Preserving

I've been busy reading all the end of summer, "I'm canning this and that and getting my winter stores ready" posts in people's blogs. Despite my childhood dislike of canning, I've become jealous of all of you with functional gardens (unlike my parsley and chive garden). So as a result, I decided to make a huge batch of meat sauce and tomorrow when it's done and we've had dinner, I'll can the remainder (turns out, btw, the recipe makes somewhere in the 6-7 quart range; sometimes more when I don't use the slow cooker). I also made another large bottle of preserved lemons, and next week I am seriously considering a large batch of Southestern-style chili to can as well.

If I'm not sick of canning by then, it will appear I've overcome my distaste for all the work of canning. I might not complain about that, since it'll keep leftover soups out of the freezer in the future.

I found out, however, that despite the ridiculously increasing food prices, this meat sauce is still really inexpensive to make. The meat was about 8 dollars (sale price), the tomato sauce went up to 3.50, and I think the other ingredients ran about 4 or 5 dollars more. Which still makes this sauce extremely economical, since it makes so-so-so-so much food.

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