Our patio.
I guess we'll consider it our summer kitchen. Sounds fancy, doesn't it? :)
I'll just admire it from a distance though. ;-)
Thursday, August 29, 2013
In Our Summer Kitchen
During canning season (and, as a matter of fact, during the rest of the year, too!), most of the work of food preparation and preservation occurs in our kitchen, of course. But one evening recently, Jeff found a new place to work. A cooler, more scenic place. A breezier, less messy place. A much more pleasant place.
Our patio.
I guess we'll consider it our summer kitchen. Sounds fancy, doesn't it? :)
Even though the salsa in those jars is way too spicy to ever be found anywhere near my tongue, I can't help but admire how beautiful it looks.
Our patio.
I guess we'll consider it our summer kitchen. Sounds fancy, doesn't it? :)
And I would love to know how you process your salsa (and even your recipe!) It does look beautiful and colorful! We make it fresh, but have never actually processed it!
ReplyDeleteI use a propane camp cooktop when doing some of our canning...then I don't have to heat up the kitchen! - esp for the longer processing stuff like tuna!
I may have to adopt your terminology of 'summer kitchen'! Has such a pleasant sound to it!
Have a lovely day, Davene!
Hi, Keri! Great questions - unfortunately, I can only give vague answers! Jeff never uses a recipe, but simply throws together what he has on hand. He always uses tomatoes, of course...and onions (sometimes white, or yellow, or red, or green - the more variety, the better)...cilantro (the fresher, the better)...spicy peppers (jalapenos and other kinds)...fresh garlic...sometimes tomatillos. It really is "a little of this, a little of that"! :)
ReplyDeleteEVERY day for dinner, Jeff has chips and salsa; and he is constantly adding fresh ingredients to his never-ending salsa bowl. :) But when he cans some, as far as the processing, after he puts the salsa ingredients in the jars, he adds vinegar, then uses a hot water bath to seal the jars. Because the acidity is so high, there's no need to pressure can it. I can't tell you how long he leaves the jars in because he never times it. :) He waits until there's a good rolling boil and it seems like the contents of the jars are heated through, then takes them out.
Really scientific, isn't it? :)
When my neighbor and I worked corn a few weeks ago, we used a propane burner to heat a big kettle outside; and it was so much nicer than doing all that hot, dirty work inside a kitchen! :)
Ah, Thanks! Oh...we love salsa at our house! Just looking at those beautiful ingredients makes my mouth water!
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