Canning

Wow. The last time I wrote an entry was eight days before I was laid off from my last job. That's sad, but what's even worse is that I've been looking for a new job ever since. Oh well...something has to come up, right?

I spent a few of my days of leisure embarking on that wonderful food preservation process known as canning. So far, everything that I've canned seems to have been processed correctly, but the fear of botulism will forever loom in the empty spaces of my brain until all of the food has been eaten. I hope that if something does go wrong, it will not be on a day when there's a blizzard or an ice storm!

What did I can? My first endeavor was in "Italian tomato sauce"--at least that's what the recipe told me it was. It turned out to be incredibly watery but I canned it anyway. I think I was so apprehensive about the whole canning process that I didn't even consider reducing the sauce. D'oh. Because canning preparation, cooking, and processing took such a long time, I decided to give it up and instead freeze everything else I wanted to preserve. That notion lasted until I came up with the idea to preserve peaches. That process was less intimidating, mostly because I already had the experience with canning the tomato sauce. Finally, a few days ago I canned tomatoes from my garden (the fruit for the tomato sauce came from my garden as well, whereas the peaches were bought locally).

So, now I have 19 jars of processed foods that I need to 1) find space to store and 2) make sure I eat before the next growing season. I guess it's time for me to look for some recipes! Oh yeah...I almost forgot the packages of frozen green and yellow beans and yellow squash I'll need to eat as well.