I think I CAN... I think I CAN!

Do you can?  I have over the past couple years started trying my hand at canning surpluses from our garden or from great values picked up at the local farmer's markets.

I've been trying my hand at breadmaking and wanted to try bagels.  We went out to pick up some malt so I could try my hand at bagel making.  Many, many dollars later with NO malt in hand I had these beautiful red sweet peppers that I now needed to do something with.  Isn't that how it always goes?  You go out for one thing and end up with a cartload of things you weren't intending to get but discover you cannot live without! ;)

I'm thinking I needed to clean the freezers out to make room for my new acquisition.   Forty six of them to be exact and most of them were HUGE!  If you put your thumbs together  and then pointer fingers together and form a circle that is how large these peppers were.  (yep..I see you forming your fingers in a circle! haha)  We picked up this bushel for $21 at the local farm market.  I didn't think this was a bad deal at all, they will make many fine meals.

I thought I would slice up and freeze the majority of them and maybe dehydrate a bunch also and maybe can some too!  I was so full of energy at just the thought of all the yummy meals I'd get from these peppers.   I love nothing better than caramelized onions and peppers atop any meat.  I was such a happy camper!

Aren't these just gorgeous!

 

I had started out the day with high hopes of getting all of my red peppers that I purchased taken care of.  Whether frozen, roasted or dehydrated I was set to accomplish everything .  I managed to get the roasted ones done.  We ended up with a clogged drain which unfortunately involved the drain my kitchen goes to.  So it was NO fun cooking with not using my sink.

Here is my first ever adventure in roasting red peppers and canning them.  My house smelled like roasted peppers...which smells delicious!

I decided to roast my peppers on our grill as I have an electric stove and figured it would be much easier to get the char I wanted.  Here they are all lined up pretty.

 As they began to char I thought I'd stick on the few jalapenos that I had.  Maybe giving a couple of the jars a zing to them. 

I guessed they were done.  I had never cooked anything that wasn't done until I burnt it. *grin*

Into the bucket they went and got covered waiting for the steam to loosen the skins making them simple to take off.

Here I am taking off the skins and removing the seeds, membranes and cutting them up into the size pieces I wanted.

Boiling my lids and rings: (I love the steam in the photo)

I sterilized my jars and now I'm going to fill them.

 

Into my pressure canner and waiting 35 minutes for them to process.  Check out the reflections of my kitchen in the top of my pressure canner...cool eh? ;)

I ended up from all those red peppers that I had on the grill into 6 pints of roasted peppers.  In two of the pints I also added the jalapenos.

I think they turned out pretty well for a first ever attempt at canning peppers.  The next day I sliced up and dehyrated up the rest of my pepper treasure.

I hope I haven't bored you with my little book here of canning...but I thought some of you that have never tried canning would see how easy this is.

Onto my next adventure in canning.....maybe spaghetti sauce next summer if my tomatoes from my garden do super well!