CAN ALL YOU CAN

It's that time of year again--well actually that time of year is almost ending, or I wouldn't be able to blog about it at all!!! Can all you can--or is it Can all? You CAN!!!

CANNING TIME.

Oh the joy of hot, sticky kitchens, loads of large metal bowls and pots to wash, boiling lids, taking out huge loads of compost, and watching the pressure cooker with nervousness for hours on end. And all for what end, exactly? Admittedly, the full shelves in the downstairs storage room are fulfilling to count and recount. At the end of the day, you can actually tally your accomplishments. But is it all worth it? Last week I canned green chili enchilada sauce . I had a surprise bumper crop of green chilis, and I thought I should use them up! We love green chili chicken enchiladas, but green chilis and the green sauce are expensive!!! One can of green chilis (4 oz) is $1.79 and a can of enchilada sauce $2.49 (10 oz) adds up too. Well, my chilis were pretty much FREE so I thought I could save a bundle. Here's what my six jars of enchilada sauce ended up costing:

1/2 hour picking green chilis from the garden, hauling them up and washing them
1/2 hour prepping chilis for roasting on trays--I'm not counting the 1 hour I roasted them, because I was making salsa (a WHOLE other story) during this time.
2 1/2 HOURS peeling, de-seeding, and chopping the green chilis (conference was on, so there was some multi-tasking going on.
2 cups chicken broth (free from an over-turned semi truck last year)
1 onion (from the garden)
4 cloves garlic: $1.00
various spices: estimated 25c
1/2 hour mixing and cooking the enchilada sauce
1 hour watching the pressure cooker with only one blow-out episode (first of the season)

TOTAL COST: 5 hours of Aneesa time: Hmmm shall we say--$50?
$1.25 food that I actually had to pay for
$51.25/6 half-pint jars= $8.54 a can. Hmmmmm. Only $6 more per can than from the store!!!

So why then, do I can?

Because I can!