Can Do, Can Do.

The product of "Saturday Date Night"

A few things learned while canning...

• When they say "Hot Sweet Pickles" in the recipe, believe it. These pickles are more like candied pickles that will also singe your tongue. Adjust recipe accordingly.  And stop eating the pickles until your mouth burns.
  
• Do not - I repeat - do not overestimate the amount of cucumbers the simmering pot of sticky pickling liquid on the stove can hold. When it over flows, it will create that lovely burnt sugar smell that manages to drown out the smell of vinegar.
  
• After chopping 6 pounds of jalapenos, remember to wash your hands several times before you touch your lips. You have learned this lesson before, but have some sort of mental block.
  
• No, the jars are not leaking salt into the water. You need to remember that San Antonio tap water is just barely liquid and contains so much calcium and magnesium than when it boils down it will leave snow drifts in the bottom of the canning pot. Really.
  
• Stop checking to see if the lids have sealed! They will seal on their own time. Just as a watched pot never boils, a watched jar never seals.
  
• Don't be so proud of yourself. Most women a generation or less ago knew how to can food as a basic household task. It's not rocket science.
  
• Take a moment to marvel at the fact that you managed to marry someone who is perfectly happy to spend a Saturday evening canning jalapenos with you and ran to the grocery store twice to pick up reinforcement supplies. Be proud.
  
  We are canning again this evening since we seem to be experiencing a plague of cucumbers.