Sunday, November 2, 2008

Susie Homemaker? I think not



There is something about the fall season that makes me feel like Betty Crocker or Martha Stewart. I am not sure if it is the crisper air or the smells of people using their fireplaces but there is something in the air. It seems like wherever I drive there are fruit and vegetable stands with cars stopped along the way buying produce. I decided to stop. That I think was my first mistake. It is kinda like going grocery shopping when you are hungry. The damage had been done. I bought 2 lugs (what is a lug anyway?) of tomatoes. One regular and one roma. I was actually feeling pretty good about the whole thing. On the way home however, it hit me. What the crap? What am I going to do with 2 lugs of tomatoes? I know...salsa., stewed tomatoes and spaghetti sauce.

I got home and pulled out the dust covered canning jars. (not joking the dates on the lids were 1997) I loaded up the dishwasher, had Mitch run to the store and buy lids, got the rest of the ingriedients out of my garden...that's right I have a garden... and got started.

I went into my recipe drawer and found "The Best Salsa Ever" recipe. Hmmmm sounded easy enough. It did however occur to me that I was going to need some help and what better bonding moment between mother and daughter than canning together right? I got Kylie out of her sleeping stupor and made her come and help. She was a great sport and let me take pictures along the way.







To be fair, I did let her choose what her task would be. She had the option of slicing and dicing the jalapenos and anaheim chilies or chopping the onions. She chose the onions because I have this handy dandy onion chopper from Pampered Chef. I am sure she thought "quick and easy" and then she could escape. LOL nope. She had to chop 9 onions and it turns out it wasn't so easy. Not only were they the strongest smelling onions I have ever come in contact with, they imediately burned everyone's eyes that came into the kitchen. I honestly have not ever been around that strong of onions before.

It didn't take long to discover that we couldn't work in the kitchen without opening the windows and turning on the fan. It really was quite funny. Mitch came home with the lids and imediately his eyes started to water. He had to go into the bathroom and rinse his eyes.










Here is Kylie trying to get the smell of the onions to waft under the bathroom door while Mitch is rinsing his eyes.




Well after 6 hours of cutting and chopping and "cooking down" and stirring every 15 minutes for 3 hours, we finally got our harvest bounty. With the help of Mitch, Kylie had escaped hours ago, we got the salsa poured into the jars and waited for the seal to pop. Which by the way I never heard cause no one told me that when you cold pack, the entire bottle has to cool down before they completely pop. THAT would have been a good tip to put into the recipe.



We finished, cleaned up and I looked around and I still had a lug of regular tomatoes. I thought to myself, tomorrow I am going to make the stewed tomatoes and spaghetti sauce. I went downstairs into the storage room to get more jars so I could stick them into the dishwasher to prepare for my adventure in the morning and found 2 cases of store bought stewed tomatoes, 2 cases of spaghetti sauce from the cannery and 2 cases of salsa from the cannery. I muttered something under my breath, (can't seem to remember what it was) and stomped back upstairs. The lug of tomatoes went to Angela.

I got 15 jars of salsa after 6 hours and burned retinas...

Pretty sure whatever was in the air is gone...can't smell it anymore cause my house still smells like onions.

3 comments:

Annie said...

haha that is so awesome! And those pictures are amazing! I love your new songs and your new layout and everything. You really are getting the hang of all this blogging goodness. goodness.....hey I am the queen of goodness! : ) haha still not quite sure what that is about but I will just go with it!

Trisha said...

Aunt Terri, you are hilarious! I love reading aobut your adventures. I would like to order a couple jars each or your salsa, stewed tomatoes and spaghetti sauce. LOL

jana said...

I HATE it when that happens.

Your kitchen sure looks nice though! I love your cabinets.

And I love the pics of the old costumes. So cute.