Salsa Jamming

The end of canning season has been declared here at the Three Cats Ranch. I guess I was lying when I said I wanted to make some plum barbecue sauce yesterday. When I was finished with the tomatoes yesterday, I was really finished, and I have the clean stove top to prove it....for five minutes, anyway.

So here was yesterday's effort. Four pints of tomato salsa.

And then 7 half-pints of Amy's Tomato Jam. This stuff is so good. It takes a long time to cook it down. When you see the color change from bright red to brick red, you know you're finished.

After I finished canning yesterday, I still needed to run to the post office and to the grocery store. When I got home, I did some housework. Canning always puts me behind on virtually everything. By day's end, I was a pooped pup. Fortunately, I had my cat to help me relax while I iced my aching knee.

I can't resist showing you my pantry shelves. They aren't as impressive as my grandmother's, but then, she lived on a farm. My canned good take up two full shelves, and a part of a third. On the shelf below, there are jellies and jams on the left, barbecue sauces in the middle, and pickles and relishes on the right.

Then on the shelf below (which turns a corner), there are canned tomatoes on the left, then pasta sauce back in the corner, then (moving left to right) salsa, applesauce, pie fillings, and chutneys.

A lot is left over from last year (and a few from the year before). It's kind of like having money in the bank. Or a full gas tank. Or that feeling you get when you finish up a stint in the dentist's chair. It's good to be finished for the year. Although, I may relent if there are plums when we get back from our trip. Matthew will be here while we're gone. He's written himself a note to check on the plums. He'll pick some and put them in the refrigerator. I don't know if they'll last long enough, but it's worth a try.

Now here's something. Sadie is kind of like a human baby in that we can buy all kinds of cat toys for her, but her favorites are the detritus from everyday items. Yesterday I used up the last of a roll of Press 'n Seal. I wanted to recycle the tube and the box, but the tube was held inside the box by some plastic end caps that had to be removed. When I had them off, one fell on the floor, and she was on it like white on rice.

Another of her favorite toys are the little plastic caps that come off electrical plugs used to protect them during shipping. She likes anything small and lightweight that will skitter across the floor as if alive.

Matthew spent the night here, and he had dinner with us last night. Even though I've ruled out barbecue sauce, temporarily at least, I decided we should have a dessert with our dinner. I needed three plums and two apples to make this Magic Apple Plum Cobbler from Smitten Kitchen. This is so simple to make and so good. It requires two apples and three plums.

You might recall our pitiful little apple tree. The picture below was taken last year. Since then, we've staked it up. It still leans to the right, but not as badly.

Well, this year, it produced nine apples. It isn't much, but it's something.

I've been watching it like a hawk. Last week, I noticed one of the apples had fallen to the ground. Then a couple of days ago, I noticed there were now just five apples on the tree, and none on the ground. I'm not sure what happened to the other three, but I suspect our friendly deer have been by. So when I decided to make the cobbler, I snagged two apples from the tree. It feels fairly momentous to be actually using a few apples from this tree planted nearly 15 years ago. It must have heard us talking about removing it recently, and it's snapping to attention, doing the job it was hired to do.

There's still one more plum dessert I'd like to make before we leave. I'll wait a few days and then give it a go. Today I should have some time for sewing. I'll be doing laundry and a couple of other housekeeping chores, and it's also a CSA pick-up day. Even so, I'll have several free hours to get after those 16 stars for the Sundress quilt.

Our weather is heating up for the next day or two. It's been a relatively cool summer. Today might be a day to turn on the air-conditioning.