This is a hell of a lot of work!
The tomatoes are ripening in the garden big time. Last week when I made sauce, I decided that I would alternate weeks between making sauce and making salsa. The goal is to be able to keep up with the tomatoes, but at the same time trying to be efficient with the work process, and minimize mess-making, since our kitchen is small and crappy.
So since last week was a sauce week, this week is salsa week. I spent some time looking for recipes to try, and then I got turned on to the idea of canning the salsa instead of freezing it in ziplock bags. I think it is less likely to get buried like it will in the feezer and we will be more likely to eat it canned (after all, when you have a craving for chips and salsa, you don't exactly want to wait for it to thaw).
So I read up on canning. I made a trip to Walmart (I hate them, but that was the only place where I was positive they'd have canning supplies). I'm doing the hot water bath method of canning, since I don't want to spend the money on a pressure canner. But I guess with the hot water method, you have to be kind of careful with the recipe that you use. I guess if the recipe isn't acidic enough, nasty stuff can grow and make you sick when you eat it.
So I found a recipe I wanted to try. It calls for peeling the tomatoes, which I had never done before. So I peeled 40 tomatoes. That was actually kind of fun. Then I started removing the seeds and chopping them by hand. Crap, it takes a freaking long time! Peeling the tomatoes seems to make it harder to remove the seeds. The recipe calls for 8 cups of diced tomato, and my 40 tomatoes will get me maybe 5 cups (I stopped at 4 because my fingers were all shriveled up from the juice). So I think I'll just make half of a batch (3 pints) with that recipe. Here I was all proud of how domestic I was being by trying out canning, and just the first step in making the salsa has me ready to be done with the whole thing. I haven't even brought the canning stuff in from the car yet.
I still have probably another 40 tomatoes to use up, so I'll try another recipe tomorrow. And I'll be lazy about it, and just remove the seeds and throw everything in the food processor. Martha Stewart I am not.