Canning Addiction

Sweet pickle spears - oh yum!

Absolutely the most divine bbq sauce

Pickled tomatos - so pretty!

Salsa and hiding behind in the quart
jars is roasted roma tomatos

I've become addicted to canning. It's just so fun that I can't stop myself. Last Friday, I made sweet pickle spears, roasted roma tomatos and garlic, and salsa. Saturday morning I made pickled cherry tomatos with garlic and rosemary. And Sunday afternoon, Michele and I made barbecue sauce. I just love the whole process from planting to harvesting to preparing to cooking to canning to enjoying the fruits of my labor! This weekend I have a craft show to visit (not vending just supporting friends), our church picnic, another church event tomorrow, and I'd like to wedge some canning in there tomorrow afternoon. I don't even know what I want to can, but it will probably be variety #4/5 of pickles (I've already made bread and butter, garlic dill, sweet pickle spears, and relish (though I don't know if that counts as a pickle variety, hence the 4/5)). I plan to do either kosher dill or a zesty sweet - I'm really leaning towards a zesty sweet this week and a potential kosher dill next week if I can harvest more pickling cukes. Like I said, it's an addiction!

Green Goodness

I've been busily working away to prepare for my show, but I've taken lots of time out to enjoy the lovely weather and to make yummy food for myself (and Michele, if she's home). Recently, I made the most delicious Spinach Soup. I grabbed a recipe card from the grocery store and made this super easy, super delicious soup in about 15 minutes! I've found the recipe online to share it with you all as well. Oh, it's so good. I added a dash (or five) of cayenne pepper to give it a kick & it put it over the top. Just a note of a couple changes I made, if you do decide to use the recipe I've linked here:

1. I used vegetable stock, instead of chicken stock (of course).
2. I used Mrs. Dash and salt instead of the special seasoning salt the recipe called for (personally, I love Mrs. Dash and use it in place of pretty much every seasoning called for in savory recipes!).
3. I added the aforementioned cayenne pepper.
4. I omitted the poached egg that adorns the soup when finished.

If you decide to make it, please let me know how you like it! I felt like I was eating liquid sunshine (albeit GREEN liquid sunshine)!