Happy Homemaker Monday

Tomatoes are still rolling in.  I am thankful for that.  Bell peppers were picked but smaller than a typical harvest.

Several craft/fall festivals are happening, but I have zero time to participate.  I have created one new item while watching the canner pot.

Cute watermelon keyfobs.  I only got one made, but super cute.

Today I am joining Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom.

I will link up later when she posts.

The weather . . .

Rain.  Rain for the next two days.

As I look outside my window . . .

It's raining, and cloudy.

Right now I am . . . 

Making another pot of coffee, filling the canner pot, measuring and weighing tomatoes.

Thinking and pondering . . .

How much propane to pre-order, cleaning the living room to get the chimney swept soon, what I will can tomorrow with tomatoes, messaging the island store (they sold all of the camper ornaments I took over early summer), and packaging them this time.  I'm pretty sure we'll be gifting the kids canned tomato items this Christmas (they love tomato soup too).

How I am feeling . . .

So-so.  Overly busy.  

On the breakfast plate . . .

Most likely egg, cheese and sausage muffin sandwiches.  

What I am reading . . .

My canning recipes, ha ha!  

On the TV . . .

Mystery Channel

On the menu this week . . .

-sausage, green beans, onion and potato sheet pan
-chicken, broccoli sheet pan dinner
-possibly homemade corn dogs, I only make them once a year

Looking around the house . . .

Tomatoes!  Tomatoes everywhere!

To do list this week . . .

-can pizza sauce, more tomato sauce, more ketchup and tomato soup

-freeze bell peppers

-make a breakfast

-wash bedding

-water plants indoors

-laundry

There won't be much time for anything but making these tomatoes turn into something canned.

Something fun to share . . .

I bought two of the girls a fun pearl jewelry kit.   They had fun opening their mussel.  You make a wish before you open the can and then put your pearl inside the turtle.  Just something fun for them to do.

From the camera . . .

....from the garden yesterday.

Devotional . . .

I still have not found my devotional.  I need to put that on the to-do list too.

Canning Tomato Sauce (seasoned) and other tidbits

The recipe I used for the sweet chili sauce is online with Farmgirl's Dabbles. 

I got a half batch of tomato sauce canned (22 1/2#).  I canned a full batch one year all at once and swore I'd never do that again.  It was just so much work at once.  

I'll make another round if we have more tomatoes.  

I have another new recipe to try using tomatoes, so hopefully it will happen next week.  I know I will have more hot peppers too.

Hot Peppers ~ Sweet Chili Sauce ~ Hot Pepper Jelly ~ Lemon Seed Fail

 

It's been crazy busy around here.  I cooked a meal and delivered it to a family friend who had foot surgery, and we had to drive 3 hours to go pick up our truck keys.  Just strange all around, but we have the keys.  I just don't have the truck ha ha!

It is still in the body shop getting fixed from the deer hitting it.  I however, have not run out things to do.

Our hot peppers are doing exceptionally well this year.  The bell peppers however are still small and a small harvest.

I canned some sweet chili sauce - new recipe.  I cannot wait to taste it.

Canned hot pepper jelly. 

Taco sauce got canned.

I purchased Meyer lemon seeds from someone on Etsy.  I tried to sprout one all summer.  Every single seed was a dud.  Guess I'm spending a fortune next year on a plant.

It's getting difficult to not only budget other food we need, but to even find what we need.  Daughter E cannot find her cat's cat food anywhere.  I could not either.  She had to try a different brand and mix it with his usual.  Hope he's okay with it.  He's older. 

I needed some shout for the laundry.  I could not find that either.  I had to search around and found a different brand.

Some how, I misplaced my bulk bag of bay leaves.  I think they got lost when we tore out half the kitchen.  Anyway, I asked my husband to bring home a small jar for now.

He paid $12.49 for this!!!

The tomatoes are rolling in daily, so I apologize for blurps in blog posting right now.

Canning Continues

 I've been busy with tomatoes, and more are turning red now.  It's been a strange season.  The squash didn't produce a lot, and is now ready to get yanked.  Same with the cucumbers and green beans.

Some tomatoes are splitting open, and some rotting due to the weather we are having.  Not sure how much we will get this year.

Took advantage of needing jalapenos in the recipe, and saved seeds for next year.

Pickled Jalapenos ~ Freezing Jalapenos ~ Color Wheel

New recipe this year - pickled/canned jalapenos.  It not only eliminates the sugar, but the high priced pectin I use for cowboy candy.  I am sure we'll like it, and it cans so quickly.

I also froze a large pan of sliced jalapenos for meals over winter.  Tomatoes are slow to turn all at once.  Sort of frustrating, so I brought some in to turn red inside.  We'll see what gets canned next.

I finally bought myself a color wheel.  It will come in handy crocheting blankets to use up some yarn stash.

Putting up Tomatoes ~ Loofah

 

Tomato soup and ketchup canned so far.  I brought in more tomatoes.

I also brought in another pound of jalapenos, so I'm putting those up today.  I brought in a few more hot banana peppers, but all of the other types are slow to harvest this year.

My kitchen heated up to much, so the AC went back on.  I was literally sweating.  I didn't want to do that, but I do like to be comfortable.

Canning ketchup takes all day to reduce, but I managed to put chicken in the crockpot early, and right after the ketchup came out of the canner, I baked us some bell pepper fries with homemade dip.  So good!

My loofah plant is about 3 1/2 feet tall now.  I don't see any sponges yet.

Foggy Morning

 It's still been great being able to open windows, but today it will reach the 80's.  The garden will love it, but the tomatoes are starting to die already, and before all the tomatoes have turned red.  They are so far behind this year.  I may be bringing in green tomatoes to ripen inside.  Time will tell.

The to-do list continues, but today I will need to spot clean carpet upstairs in preparation to move stuff up there and out of the living room.  I'm so not ready for this, but it must be done.

My husband stopped by the free fair on his way home, to pick up my favorite French waffles. They had zero.  In fact, they had 3 food trucks and they were not even open (and no waffles).  Many food trucks went out of business in 2020.

I'll be checking tomatoes today again.  Tomato days in the kitchen are long days. Thank goodness for crock pots and leftovers.  

In between all the canning right now, I got on the computer and ordered us new keyfobs for the truck.  The hotel never called saying someone turned in our lost keys.  The other keyfob stopped working.  

I also booked some camping trips.  I'm am hoping we don't have rainy weekends if it all works out.  We still have to get a new fresh water cap, because we lost that too.  Not sure how, but it's not on the camper anymore.

My computer area in the kitchen has become my "craft" area.  I try and get a few small items made while reducing tomatoes on the stove.  My husband keeps making jokes about my yarn supply, so I'm trying to use up small stash right now.