Before I got married, I never really had to cook often, unless I wanted to. And to be honest, it was like an occasional hobby before I got married. I made a few things really well, and when my husband and I were still just kind of hanging out and dating, and I was still trying to impress the heck out of him, I would cook, but it certainly was not an every night thing. So then we got married, and had triplets, and eating out or getting take out or fast food was not financially sound. That first year of marriage we ate a lot of crappy hamburger helper, not that I couldn't do anything better, but being pregnant with triplets and then having newborns, I didn't have a lot of energy or focus to plan meals, grocery shop, and then cook. So I've really been improving and exploring recipes since that part of our lives. I love to cook. I love to bake. I love slice, dice, chop, mix, bake, braise, broil, etc...
BUT THAT'S NOT ALL....
I've discovered canning! AND I LOVE IT! We don't have a super extensive garden, so I haven't done much canning this year, because I don't want to buy a million pounds of extra produce when I go shopping. Luckily though, my parents have a decent garden, and my in-laws have a great garden. My parents will be great, but it's their first year having their garden, and I think they are planning on adding more stuff every year until they have everything they want/need.
Anyway, this year all we had in our yard was our grapes. We picked our grapes, washed them, made them into juice and from there made our own jelly! It's fantastic. A little over a quart of juice made 8 jars of jelly! And I also made my own sauerkraut this year. 6 pints! And I did my own pumpkin puree, but since they have lower acidity that other fruits and veggies, I didn't really can it, per say, I just made the puree from fresh pumpkins and then froze it for later use.
Can't wait to expand on this next year. Also, I plan on asking my in-laws if they have an overflow of jalapenos they wouldn't mind parting with. I really want to make/can candied jalapenos.
