Canning Salsa

Today I managed to can some salsa.

Our little garden has been producing a good amount of tomatoes and peppers, which is good since that is pretty much all we planted.

Last year it seemed like canning salsa took me most the day and was a tedious task with chopping everything.

Well this year I decided to enlist some help.

I had around 3 options of food choppers and decided on the Ninja

I liked that it had a few different options and was willing to give it a try.

The verdict is...I love it! 

It saved me lots of time (like half of what it took me last year) and although it wouldn't work for chunky salsa, it could handle a whole bell pepper, cut into strips, with no problem.

So my salsa recipe has been a work in progress for the last 3 or so years.

I kind of wanted a recipe that was basic, easy, slightly sweet, not spicy (but I do have a spicy one for my husband), and could mostly come from my garden.

We don't typically grow any onion or garlic, so I plan to purchase those and I will buy a yellow and orange bell pepper to add some color (and because I like the sweetness of them more than green but it seems like they don't want to grow in my garden.)

Anyway...

My recipe is:

10 Cups Chopped tomatoes

3 medium to large Chopped Green Bell peppers (BP)

1 Yellow BP, chopped

1 orange BP, chopped

1 red BP, chopped

1 & 1/2 medium to large Onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced (finely chopped)

1/4 C Sugar

3/4 C Apple Cider Vinegar

3 Tbsp Canning salt

Combine all into a pot, bring to a rolling boil for 20 minutes

Jar

Hot water bath process 15 minutes

Yield: 8 Pint Jars

Done!

Here are a few pictures from my process:

So here is my salsa just getting warmed and ready to boil 

I also fill my hot water caner and get that water going since it takes a while to heat up. 

When the salsa has about 10 minutes left to boil, I put my lids in a sauce pan of hot water. 

With 1 minute left in the boiling process, I pull my jars out of the sink in which they are sitting in hot water (having been recently washed) and line them up near my salsa.

Using my handy jar funnel and ladle I fill the jars. 

I wipe off the jar rims, put on the lids and rings, then...

Once my hot water caner starts to boil, I put the jars on the rack (make sure you have something between the jars and the bottom of the pot) 

and drop the jars in and make sure they are fully submersed, then process.

Resulting in some yummy salsa.

One more batch and I will have almost a years worth.

Hope my garden keeps producing and I will even make a spicy batch for my husband!

Pick me!

So I have been secretly following this photography blog called "Clickin Moms."
They have really great information and I love being inspired by the photographers who also call themselves mom.  I would love to be at their level one day...
BUT for now I am just wanting to win a spot in one of their upcoming seminars.
Lisa Harrison and Natural lighting 101 please pick me!!
http://www.clickinmoms.com/blog/lighting-101-a-cmu-natural-light-workshop-giveaway/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ClickinMomsBlog+%28ClickinMoms+Blog%29

Mental Vacation

I am having a really hard time getting back to everyday life after my 3 week vacation. 

I spent 3 weeks out of town, hitting 13 different states (if only on the road traveling through!) putting LOTS of miles on my car and creating lots of memories. 

I was with my kids, my parents, and their dog. Well...for 5 days I was with my husband but then met up with my parents and my husband returned home. Then we were with some other family for another one of those weeks.

It was nice to not have to worry about my "home" responsibilities.  So nice that I am having a hard time getting back in the swing of things.

I have heard of needing a vacation after a vacation, but I need an overhaul! 

Maybe tomorrow, since it is my normal lazy and relaxing day, will have to be a mental adjustment that will get me back on track.

No Bake Garlic Bread

Tonight we had spaghetti for dinner and I had purchased a loaf of wheat french bread yesterday with intent to make garlic bread.

However, the idea of turning on the oven when it was over 100 degrees today was not something I wanted.

So I decided to be creative and see if just putting it outside in the sun would do the trick. (Thanks PBS and Curious George for the idea of using solar energy)

I made my garlic butter, cut the loaf in half, smeared on the butter, put the two halves back together, then wrapped it in tinfoil, placed it on the hood of the car (which was in the sun) and...

20 minutes later we had warm, buttery garlic bread. 

It was not quite crisp on the outside like the oven would have done, but it was warm and the butter had melted into the bread quite nicely.

So if you have a hankering for garlic bread but don't want to turn on the oven, use the SUN!

A Treadmill workout

 

 

My motivation to workout has been hit and miss. 

Some days I am highly motivated but then when I get going I loose it and don't last very long.  Other days I struggle and battle to get going, and if I manage to (which I don't always) then I get going and I get in a really good workout. 

Who knows why and what the solution is. 

I know what your thinking...okay maybe I don't, but a solution IS needed because I LOVE the way I feel when the workout is done and I also don't self deprecate myself for what I eat or for being lazy when I have worked out...even if it is only 10 minutes.
Also is is 5K season around where I live and I like to sign me and my husband up...to keep us motivated to run/stay active.

Well thanks to pinterest and the "www" I have found a couple good treadmill workouts, which made me think that maybe I should share the workouts I create/created.  Not to brag or to show off but maybe because it will help someone else with their humdrum days with working out. Also maybe this way I will write them down and can reuse them and save myself the stress of "creating" a workout.

Most of my treadmill workouts will take/last around 30 minutes...they just kind of tend to work out that way. 

Here is the workout I did today.

Time	Speed	Incline
0-1	7.5	2
1-2	4.0	2
2-4	7.5	2
4-5	4.0	2
5-8	7.7	2
8-9	4.0	2
9-13	7.5	2
13-14	4.0	2
14-19	7.7	1
19-20	4.0	1
20-26	7.5	1
26-27	4.0	1
27-30	8.0	1
Cool Down

Now let me tell you that the treadmill speed can be varied according to what you would normally jog at.  Also you can easily make any workout harder or easier by adjusting the incline.  My personal recommendation is that you always have a 1.0 incline because -it makes up for natural resistance you would have if you ran outside.
This particular workout is supposed to be right around your normal jog pace (i.e. 7.5 is mine)
I like to slowly increase speed so that my jog pace will get faster...someday...at least it is at the end of one day
I did not write in a warm-up, probably because I don't.  Or I seldom do.  I will just use the 1 minute walk period to stretch something if it feels tight. 
I do however (almost always) stretch at the end of my workouts.

If you try it and like it/hate it, leave a comment and let me know.
I will try and post more workouts when I create one or use an old one and think it is worthy of passing along.

Oh and P.S. I have little ones at home and so I tend to use the treadmill to train because it is really hard to get outside that often but when I do I usually just run without much thought or script.

Can't get enough

Lately I can't get enough of photography related learning and practice. It is like a virus that I can't shake. Not that it is bad to learn how to be a better photographer, but when I sit down to look at something photography related (like a tutorial or a photography website), I am finding myself looking for way longer then I my allotted time..."Oh it's dinner time already!"

This past weekend we had a family get together and I was able to pretty much have my camera attached to my hand...it was great! Since being home I feel like I am having withdrawals from taking pictures. My kids are getting tired of the camera and I am lacking other subjects. I guess I will just have to be patient for the clients and strict with my allotted photography browsing time!

Maybe turning some of my old pictures into "Styrofoam canvas prints" or DIY "canvas prints" will help take my mind off taking new pictures!?!

Motivation

Lately my motivation for certain things has been minimal.  I seem to get them done, but kind of last minute.  At the end of the day I am finding myself wondering how or why I didn't get more accomplished.  I know that some days it is because I spent time doing things with my kids (which can never be wrong) like taking them to the park, playing outside, etc., but other times I feel like I spent it reading/browsing things relating to my hobby.  Maybe this is the hard part with 3, learning to balance things. Or maybe it is because I had 2 months where there were big projects that I had to do and getting them done made me feel accomplished, so now I'm back to the everyday things and so even when I get them done, it's just not anything special.
I guess it is time to try find new motivation for the same old things!  Especially because I know that as my kids get older there will be many more outside activities that they will be involved in and that means even less time spent at home.