Snow Day!

We had our first "real" snow of the season yesterday. There was a light sprinkling a couple weeks ago, but it didn't count for anything. This time we actually got a decent coating that lasted a whole DAY! But don't worry, folks, there's plenty more coming.

It's so much fun to go to bed to the sound of a dreary, slushy drizzle and wake up to find the world transformed.

 The snow was thick and wet, coating the windward sides of trees, houses, telephone poles, etc.

The sky was soft and foggy, so you could hardly tell where the earth ended and the sky began.

It was a perfect day to revisit summer by tackling some of those "blessed" tomatoes overrunning my kitchen counters. I've already made a bunch of stewed tomatoes, so I decided to try something new.

Salsa! As in, Peach-Pineapple Salsa, my absolute favorite. It wasn't bad for a first attempt, though I'll have to figure out a way to make it thicker next time. The flavor is really good, though.  And there's nothing better for warming up your home on a dreary winter day than having a canning kettle bubbling away on your burner.

After 5 quarts and 2 pints of salsa, I have almost used up all my tomatoes. Today I will make a few more quarts of spaghetti sauce and I'll be done for now. Yay! The rest of the tomatoes we can keep up with by plain eating. Canning isn't very cost-effective labor-wise, but how nice it will be to pop open a jar of summer during the prairie blizzards to come!