It was sort of a dull weekend around my house. Saturday was Purdue Football day, and Tim took Victoria to the game. I stayed home and made salsa. We (and by “we,” I mean Tim and the kids) planted a garden this summer. Mostly peppers and tomatoes, with a few varieties of squash thrown in as well. The squash didn’t make it. Some kind of bugs got to them before we did. The tomatoes fared a little better. We had a fair harvest. Nothing crazy, but enough to keep Tim eating fried green tomatoes and BLTs for a couple of weeks. The peppers, on the other hand, went nuts. We had tons of peppers this month. Salsa and sun peppers, jalapenos, and habaneros, along with a few bell peppers. They were beautiful, green, red, and yellow.

Aren’t they beautiful?!  This is only about 1/4 of our total pepper harvest. We had a few more tomatoes than those shown here, but not many. So, in order to make salsa, I had to go to my dad and ask him for some. Fortunately, his neighbor planted something like 60 tomato plants. If you’ve ever wondered what a 5-gallon bucket of tomatoes looks like, all scrubbed clean and sitting on a counter, wonder no more.

So, I figured I’d start making salsa around noon on Saturday and be done by 4:00, when we were supposed to go out with Tim’s parents. Did I mention I didn’t have any help in this salsa-making mission? Tim and Victoria were at the football game, remember. I started chopping the onions. I figured it would be best to get the least pleasant part out of the way first. Then, I started on the tomatoes. Contrary to my estimates, by 4:00 I had only just finished chopping the tomatoes! I still had peppers to chop and garlic to smash. So, Tim and the kids went out with his parents. I persevered in the kitchen, slaving over a hot stove for hours making salsa. My last, smallest, hottest batch looked like this:

This was the batch containing a habanero and a few salsa peppers. I was afraid to put my head over the pot to smell it for fear the heat would singe off my eyebrows and eyelashes! But, by 7:30 pm, I had made and canned 2.25 gallons of salsa.

I enjoyed the rest of the evening, sitting quietly in the living room. Knitting on Victoria’s skirt and watching The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. Here’s Victoria’s skirt (yarn: Berroco Keltic; pattern: I’m making it up as I go):

She wants me to make a One Skein Wonder to go with it. I need to get more yarn to finish the skirt anyway, so I might as well get enough for that. Sunday morning, I was knitting the skirt, and FOUR rows from the end, I ran out of yarn. Grrrr. Oh well. I’ll grab a couple more balls when I go to River Knits tomorrow evening.

Yesterday, I mentioned that I started the Lift and Separate from Big Girl Knits. Well, here it is, on the needles:

The yarn, Berroco Ultra Alpaca, is heavenly! Really wonderful stuff. And the color is not quite as dark as it appears on my monitor. Anyway, it’s nice stuff!

I had a nice morning today. Elizabeth, Michelle and I (you can see a pic of the three of us on the River Knits homepage) got together to plan some wonderful upcoming events for River Knits! Last year, we put together a Yarn Rave (or, as some shops call it, a yarn tasting), which was a huge success. So, we’re planning another one for November 3. And, we have another River Knits Retreat in the planning stages! We’ve reserved the location and have contacted a possible instructor. It’s very exciting! 

Sadly, I can’t think of anything else to talk about right now. Which means, I suppose I should go in the family room and spend some time with…the family. Lord, please tell me “Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses” is almost over!