find any towels except for the ones in my dirty laundry and I know I had a Lot more. I was also just knew there was a second set of blue sheets for Teh Spawn's bed and another one for The Boy's. After a little searching I found all of it... In the Boy's closet! Fifteen towels, and three sets of sheet, top and bottom. I've been doing laundry for three days trying to not overload my septic and still keep up on Scott and my clothes. I finished the last of the towels and sheet and a blanket today. I still have three more comforters to go.