Oooops!
Guess what happens when writing a blog takes one away from the stove.
The pot isn't quite so full now.
Yucky mess.Well, with that cleaned up, and everything under control once more, the phone rang and my daughter wanted me to go to Costco with her. I turned everything on low, and left Mr. Granny in charge. I kept my fingers crossed that the large crockpot would hold together until its batch of sauce was finished. I had noticed a fine crack in the crock, and it has gone all the way through the to the bottom but not up the sides. It looks like a new crockpot is in my future. That's one appliance I wouldn't want to be without.
The pot of apple butter that I was cooking yesterday gave me five pints. I'd love to make more, but the jar situation is getting really bad around here, and I really don't think I want to buy more of them. I rummaged through cupboards this morning, and found probably enough pint jars for today's tomato sauce, and I have a few more quart jars for juice. After that, if I can't find room in the freezer, I'll have to give most of the tomatoes away.
The pot of apple butter that I was cooking yesterday gave me five pints. I'd love to make more, but the jar situation is getting really bad around here, and I really don't think I want to buy more of them. I rummaged through cupboards this morning, and found probably enough pint jars for today's tomato sauce, and I have a few more quart jars for juice. After that, if I can't find room in the freezer, I'll have to give most of the tomatoes away.
Wow, that's a well loved crock to crack like that. Get one with a temperature gauge. Those are really fancy pants. Then again, you could get three normal ones for that price and make three batches at once.
ReplyDeleteUh-Oh! Time to put Jars on the Christmas and B-Day list! Can't be running out of those!
ReplyDeleteDon't turn me in to the canning police, but I'm starting to reuse commercial jars and lids -- things like jam jars, pickle jars, etc. I see on British blogs all the time people doing this and not dying, so you know, I'm giving it a shot.
ReplyDeleteUnlike yours, my tomatoes continue to pout without ripening.
Oh Granny, your house must smell just amazing with all these yummies cooking!
ReplyDeleteRibbit, ya, I think I'll go for a couple of normal ones. Heck, my 3 quart one was the Rival Super Bowl edition, green with the yard markings and a brown football lid. Got it on sale at Shopko for $6, and it works like a dream!
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Apple Pie Gal, I have too much canned stuff left from last summer! If I ever get all these jars emptied, I'd never fill them all again. I bought four dozen new ones last month, but they're all full. I don't know how many dozen I bought last year....there's no room in my house to put more filled jars!
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Stefaneener, I did that with a couple of spaghetti sauce jars last year, but I only used them for jam, and I opened them first. The price of lids is just getting ridiculous, especially wide mouth. I think they were $2.49 for 12 lids.
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Meemsnyc, it did smell good last night, with the apple butter cooking. Today it just smells like tomatoes. I should say tonight...my last batch won't come out of the canner until after midnight :-(
I will have my eye out for an immersion blender now! My tomatoes are just at the beginning stage of ripening, this year is taking forever......and rain today! I never though of making tomato sauce in the crock, i make my apple butter in it though, i will be giving that a shot.
ReplyDeleteYou are a canning tornado! My entire kitchen looks like that stove stove when I am canning. Sadly, I have yet to do one single bit of canning yet this year. Everything has been freezer items so far. I think the first thing will be the dill pickle relish as the cucumbers are really starting to produce now - and I expect to have enough by next weekend to do my favorite recipe. It certainly won't be tomatoes, I am getting one or two a week still and the big patch looks to be weeks away from really ripening up. It's becoming questionable whether I will get anything - but if I do - it will be a fall processed crop.
ReplyDeleteAngie, the tomato sauce took forever in the crockpots! I turned them up to high, but it still took about 12 hours. I suggest you put yours on before you go to bed, so it can cook all night :-)
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Kitsap, I'm getting real close to never wanting to see another tomato again, and I've not even picked 1/4 of what I picked last year. In about a dozen more jars, I will be finished with them. They'll go out to the curb to be picked up by passersby!
Granny, I'm the immersion blender reminder LOL! Glad I could help you for a change - I'm always the one running to look up one of your posts! Sorry about that crock pot, I couldn't do without mine, either, such a basic simple and NECESSARY part of the preserving kitchen! I never have enough jars either!
ReplyDeleteI was talking to my neighbor this morning. He says his oldest sauce in the basement is from 2007. He has 57 quarts of it right now. Can you believe that? And he has the biggest stack of tomatoes on his table outside. I think I'll stick to my little operation. I make enough for what I think I will eat in a year and then quit. I've already stopped making pickles. I wonder what I'll do with all those cucumbers now.
ReplyDeleteGranny, "The Italian" and I always use the immersion blender. It's a great kitchen tool! You can stick it in a jar of tomatoes and make a great Bloody Mary!
ReplyDeleteI was almost out of pint jars also this week. Then I found 4 dozen on Craigs list for $12 and my best friend found me another 3 dozen at an auction for $2. If you lived a little closer....like 3000 miles. I would give you some.
That apple butter looks so good! I bet it be very nice in apple muffins or cake. Bummer about the crock pot. We have a really old one and it cooks very well. My sister has a new one and it burns stuff, seems they forget to make it a slow cooker.
ReplyDeleteErin, I thought it was you, but when I did a searches for "immersion" and "stick" on your blog, it brought up nothing! I thought I was losing it ;-) A big thank you for the tip.
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Daphne, that's going to be the story with my pickles, they'll still be under the bed in 2015! I did get a bit carried away last year, and that's why I'm out of jars. I really don't want to buy any more, as I don't have room for them, and if half of mine were empty I'd have too many!
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LOL, Robin! What are we, 3005 miles apart or somethin'? My neighbor, Pat, offered me some about a month ago, and I said all I needed were half-pints, which she didn't have. Now I need pints and quarts, and she's given them all away :-(
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Dan, I'll be sure to buy another Rival. I have always had really good luck with them. The cracked one is a West Bend Crockery, and it's been a good one, too. I think I have two Rivals in my AZ kitchen, but they are smaller ones. The large oval is so nice for stews and pot roasts, and I cook all of Annie's and Otto's chicken in it each week. I'd be lost without it.