A Little Basic Math Makes Me Feel Better

Not in general or anything--I don't want anyone thinking I actually sit around doing those dratted story problems for fun--but the carrot salsa being so far off was really bothering me. Canning is exact in some ways. You have to have enough acid to make it safe to process in a water-bath canner, and if there had been a mistake where I used way too much carrot (a low acid food) or something, then I could have made the salsa unable to keep safely. So this morning I double-checked the recipe.

I made a double-batch of salsa, which meant I had 26 cups of ingredients. According to the recipe's estimates, that should have produced 10 cups of salsa after cooking for one hour. I just don't think I know that cooking technique. Having 26 cups thicken down to 20 makes a lot more sense. I feel better. AND I have lots of salsa. Which makes me feel even better.

Where are we putting all these jars, you ask? In the Dwarf Closet!This is the downstairs bathroom, and that little door (which always makes me think of Alice in Wonderland, especially now that we've had to descend down the little rabbit hole of the crawl space to fix the broken pipe this past spring) leads to a rather large--but admittedly awkward to reach--storage area. Until the canning endeavors, it was a great place to keep our luggage. Admittedly, it unnerves people a bit to see us emerge from the bathroom with jars of food or bottles of wine, but I rather enjoy that part....:)

Today I am NOT canning. Instead, I am roasting pumpkin seeds (which I haven't tried before) and roasting tomatoes (which I have). Last night I boiled the seeds in saltwater to remove any remaining pumpkin pulpor whatever it was that came off of them, let them dry overnight, and now I'll sprinkle them with a little olive oil and salt and roast them in the oven this morning while it's still cool. It sounds simple enough, so I think I have better than a 50-50 chance of success for the day. Several years ago, I discovered a recipe for roasting tomatoes (which incidentally, does not work with Early Girl tomatoes as I discovered last year), which should work really well on those little renegade grape tomatoes in the cucumber bed. I also planted two Roma tomatoes just for this. If you haven't tried it, it's a wonderful way to create an intense tomato flavor to get you through the winter and its flavorless tomato sauces. I freeze them, but I'll bet one could dehydrate them as well.

I was going to make a roasted tomato salsa today, but I am trying not to can 2 days in a row. It gets tiring and I still have about 6 more weeks of this to go--scary thought. Of course, the other reason I'm not making the salsa is that it asks for dried chipotle chilies, which I forgot to get yesterday. In my defense, I had the brilliant idea of WALKING to the grocery store & library yesterday, which is about a 5 mile loop. This is the longest walk I've done since my surgery, and I was pretty tired by the time I got home. AND had learned that the library apparently uses the same electronic-control devices that Fred Meyer does, so I narrowly missed being arrested for shoplifting yesterday. Luckily, all the Fred Meyer stores I've been to in this area have pretty terrific staff people, so when I explained why I was setting off alarms on my way IN to the store and showed them my backpack, they were very nice about it all. I was still pretty embarassed when I walked out of the store & set off all the alarms AGAIN. So you can understand why I want to wait a little while before going back to the store--I'm a produce fugitive right now......