It's so caliente!

My garden has never produced in huge numbers. I've always had 1 or 2 tomatoes at a time and that was enough to keep me from buying tomatoes throughout the summer. This Spring, a friend told me to plant 2 tomato plants per cage. You get twice the tomatoes but not twice the foliage somehow. This summer, my tomato plants are going berserk and I felt inclined to make some salsa!

Maxine, my huge helper, is always ready to help in the kitchen. We put Jack and Juliet down for a nap and started working.

The bounty-I have lots of cherry tomatoes as well. I threw them in too. Is "threw" a word?? One green pepper came in from the garden too.

Since it's 105 outside and my A/C is always struggling to keep up, I decided to put the water bath canner outside on the grill's side burner. The sledge hammer was an essential support because the canner was HEAVY with all that water. All the heat stayed outside! I'm never canning inside again! That was the best!

The result: 4 pints of delicious salsa! I spent $.47 on another green bell pepper and $.32 on jalepenos. The onions and tomatoes came from the garden. I already had the lids so I think $.79 for 8 cups of salsa is pretty worth it!

This is my favorite canning book! Every recipe for canning you could ever dream of or imagine from spiced apple chutney to habanero jelly. If it can be preserved in a bottle, you'll find a recipe for it. Plus a complete guide to canning if you've never done it before. Can you believe it'll be August tomorrow????