underestimation

It began in the Spring with 24 tomato plants

On Thursday, after having picked all the red and

nearly red ones out of my garden

I determined to cook and can salsa.

Despite being a complete novice at both cooking and canning and

despite being short a car for the week.

I borrowed a recipe from my sister. I bought jars (I even used coupons!).

This was my prep day so I read the recipe to make sure I had all I needed.

22 pounds of tomatoes?!?

I had a lot of tomatoes but I was certain I didn’t have 22 pounds.

And how was I to measure their weight anyway?

Plus I’d need some peppers.

So it was on to the U-pick farm for peppers (and more tomatoes).

Except I didn’t make it there until Friday morning,

after having driven Joe to work and

picking up a kitchen scale that could measure to

exactly (you guessed it) 22 pounds!

After a long hour in the hot sun, and enthusiastic toddler "help"

we had nearly one full box

We paid our $7, grabbed a slushy and ran home to start chopping.

Did I mention that I have a glass top stove?

glass top and canning don't mix

I would have to use my in-laws’ kitchen.

First I would chop everything at my house while the kids napped.

I anticipated arriving at the canning kitchen by 2 pm Friday.

But I underestimated how long it would take to core, weigh, skin,

and chop those 22 lbs of tomatoes.

It wasn’t until the last five pounds or so that I got smart and put them in my blender.

At that point I realized

my 16 quart pot was not nearly large enough for this endeavor.

I threw the processed tomatoes in two separate containers into the fridge,

threw the kids into the van, and set off to buy a bigger pot.

the time was Friday 4 pm

Saturday morning dawned

I knew this was the day I would achieve my salsa dream.

I planned to start cooking in my borrowed kitchen at 9 am.

underestimation again

It wasn't until an hour past that goal

when I had chopped my last pepper and onion and

loaded everything (and everyone) into the van

The salsa started boiling at 11:30

and by 3 pm Saturday Joe had a new honda civic

and I had 14 pints of salsa canned and hot