Can It, You Nit!

Props to anyone who knows where I stole that movie line.
Yes, I know it's actually bottling. But it's the perfect title for this post because if anyone asks me why I put up fruit and salsa every year, I have no good answer. It's usually cheaper to just buy a jar or can of whatever I'm making, especially when you figure in the cost of labor. I can only say that I do it because my mother does it and it just isn't fall without the smell of salsa lingering in the house and on your clothes for days and days. Right, Mom?

But just look at them there, looking so beautiful and tomato-ey. Don't you wish you had jars like this in your basement?This year I recruited Kelly as my assistant. We started after the kids were in bed, so around 8:00. I suggested that we just blanch, peel, and seed the tomatoes that night and save the rest for the next day. He said we could do it all in one night. I think he wanted to help because I usually make it too chunky for him and he wanted to control the Cuisinart. By midnight, he was singing a different tune. It sounded a lot like snoring.

But we finished and now we're salsa-fied!
18, count them, eighteen jars of salsa lined up ready to save us from the unlikely chance that all salsa companies will cease to produce or distribute this winter. And we'll be the only ones with salsa to spare. Just like the 10 virgins, but with jalapenos in our lamps (putting off heat and light, booyah).

And what were the kids doing while we recovered the next morning from all that salsa?

Well, Daisy took care of her own headache.
And Anna, doctor kit in tow, is preparing for a career in urban medicine.

[Kudos to "D," who, in one comment, successfully guessed "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and freaked me out.]