Okay, so I keep coming up with great new ideas - ideas that really are not all that "new" at all, but rather "old" ideas I guess. Here is my new adventure. I decided since I had all these fresh tomatoes, onions, and peppers from my garden that I wanted to try my hand at canning. I remember my mom canning, but mom canning when I was little, and me doing it by myself are two totally different things!
Here are the tomatoes that I started with for my first try...
Next I borrowed a pressure cooker from my brother-in-law, Jeremy (thanks Jeremy!)
Next I looked up online how to do this. Here is the link that I used for the most part: http://www.pickyourown.org/ A very helpful site for a first timer!
Well, here are my first two jars. The one with all the tomatoes on top turned out right, the one with all the space on the top did not turn out. I did everything the same, they were even done in the same pot at the same time, I have no idea why one turned out and the other one did not, but oh well... at least one turned out from my first batch!
Next I decided to try a "water bath" method of canning. In all honesty the pressure cooker had my nerves all out of wack. Any of you that use a pressure cooker probably know what I mean. It just stressed me out too much since I was inexperienced and knew that "if not done properly, bodily injury may occur. Keep all children and pets at a safe distance." Maybe if I have someone who knows what they are doing I will give it a try again. Anyway, I did not have a stock pot large enough and all the canning sets that I could find in the stores had pots with bottoms that were not flat. Since I have a glass top cooktop all of my pots have to have flat bottoms or they will not heat properly. So, off the the store I go - and I was so excited to buy this beautiful red stock pot! I love it!
Now I have 4 pint sized jars of spagetti sauce. Hope we like them!
So, all in all, I had fun canning (at least so far) and with the exception of having to buy a new stock pot and lids for the jars it hasn't cost hardly anything. We will see how much more I get to can this season and hopefully I will get to can again next season as well!
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