Canning in the Eye of the Storm

This is Don going through the neighbor's pasture to get my holstien, Mooser.  He escaped and he wasn't the only one this morning.
We got a wake up call from the neighbor that our client's horse was in the lane.  He had bowed the gate in half, so after we got him contained, we had to drive over the gate to straighten it out.
He bred my filly, by the way, so now I will be going to the vet first thing tomorrow for a shot to keep her from having a foal.
That is, right after I go to get my dog out of the pound. Don and Joel stopped at the Mini Mart to get gasoline, and apparently she jumped out.  They fixed fence all morning assuming she was sleeping in the stall barn where she always is, and then realized she must have bailed at the gas station.  By the time they came back, she was already in the pound.
She had a bath the night before, so she didn't have a collar on.  We will be looking at not only dog at large, but no tags or city licence fines too.  Oh joy.
All week long I have been canning like a fiend.  I did 40 pints of tomatoes with onion, garlic and basil.  The recipe is in the new Ball book.

Diced tomatoes with onion, garlic and fresh basil

I also am working through twenty five pounds of carrots.  I made glazed carrots with part of them.  It is a pressure canned recipe but it is very simple.

Glazed Orage Carrots

Peeled carrots cut to size for pint jars

to each pint add:

1 t frozen orange concentrate

2 T brown sugar

1 scant slice of butter

fill jars up with boiling water leaving 1" headspace

wipe the top of the jars, and adjust rings and lids.  Process 25 minutes at 15 pounds pressure (at 5000 ft elevation).  

I got sixteen pints out of the carrots so far, and still have half of them left to can.  I will do them plain with the addition of marjoram and pressure can them.  I have a huge pressure canner, and I  can do sixteen pints at one time, so it shouldn't take too much longer.

Orange Glazed Carrots

I had about four pints of diced tomatoes left from the other canning, so when I cleaned out the fridge yesterday, I added some sliced jalapenos and other ingredients to make a canner load of salsa.  We love salsa, so it is always a welcome addition to my pantry.  I didn't use a recipe, just mixed equal parts of tomatoes with equal parts of onion and sliced jalapenos (fresh ones).  I added chopped celery, lime juice, cider vinegar, a whole bunch of fresh cilantro including the stems chopped finely, smoked paprika, cumin, and 1 t canning salt.  I added 2 small cans of tomato paste, and brought it to a boil.  Ladled into hot jars, leaving 1/2 inch headspace and processed 15 minutes in a boiling water bath.  I was secretly hoping that one jar wouldn't seal, so we would have to eat it.  

Tomato Jalapeno Salsa

So, it's back to the kitchen again to finish up the carrots, and then I'll be working on the fresh Strawberries I got yesterday.  I already have them hulled and ready to go, just need to make some jam.  MMmmmm...it smells good when you boil jam.  

I hope it will lift some spirits when they come back from fixing fence.