KITCHEN - I CAN do it - pickles, raspberries, and salsa

I've been travelling a lot lately in the past couple months - for work (Reno, Ely, Richfield) and pleasure (Victor, Wisconsin, Penticton) - but I've still managed to squeeze in some much needed spurts of frenzied canning.

Onions + cucumbers + vinegar/mustard seed/tumeric =

Pippi's Pickles!!! Special thanks to Rob's grandma for this delicious no-fail recipe.

Okay - onto some raspberries I jammed up into a fantastic raspberry plum jam. I'll have to take some after shots I suppose.

And batch #1 of salsa. I roasted 10 anaheim and 10 jalepeno peppers and this salsa still WAS NOT HOT. I'll have to go hunting around for the really hot peppers.

It wouldn't be the start of apple season without baking my award winning apple pie.

Special thanks to my fearless kitchen helper!

This is one of my very favorite times of year. I just LOVE all of the fresh, local produce available - not to mention my garden is brimming with goodies. Tomatoes, peppers, basil, butternut squash, and carrots have all done very well in our little plot. We have had to sacrifice the kohlrabi to the snails...

I am pretty sure that the rhubarb raspberry jam is my number 2.5 favorite jam ever - right behind strawberry freezer jam and tied with apricot. I will be sure to hoard this jam, just like the apricot I still have in the basement. Speaking of which, I ought to pull that out and eat it before the apricots really start showing up at the market. The rhubarab did not breakdown as I hoped, instead I processed it for about 5 seconds, got it boiling, then added the pectin and raspberries. This jam has a really vibrant color.

We are closing on our new house in 7 days and are very excited. Our current rental, while a nice place to have called home for 8 months, is becoming a pain in the behind. It's up for sale, meaning we have to leave the house in the evenings - with dogs in tow - so that people can come see the house. I would be much happier about the whole thing if we got something out of it - like a decrease in rent... Instead, we have to deal with a young realtor that is awfully unprofessional - requesting that we leave the house open rather than putting out a lock box. Lock box is now up per our insistence.

My first post

Welcome to my very first blog posting. I didn't think I would have a blog - at least not until we have children to brag about. Yet - here I am, ready to share my thoughts and activities with those who are interested in what I am up to on a regular basis. I am thinking pretty seriously about canning right now. The veggies and fruits are roaring into the Farmer's Market here in SLC. Tomorrow I am trying my hand at rhubarb raspberry jam. I've got the rhubarb chopped up and soaking in some lemon juice and sugar overnight. I have never made anything with rhubarb and thought I've give it a go - mainly because I have been steering clear of that wacky vegetable due to it's uncanny likeness to my least favorite veggie, the big C - I cannot even bring myself to type the word.

I am not sure if I'll have to process the rhubarb before I add the raspberries or if it'll lose it's structure when I cook it - we will see tomorrow. I have already put in an emergency canning call to Lisa concerning the amount of sugar the recipe call for - far too much for my taste so I am going to cut it in half and see how that works - also, I am going to put in 4xs the raspberries - so I suppose I am not really following a recipe at this point...