A little update

Last week was a busy week for me. I'm still trying to juggle my current ER job and start my new business. I'm really looking forward to October because I only picked up 2 4-hour shifts in the ER to give me more time to focus on the business. So hopefully I get some clients. Having a business is kind of fun in some ways, my company bought me a new super cool cell phone and I also got a new printer/fax machine/scanner. It's kind of stressful in other ways though, for example, the monthly expenses far exceed the monthly income right now, but I am confident that this is only a short term problem.

This weekend I got a bushel of peaches from my cousin-in-law down the road and my sister Natalie was here too, and brought some pears she picked from a tree in her yard. She had the idea to make fruit cocktail... so after a belated birthday celebration for her at Sophia's house of pancakes, Natalie and Francie came over to my house to get to work.

We made 24 jars of fruit cocktail and 21 jars of peach jam.

There were 2 casualties of the day though. I decided to save the peach nectar after we were done with the peaches, so I poured it into a quart jar and was holding it in my hand to tighten the lid when it slipped out of my hand... fell to the floor... burning my arm... chipping my tile floor... spilling a full quart of sticky peach nectar all over the kitchen floor. Let's just say both Natalie and Francie were really glad it was me that did that and not them!

The other casualty of the day is that when we were all done with our 3 batches of peach jam, and were cleaning the kitchen, we found one unopened box of sure-jell. So that means one batch isn't really jam, but just peaches and sugar. So today I get to figure out which 7 jars that is and re-do them. FUN, FUN. I guess that is what happens when you have 3 people trying to make jam. We all assumed someone else put it in.

Anyway, when I was putting the pictures of the peaches on the computer, I noticed that Francie had gotten a hold of my camera since I'd checked it last. I love it when she does this, usually she uses her own camera and then I miss out, but I guess she must have forgotten hers, cause she used mine. Here are a few pictures she took of Tony, who by the way, is so cute these days. He is like my little puppet, he will do or say whatever I do or say first. If you do a stupid dance, he will too, if you laugh really loud or obnoxious he does too, cough, sneeze whatever, he will mimic you. It is really cute. And since I haven't done a blog post just about him, I will tell you a few things about him.

His favorite TV show is Barny, he LOVES LOVES LOVES it! Can't get enough of it, when it comes on he screams BARNY!! and jumps up and down. Don't touch him or talk to him when he is watching it or he will get mad and push you away.

He only eats vegetables in the raw, but will pick up a cucumber, tomato, pepper or any other vegetable and just start eating it like an apple. Until he's done that is, and then he just throws it on the floor and Brewster (the dog) finishes it.

He loves to be outside or at work with his daddy, Todd has to sneak out of the house every morning because Tony gets so mad when he leaves without him. If he even suspects Todd is getting ready to leave he runs to him and grabs onto his leg. He could sit in the truck or tractor all day if you let him. He has lots of toys and tractors in the garage to play with when he's stuck at home with mommy, but they don't even come close to the excitement of going to work with dad.

Okay, it's 8am and I hear Tony awake upstairs so I better wrap this up.

Yes, I know, he needs a hair cut.

Electric tomato saucer, the envy of every canner!

Every year for the past 3 years I have been making spaghetti sauce with a friend from work. She is Italian and has a really good recipe from her Italian grandma that we use. She also has an herb garden, so I bring the tomatoes and peppers and she supplies the basil and oregano and we make spaghetti sauce. Every year it turns out a little different, but every year it also seems to get better. Last years batch was my absolute favorite and I ran out way too early in the year. So this year we will have to make even more. Last year I even had a second day of making sauce with my sister Rachael, and it turned out really good too, so her and I are also going to make some, and we're hoping to get our other sister Francie to help out this year. The more help the faster it goes, but then you have to divide the sauce 3 ways, but in the end, the extra help is better, because it's a long, all day process. Throw 5 kids into that mix and it gets even harder.

Anyhow, this year things are going to be so much easier and faster because my father in law bought an electric tomato saucer. He's been talking about getting one for a few years, but I never thought he was serious, until this arrived at his house the other day. I couldn't wait to take it out of the box and put it together. I think it is for professionals, because the directions were minimal on assembly and there were no directions on how to use, so I just had to figure it out. I took it home the next day to my house to try it out. Granted he didn't buy it for me, he bought it for himself, but I sort of just helped myself to it, with the intent on making him a few batches of sauce in exchange for letting me use it for all my sauce making days ahead.

I had my sister Francie come over to help me, she was pretty excited to try it out too, until I told her the sauce wasn't for us. But she agreed to help anyway, knowing that we would soon be making sauce for ourselves.

The first time was a bit messy and a little trial and error to get the process down. Luckily it was the day before my housekeeper came, so she cleaned up the mess for me the next day. Anyway, I had to stand on a stool to feed the tomatoes in because the sauce machine was so tall, and we had to put the pot on top of boxes to catch the sauce underneath the drip pan. So Francie washed the tomatoes and I fed them into the machine. It made the sauce super fast. The way I have been doing it for the last 3 years is with a plastic hand crank saucer that suctions to the counter top and by the end of the day my arms are killing me. This is much easier and faster.

After you have a full pot of sauce you bring it to a boil and let it cook down for a bit and then ladle it into hot jars. I first washed the jars in the dishwasher, then put them in the oven at 175 degrees to keep them hot. This saves you from having to process the sauce in a hot water bath. HUGE TIMESAVER! (thanks for the tip mom)Each jar gets a teaspoon of salt and a few basil leaves and then the rims wiped clean, a hot lid put on and that's it. Just wait for it to pop so you know it seals. It usually takes an hour or so for the lid to pop. We made 18 jars the first night, and then the next day we did it again, and made 36 jars in just 2 hours from start to finish. This is how my father in law likes his tomatoes, he prefers to flavor it when he makes it. I prefer to make the sauce ready to eat before canning so all I have to do is open a jar and pour over noodles. So when I make my sauce it will take a little bit longer. But still the saucer is going to save me tons of time. Today when Todd was home for lunch I said something about how the sauce was for his dad and he said "what? your not keeping it for yourself?" I said no, I like to flavor the sauce before canning so it's ready to eat. He said "Oh, I thought you finally figured out that this [the way his dad does it] is the way your supposed to do it." I guess he is partial to his dad's sauce recipe. I haven't tried it because it has meat in it, but if it's anything like his vegetarian eggplant sauce he makes (which I am trying to convince him to give me, so I can make a big batch and can it), I can't say I blame him.