Storing

I've always joked I'm part squirrel, because I love to "squirrel" things away.  I've got a tendency towards pack-ratty-ness, but thankfully nothing Hoarder level.

I think this is why canning appeals to me so much.  I've got the opportunity to take too much of something (like too many tomatoes, too many peppers, etc) and turn it in to something I can store and use later- salsa, canned tomatoes, stew fixings, etc.

Imagine how excited I am right now to have a bag of apples, a carving pumpkin and five pie pumpkins sitting on my dining room table, waiting to be stored. 

I'm expecting to use most of the pumpkins to can pumpkin pie filling- that way when I want to make one, I have it already cooked and spiced- voila! Tim has guilted me in to making some more apple butter, so that takes care of the apples.

However- I've got something new to can that is making me all kinds of excited:

French Onion Soup!  That's one of those things that is yummy, but can be a pain to make, between cutting the onions, caramelizing them, etc- plus you end up making too much and you mess up a lot of dishes, spoons, etc.

I'm planning on making a big batch of the soup and canning it in to more manageable portions (sans cheese and croutons of course), so any time we want some, we can just eat it up and eat. Look for that post soon.

Canning is definitely a good way to direct my "storing" tendencies.  It leads to less mess, less clean up and more good food for us! Yum yum.

-Kristen