Middle grandson came to us yesterday and brought a big bag of sweet and
hot chiles and tomatoes plus a couple of big onions and some cilantro.
Wanted help in putting up his first ever batch of salsa. Got out my copy
of "So Easy to Preserve" and he found a recipe he liked. Showed him how
to clean out the chiles and peel the onions and then we put them through
the food processor and then chop them fine with a chef's knife. From
there we went to blanching the tomatoes, into the ice water, then peel
and core them. Also chopping the cilantro.

Took about an hour to do all of that and then into the cook pot along
with all the other ingredients and brought the salsa to a boil. Showed
him how to put the jars into the boiling water canning pot rack, add a
tad of vinegar (our drinking water is fairly high in calcium) and set
the burner on high. Water in the canner was boiling by the time
everything else was ready so we proceeded to filling the jars, wiping
down the jar lips to ensure a good seal, putting on the hot lids and
then the rings and back into the BWB for the required time period.

We ended up with six pints of a fairly decent salsa, he was a little
disappointed it wasn't hot to the taste but I just told him to use more
hot chiles next go around and less sweet chiles. He's happy with the
salsa. Says the pint we didn't process got eaten yesterday afternoon and
wife and kids liked it too.

I think I have installed the home preserving bug into him, he was asking
about where to get the necessary equipment, etc. We shall see how this
develops. We got him into gardening about a year ago and gave him a
vacuum sealer for a family Chrismas present and he uses it regularly so
I think he's hooked. Another preserving junky. Makes the fifth
generation in my family. He will find out it is addictive once he starts
going to estate and church sales looking for cheap jars and equipment.

Happy George