Catching up, part II: Canning

Much like the rest of the world, E and I did a bunch of canning* over the summer. We bought all sorts of produce at the farmers' market*, and made it tasteless and potentially poisonous by boiling it under intense pressure in little glass jars. At one point we actually had so many cans to process at the same time we bought a giant pressure cooker that fits a whopping 10 quart jars or 20-odd pint jars, or something like that. (It's also supposed to produce chicken stock in around 20 minutes, but that doesn't consider the time it takes to build up or release the pressure. Still, a major time saver.) Thanks to a couple fantastic books, particularly this one, we had very easy, straightforward recipes to work with, and successfully (so far at least) canned diced tomatoes, roasted red peppers, corn, lima beans (a bit disgusting looking with all the starch floating around in the jar - at least we are hoping that's what it is), and really good salsa made from seconds bought on the cheap.

Before:
After:
Reminders for next year:

• We have already used all of our diced tomatoes -- could have done 10 quarts easily.
  
• Way fewer roasted peppers, or find some suckers to take them off our hands.
• Do some creamed corn as well as whole kernel; the most delicious thai shrimp soup in the world looks simply nasty with whole kernel corn and doesn't have as nice a texture. Or stop being lazy and use a blender.
  
• The salsa recipe (from the Ball book, I believe) could use more jalapenos and cilantro.