Canners

I have been trying to put off blogging again so soon, but I just can't withhold myself or you loyal folks that are kind enough to keep up with Seth and I.

Let's ease our way into this blog because it is going to knock your socks off.

First, I simply just can not wait until Seth and I have the opportunity to plant and care for our very own garden.  To plant the seeds, water those precious little babies, witness growth spurts, and pluck the gifts they provide.  :).  Eat what we are given, share, and use leftovers to get us through the winter months.  After visiting with Nichole's family and leaving with canned tomatoes and salsa, and having our neighbors bring us canned peaches Seth and I suddenly came up with a brilliant revoluntionary idea (out of the blue of course) to start canning ourselves.  Unfortunately, this wonderful idea came to us late in the season-so we don't have much more time to do this and everyone else in Logan, Utah seemed to have about the same idea as Seth and I.  Our stores are pretty much sold out on canning items (lids, jars, and canning utensils).

After debating what we could and would want to can we unanimously decided what other than salsa?  Now, Seth and I go through some salsa.  We just enjoy it as a snack and try to incorporate Mexican somehow into our menu every week, so it would be extremely beneficial to have salsa just laying around.  We already had plenty of tomatoes and bought extra from the market along with Anaheim and cayenne peppers, garlic, cilantro, and onions.  After doing a little research and contacting our references (Emily, Mrs. Cynthia, and my Momma) we began our first canning extravaganza :).  Here are a few pictures.  If you can't tell already I'm pretty intrigued and excited about this whole deal-which is why I couldn't postpone this blog any longer!

Peeling the skin off the tomatoes-We boiled them for about a minute.  Put them in cold water for about a minute and the skin off these babies just slid right off.

The 'maters boiling-Notice our childsize stove :).  This stove has been wonderful for us-but oh how I will appreciate my next stove being 'adult size'!

The 'Maters halved and de-seeded.  

Warming the cans and 'cooking down' the salsa.  Seth's creative and genius mother told us use a towel at the bottom of the pot since we didn't have canning racks.  

Putting salsa in the can as well as placing the lids on.

Putting the canned salsa back into the pot to boil.  This was Seth's job (because he didn't want me to burn myself or break anything) but I did get to pretend for a picture :).

Bringing to a boil.  See this pretty red pot?  This isn't our pot.  We didn't bring a large stock pot like this with us to Utah, so we had to borrow one from Michael and Miranda. 

Silly Seth and I didn't bring all of our kitchen pots and pans with us worried about space and if we would actually use them all.  Oh, how we regret it.  Seth's parents brought us a lot of things that we missed when they visited in June, but we are still wishing we had some things (example:  Our big stock pot).

Mr. Jimmy and Mrs. Cynthia-we've started coming up with another list of needed items and are hoping ya'll will make the trek 2100 miles for another visit along with our stock pot :).  

What a cute cute man I get to can with :)

The finished product :).  Sealed and all.  Isn't it just such a neat thing?  Seth and I did a small trial run yesterday just to make sure it would be good and doable.  We definitely have EVERY intention to make again next weekend-along with a bigger batch!

As I'm sure all of you would have done, we scooped some out for a taste test.  It was DELICIOUS (in our opinion). 

We were both proud little Cook's :).

Also, Seth will probably just have a fit over this-but I have to announce that our four year anniversary together is on October 5.  Even though we probably won't celebrate it-I can at least acknowledge it right?

This is our first picture together EVER :)-This is the night we first met through our roomies.  Julianne and Jay were dating and we went up for a CLemson game and after the game hung out with Seth and Jay.  Upon meeting Seth (although it doesn't really appear this way because his arm is somewhat around me) I thought he was a strange kid and never dreamed that we'd soon be dating :).  How fun that everything just falls into place and I couldn't be a happier girl than to be married to this strange kid!  Thanks Julianne and Jay for dating for that brief month or so, so that Seth and I could meet :).

The Cook's :).