Plink!

This is the happy sound of my tomato jars sealing after a long-ish hour of canning! Okay maybe it was more like 2 hours. It sure didn't seem nearly as long as the peaches.. although I only did one batch of tomatoes and 3 of peaches...

Here's my final product:

I have about 10 cups of leftover prepared tomatoes. I was hoping they would fit in the smaller jars that I have, but it only filled about 4 jars and I need at least 6 to fill my canner. I decided that I would either buy more tomatoes tonight or buy the stuff to make salsa.

I might just do both! I took inventory of my jars this afternoon and after alll this I still have 7 large (like the tomato ones), 10 medium (500mL) and 21 jam-sized jars! I was thinking that I will definitely do salsa (probably tonight) and then maybe I would try out some pickles... Simon like sweet pickles (I don't yuck!) but he can't find the kind he likes out here... We bought them in BC, but I guess the stores here just don't carry his kind! I bought a Bernardin canning recipe book (Bernardin Complete Book of Home Preserving: 400 delicious and creative recipes for today) so it may be able to lead me in the right direction for pickles. I will probably consult my mom about it too....

MOM what do you think?? Are sweet pickles hard to do???

(I've called my mom probably at least 5 times in the past couple days with canning questions :p the Mennonite cookbook just isn't clear enough for beginners sometimes!)

These are the leftover tomatoes trying to save their friends from being boiled!!! They didn't quite make it.. not tall enough and plus it's hot!

I was kinda bored when the jars were boiling.... these extras didn't last long though..