Suzanne said:

What recipe did you use, Heather?  One on the Community Cookbook, or another one?  I'm planning to can salsa this year, too.  A lot of it!  As soon as we have more tomatoes.  It's still early for tomatoes here.  I'm getting tomatoes right now only from the farmers market, the stuff they give us for free for the pigs.  Sometimes, the stuff is still good.  I'm making spaghetti sauce tonight from farmers market reject tomatoes and peppers!

Suzanne, you are def not alone in the jar breaking – but after all the years I have canned I think I have only had maybe 20 break. And I can about 400 or more a year.  And I have a lot of well used jars.

Still stinks when you lose the contents!

I do hear that some of the new jars are a higher breakage rate though :(

Please try a batch of the Wonderful Salsa I posted and see what you think. It looks so simple but it is SO good and TNT by many. An efriend in Texas has Mexican-born coworkers begging him to make and sell them some made with jalapenos.

I made at least 4 or 5 different salsa recipes and was always disappointed until I found this one.

Haven't bought commercial salsa since – in …. oh gosh I think 4 years?????

Dede

chickypez said:

It finally boiled!  I put the lid on and it started boiling within about a minute.  Haha  But the instructions said to get it to a vigorous boil, THEN put on the lid, and I was really trying not to mess it up.  I finally decided that the A/C blowing directly on it was probably not helping and I needed to go ahead and put the lid on.  I got 4 jars, and 3 of the lids have popped so far.  It's fun!

I don't even have to write down the ingredients I put in – It's the way I've always made hot sauce, the same way my mom always made it.  The ingredients are engrained in my memory.  There just aren't any measurements.  It's kind of a “however much you feel like putting in” thing.  That's pretty much how I cook for the most part.  The good thing about it is all the tasting you get to do to see if it's right yet!

Great! And it IS fun! Yeah lid on helps LOL.

I am the same way with cooking but a few years ago I realized that maybe someone (like maybe my kids) might like to know how to make things that I cook and can that they really like. So often in the canning group we hear folks say that they LOVED (fill in the blank) but the recipe died with Grandma, Aunt Tillie, whomever. I am only 52 now, but decided a few years ago to document things I do for others to be able to do later if they wish.

I bought two neat binder "do it yourself" cookbooks from ABC/LTD Distributing and am doing one for each of my adult kids for Christmas with recipes that we have liked for years. Figure that it's good for them AND their partners to have. And can be added to. Their own new favs.

Your stuff sounds yum!

Care to share? LOL

Dede

I store mine in jars. Not canning jars if I can avoid it because I like to have them for canning, but I save jars with good tight fitting lids. Plastic mayo jars work well too. I have vac sealed some whose lids work for that. I finally started putting some of my more frequently used dried goodies in small jars near the stove and put the rest in bigger jars in the cellar room. Everything is keeping very well. You just have to be sure it's Very Dry before you store it. After I fill a jar with dried stuff I leave it on the counter a few days so I can watch for any signs of moisture – a couple of times I have had to put it back in the dehydrator…..

My favorite dried thingie is sliced green onions. Next would be red bell pepper as Kathy said. Oh and cabbage is great! And spinach too! I also have dried things just stored so that if fresh is not available, I have it dried.

I love my dehydrator too lol.

dede

On the spice bottles, it says to maintain freshness, store in cool dark place……..hmmm, they could be onto something!   I put my dried beans in jars on my north window sill in the kitchen (for prettiness) and I did notice my split green peas are no longer green, the side to the window is cream color and the side to the kitchen is green…..I now have split bicolor peas