Beans and corn and corn and corn and beans

Sweet Corn - temperatures so hot the camera kept fogging up - but how cute is my little helper?!

So the garden has come in and in a big way. Every year about this time, gardening... vegetable gardening that is, becomes hard work and makes me want to give up quit and just buy grocery store food. Between the mosquitoes that think I'm a free all-you-can-eat smorgasbord for them and my sensitive skin blistering up from just rubbing against the leaves and weeds it's been a trying season.

Especially like the last couple days. I've picked beans, snapped beans, canned beans and they never end. Hours and hours of beans. Yesterday in the sweltering 98 degrees (F) with heat indexs of about 105+ we picked corn, cut down the corn, schucked the corn blanched the corn and wrapped each cob in Saran wrap and then froze the corn.

Today... still more corn to schuck, blanch and this time cut the corn with this blood thirsty little machine that sliced me up good all to get the kernels off and then freeze for creamed corn (but don't freeze the bloody corn). Now the dang beans need to be picked again. I feel like Jack and the Beanstalk, only it's the beans that just keep coming and coming. Oh and guess what I'm doing Thursday (today technically after I go to bed and wake up)... you guessed it, more corn. Plus, the tomatoes are just coming in too so that means salsa and canning tomatoes and maybe some sauce. Wow, no wonder I've got no time for creating any new art!

Yeah, yeah I can hear you all now saying Dang... she's crazy! Well, yes. Yes I am. I've turned into Psycho Suzie Homemaker haha... living off the land but bitchin' about it the whole time. But come December when I'm cracking open those jars of home grown green beans and heating up that sweet corn that tastes like I just picked it I'll be feeling pretty good about myself... haha.  Not to mention munching tortilla chips with my to die for Dee-licious Salsa! Yummy! see it here cooking

Jaime's Dee-Licious Salsa
Makes 8 pints + a half pint to eat right then! ;oP


Ingredients:
9 cups tomatoes, peeled, chopped and drained (I don't bother seeding, but you can)
2 1/2 cups onions, chopped
1 1/2 cups green peppers
1 cup jalapeno pepper, chopped
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tablespoon cumin
2 teaspoons pepper
1/8 cup canning salt
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup vinegar ( I like apple cider vinegar)
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
1 (12 ounce) can tomato paste

Mix all together and bring to a slow boil for 10 minutes. I can it and I've also froze it in jelly jars with great results. It smells divine and you'll have to beat off the people with a big stick to get them to leave you alone trying to get you to make more. But believe me, you'll wanna make more.

Morning glory evening

Yesterday I made yet another batch of salsa. Holy cow, I've got tomatoes coming out of my ears and this didn't even make a dent in what I've got in buckets and on the counter. I can't bear to let any go to waste and I'm getting those acid sores on the inside of my mouth from eating so many. Even with all the freezing, canning and eating sadly, I still have some rotting and ugh... leaking.. on my counter. Enter the knats or fruit flies, whatever they're called, they are annoying and about to push my dh over the edge. Dare I say it... I think I planted too many tomato plants. Hi my name is Jaime and I'm a tomato plant addict. all together now... "Hi Jaime..."

On another note, I got out and snaped shots of my garden in the evening after salsa was done and Asher made pies in the humidity. Humidity pies, you know, you grab the air push it around make a nice dough out of it. Make sure to ring it out... ha ha.. My hair was nice and curly then I went outside and now I have a giant fuzz ball on my head living up to the nickname my husband gave me "Bush woman". oyi. In the winter I'll be complaining that my curls now are flat hanging pieces of rope from my head. I can't win. But I still try :)

Salsa Saturday

Well it's actually Sunday, but I made salsa on Saturday but was too tired to write about it. I made a double batch of my DEE-Licious homemade salsa, medium heat, that made 15 pints plus two half pints. I guess it's med. heat. I put in 2 cups of jalapeno's, isn't that med? My mother in law took a taste and nearly fell on the floor, but she's got a whimpy heat-o-meter. My kid on the other hand is like me and slurps up the hot stuff. I usually just freeze it, but the old freezer is full from my ever-producing garden! So I canned it. Probably will be better this way, cause I can eat it whenever and not have to remember to lug myself down to the basement to get a jar and then wait forever for it to thaw to get the yummy goodness. If you have never made salsa and you like salsa, DO IT! It is easy and soooo much better than store bought. I will never buy another jar again. I'm willing to share my recipe if anyone is interested. I actually have two favorite recipes, but I can't seem to find one of them. I think my clutter is procreating behind my back, literally.

I've also tossed in a picture of my baby's first black eye! He actually got it at church last Sunday, he said a little girl pushed him. I told him that he had better get used to women pushing him around ;)