Then We Made Salsa. Then Pepper Jelly.

OH. MY. GOSH. I'm somewhat obsessed with canning. I knew this was going to happen. My mom brought me two huge trays of tomatoes from her garden this morning. That resulted in canning all day. Whoops!

So here's the recipe we came up with for making salsa. It's loosely based on one my mom gave me and a few others we found off of the internet.

Ingredients

• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 1/2 C onions
• 2 large bell peppers, seeds and membranes removed
• 2 C jalapenos (or other varieties of hot peppers) seeds and membranes removed
• 12 C tomatoes
• 1/2 of a bunch of fresh cilantro, chopped
• 2 C white vinegar
• 2 cans tomato paste
• 2 T sugar
• 3 t salt
• 3 T fresh oregano, chopped
• 4 T cumin

Directions

1. Chop all tomatoes, garlic, onions, bell peppers, jalapenos, cilantro, and oregano. One recipe says just to use a food processor for everything, but I wanted somewhat chunky tomatoes. So I hand-chopped.
2. Put everything into a large stock pot.
3. Cook until the salsa is boiling, stirring occasionally. We let it boil for about 15 minutes because it was too watery to begin with.
4. Take off heat and pour into sterilized canning jars. Make sure the rim is totally clean and free of any debris, as well as the lid.
5. Pressure cook! (We still haven't bought a pressure cooker, but we borrowed my parents...) I recommend checking with the manual that comes with the pressure cooker for precise instructions if you've never done this.

Then we decided, "Well hey, since we're already canning, let's just make some pepper jelly, too!" Here's that (even easier) recipe:

Ingredients

• 3 1/2 C finely chopped bell peppers (any color) seeds and membranes removed
• 1/2 C finely chopped jalapenos, seeds and membranes removed
• 1 C apple cider vinegar
• 3 1/2 T pectin
• 5 C white sugar

Directions

1. Chop all peppers with a food processor and place in a sauce pan over high heat.
2. When peppers begin to simmer, stir in vinegar and pectin. Bring to a full rolling boil, stirring regularly. Once full boil is reached, stir in sugar. Keep on high heat and bring to a full rolling boil again, still stirring regularly.
3. Once rolling boil is reached, boil for one minute while stirring constantly. 
4. Remove from heat and skim off foam. Transfer into sterilized canning jars and make sure rim and lid is totally clean. Screw on lids.
5. Put in water bath with water covering most of the glass of the jars. Bring to a boil. Once boiling, keep in water bath for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand for a few minutes to cool.

Everyone needs to try this. It's so fun, it's so fulfilling, and it makes for pretty pictures of your pantry shelves!