I'm not big on canning cept for the stuff which does not freeze well. I can a couple dozen pints of salsa each year, and put up a little chow-chow. Other than that, I freeze the vegetables from my garden which I can't give away. I made 8 stuffed peppers today. We ate 2 for dinner, along with canned black-eyed peas, chow-chow from last year, and cornbread. We'll do a repeat Saturday, and freeze 4 peppers for the winter. I'll repeat the process in a couple of weeks. I'll freeze around 30 pints of marinara. I'll add squash or zucchini to the marinara, and call it, spaghetti primavera when I cook it. It's good with link sausage or ground beef.

Are any of you into freezing or canning? Share!

We can a lot of meat, hog, deer, fish but no veggies. We don't have a garden and it seems that every time someone want to give us a quanity of veggies, other plans get in the way.

I freeze. I don't do any canning, its a pain to me. Mostly beans, chili, tortillas, meat and fish.

Bill, do you make your own marinara?

Yes! I do make my own marinara. Most recipies call for cooking down the tomatoes for a couple of hours. I don't do that. I add tomato paste. It only take me around an hour from start to finish. I add the fresh basil at the end. I also freeze several pints creole sauce. It's about the same as the marinara, cept I add celery, and store bought roux.

You mind sharing your recipe? No need for pics. I always like to hear people's version of sauces.

I mainly freeze as well. The only things I can are preserves and pickles. Though I may try a few more things this year.

Don't mind a bit. Look on any bottle of salsa, or jar of marinara. You'll see that the main ingredient is tomato paste. I don't make my own tomato paste. One can of tomato paste with two cans of water will make tomato sauce. I use about a 1 to 5 ratio of tomato paste. I scald the tomatoes, usually around 2 dozen, and put them in ice water before skinning them. I cut off about a third of the stem end of the tomatoes, core them, and squeeze out most of the seeds, then chop them in the food chopper. I'll add bell peppers, jalapenos, (one per pint) onions, garlic, oregano, sugar and basil to the marinara. I use a 4 to 5 quart pot. I add two 12 ounce cans of tomato paste at the end. Sometimes I add squash or zucchini. I'll cool, bag and freeze the marinara.

I start the same with my salsa, except I hand chop some of my onions, and jalapenos. I leave out the bell peppers, oregano, and garlic, while adding vinegar. I only cook until the onions turn clear. I use 4 jalapenos per pint for my salsa. I put the salsa in pint jars, and give them a hot bath for around 20 minutes.

I make 4 to 6 pints of chow-chow. That's a green tomato relish for those of you who don't know. I chop up green tomatoes, red and green bell peppers, jalapenos (one per pint) and onions, cover with vinegar and bring to a boil. I end up with about half the volume, after straining and putting the chow-chow into pint jars. I don't hot bathe those. They always seal. I keep the chow-chow in my frig.

Bill, sounds good. Although I was confused about the tomato paste. Do you add all that water to your sauce with the 2 cans of paste?

I like to use tomato paste as well, although I usually add it to my onions, peppers, carrots, garlic and oil at the end of the saute, and let it brown up a bit, usually 2 tablespoons or so, then I'll add my tomatoes, spices, and maybe some wine.

I don't add any water. I was simply giving the delution ratio. I add the paste at the end to keep from stirring. Tomato paste will also cause big bubbles to splatter all over your stove. I have seen cooking shows where they add tomato paste to the browing process. They have it in a tube, but I've never seen a tube in the store.

I just put up my last 8 pints of salsa, as well as took my ice macker apart, between my post.

I sometimes add wine or mushrooms while making my spaghetti. I also, add garlic powder. I'm sure all of you add to your store bought spaghetti sauce.

Every now and then I pickle some peppers, okra, and some salsa.
The peppers turn out the best.

12 to 18 hatch chilis peeled
1 cup of boiling water
1/4 cup of veg oil
1/2 to 3/4 venigar
2 cloves of garlic
Salt to taste

The wife always cans several jars of strawberry and peach preserves each year. She also cans the fresh veggies out of the garden we dont freeze such as green beans,zuccini, jalepenos, serranos,tomatoes and a few jars of pickles. We are going to try some bread and butter jalepenos this year.

My wife makes dozens of jars of jam and jelly annually. She also makes some terrific jalapeno pickles.

Wife is trying to learn how to put up vegetables, but not quite getting the hang of it yet. She tried corn and it weren't much punkin, but she's come a long way from burning ice cream...

I can green beans, zucchini relish, tomatoes, applesauce, & jellies.
Make sausage, bratwurst, & ground venison then freeze it. Also freeze strawberries, blueberries, & cob corn.

What's the trick with corn? I know you have to boil it some to kill the enzymes before freezing, nut my last attempt was horrible...

me and the wife have to learn the canning thing
getting to be a lost art, cause the store is just down the road

My garden is done. I just put up 5 pints of chow-chow (green tomato relish). I have 30 pints of spaghetti sauce in the freezer, along with 16 pints of creole sause, and 8 stuffed bell peppers. I canned 24 pints of salsa.

I'm tired of it.