recap

i'm sad to see the weekend come to a close - work was really stressful last week and due to the fact that my big project (annual report) is STILL not done, this week will be the same if not worse... i was exhausted on friday night and went to bed before 10:00, pretty sad i think but what can you do... i hung-out w/my mom on saturday and we did some canning - i've always wanted to learn since i grew-up watching her do it every summer... she would can anything and everything since it was very economical and then we could enjoy fresh veggies/fruit all year long... my grandmother did the same thing so i'm happy that this tradition has been passed down to me and i hope i can pass it along to my children... :o)

we also went to a few holiday bazaars and even though the weather was crappy (rain), it was time well spent... as for the rest of the weekend, i've been hanging out with eric doing the usual weekend thing and relaxing as much as possible... i will probably go into work early tomorrow just because i have SO much to do - i can only hope it wraps up soon so my life can get back to normal... exercise has been null & void and i'm beginning to feel it... anyway, here are some pics of my first canning experience - enjoy! :o)

i decided to make spaghetti sauce, with tomatoes from our garden, so the first step was to cook them in a spice mix for about 20-minutes...


next, you heat the mason jars in the oven and then fill them with the cooked tomatoes...


in the next step, you seal the jars and let them cook for about another 20-30 minutes...


once they're removed from the water, the jars will seal as they cool... and if done properly, the canned sauce can last for years...


i can't wait to have this sauce over pasta or on homemade pizza... yummy... :o)