I did something new!  Technically two new things today, but the one was a target of opportunity.

You see, this morning I had plans to can pasta sauce.  I needed to go through the freezer to find any/all tomatoes I've tossed in there.  I decided to embrace it since it's crammed and I couldn't find diddly when I wanted it.

EVERYTHING came out and I cleaned the bottom/sides.  I reorganized as I put things back - meat to one side, fruit and veg to the other, popsicles and a few other odds and ends on the drawer on top (it is a bottom drawer fridge/freezer).  I also found, all combined I had about 3 loafs of bread in there.  I tend to not use the heels of bread in sandwiches and whatnot, so I toss them in the freezer and use them when making meatballs and/or meatloaf.  Apparently I haven't made enough meatloaf lately and it's been a long time since I made meatballs.  As to reclaim this space I removed all but a few slices and dried them out for bread crumbs whilst the pasta sauce cooked.  I've never made bread crumbs before.  I know that's pretty basic, but it's true.

I also made a double batch of my banana bread recipe.  Yep, you guessed it, lots of bananas in that freezer too.  But I wanted to make a batch anyhow as to offer a thank you to the neighbor who shared a delightful pulled pork they cooked earlier last week and a neighbor who gave us peaches from their tree.

I've never canned before.  My anxiety is high.  I have read so many (conflicting) instructions.  I went with the most conservative of all things with one exception - that is, I forgot to add the citric acid that was bought for this purpose.  As I type the 6 pints of sauce are sitting to cool.  I'm glad I didn't buy larger jars as even with the huge pot I bought they would not have fit (height wise).  I could probably get a 7th bottle in the pot.  I can see how slow going things would be given that you have to get all of that water to boil to sterilize and then allow the jars to sit in there for a long/slow cook.  If you wanted to do several rounds that would definitely slow you down.

I wanted to do some pickled eggs and beets too but the farmer's market didn't have beets this past week.  I also would like to do applesauce, but again - I keep seeing conflicting information, some indicating that you can't/shouldn't do apple sauce w/o a pressure canner.  All for the best as I am exhausted and my feet hurt.