Firstly, I had a chili sauce party a few weeks ago. I had a bunch of friends over and we spent the day making two big batches of homemade chili sauce. Here are the highlights:
It was like tomato-mania in my kitchen for a while. We had approximately 60 tomatoes and 20 onions. It was wild.
First, we had to blanch them (heat them up, then cool them down really fast)...
then peel them and chop them up...
then we strained them, and finally we threw them in the pot with the onions, vinegar and sugar.I'm not sure how, but we never ended up getting any photos of the pots full of chili sauce. How disappointing. But I did get photos of the canning process:
You have to sterilize the jars before you fill them.
... and if you forget to bring a canning funnel, filling them can be kind of messy.
We ended up with a lot of jars. It was fantastic.My other project was the new rat cage! Brandon assisted me as we built a new, improved rat complex based on Kelli's own design. I didn't get many 'in-progress' photos of this project, as it basically sat on our living room floor for 2 weeks and we would work on it whenever we got time. But I can show you a bit of it:
Brandon drew up a blueprint because, unlike me, he understands that carpentry requires planning.
We bought a bunch of 2x2s and I spent two mornings staining them all. Two coats, for extra water-proofing. Or, in the case of a rat cage, urine-proofing.Brandon assembled the frame, then I took the chicken wire, cut it, bent it to fit, and tacked it in place. The finished product is amazing. The litter boxes slide underneath for easy cleaning.
They love to climb around and play in their new cage.
I also decided to put their food in the top hammock, to encourage them to climb. Otherwise they would just hang out on the bottom.So now you know what I've been up to lately. And I'm sorry again for the hiatus. But I should have lots of projects to show you soon. Stay tuned!
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