
I'm so excited!
I am also are using this beauty you see right there, our very first pressure canner. It's the little things (or maybe weird..? I'll get back to you on that one) that excite me. Seriously..this is coming from the girl who bought herself a crock pot with her birthday money and was excited about it. But I digress..
While the jars, lids and rings were happily sanitizing away in the dishwasher, I prepped and cleaned both sides of the sink (filling one side with cold water and leaving the other side empty), the pressure canner and the utensils. I kept the jars, lids and rings in the dishwasher until I was ready to use them so they stay nice and hot.
Do this for all tomatoes. I think a normal person would use probably 20-30... Holy tomato.
Once you've done this for all tomatoes, rough chop the toms, adding them AND the excess juices from chopping into a pot on the stove.

When the tomatoes have simmered for 10 minutes, begin transferring them to your hot jars. Make sure you have dish towels laid out on the counter, ones you don't mind getting stained, 'cause it'll get a little messy. (Turns out, the jars were cold when I was ready to pull them out of the dishwasher so I threw them into the oven on 175 for about 5 minutes.)

**Be careful not to touch the inside of the jars or lids with your bare hands as this can cause contamination.**

Using your handy-dandy canning tongs, place cans into the pressure canner. Use the instructions on your pressure canner.
According to our instructions, here's my really condensed, run-on sentence, version: add 3 qts boiling water to the pressure canner before placing the cans in, then secure the lid, place it over the burner on high, make sure the regulator is off, let the steam vent for about 10 minutes, place the regulator back on, wait for the valve to pop up, watch the pressure gauge until it reaches 11 pounds, drop the burner a little and set the timer for about 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes, use the canning tongs to take them out and let them sit in an undisturbed area for about 12-24 hours. Voila!
It was a long process and I learned a lot today. I think it took about 2 hours start to finish. Totally can't wait to try the next batch now that I know what the hell I'm doing!
All in all, it was a very successful day.
I used practically every single pot and mixing bowl in the kitchen! And I haven't even made dinner yet! At least I have the day off tomorrow, I'll postpone dishes until then.
For now, I'll just enjoy my glass of wine and listen to the fruits of our labor softly popping in the background.
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