The fruits, er, "veggies," of my labor...

Let me start by saying that my dear MIL is the queen of frugality.  I try to be frugal, but she takes it to a whole nother level (more stories later...)  She has always grown a huge garden, and pickled/canned/frozen every single piece of vegetable that grew there.  She has more done by 9:00 than I get done all day  (gets into her garden as the sun rises, picks, weeds, cans, etc. ~~ I'm still lounging between the sheets!)  So her son, my dh, thinks we should also have a huge garden.  The deal is, he does most of the taking care of it, and I take care of the produce after it's picked.  This weekend I worked on taking care of some of it.  Here is what was in my kitchen last night before I went to bed:

AND.....

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!!

AND, FINALLY.......

Yes, those are onions.  They've been "drying out."  Dh went through them and these are the best.  However, he said that some are a little mushy.  I think that's what I'll work on next.  I'm thinking that I'll go through them and take the 'yuckier' ones, cut out the bad parts, cut them up, and put them in small bags to go into the freezer.  Those can go into soups and such this winter.  Has anyone ever done that?

On Saturday, I took several of the cukes and made these:

Pickles!!  This is my 3rd batch this summer.  I've used the "Mrs. Wages" mix on all of them, and added extra dill and lots of garlic.  I don't usually use any mixes when I can, but my MIL says that's what she finds to be best, and if SHE will actually fork over the money for a mix, who am I to argue??

When I was working, I found canning to be kind of a pain.  Tomatoes were always ready right when school started, so I was stuck trying to get ready for school while canning tons of tomatoes/salsa at the same time.  Now that I'm a lady of leisure (HA,) I find it somewhat calming.  Weird?  I just love having something that you can look at and it's DONE.  Think of the time we spend cleaning and doing laundry.  And how long does that last??  When I can, I often leave the jars out for two or three days so I can admire my work.  It makes me feel like I've completed something that will benefit my family.  And me, lol!  I also made 2 batches of zucchini nut muffins that I split up and put in the freezer.  We'll eat on them over the winter, and I'm positive some bags will go to college with the kids when they com home searching for food like little squirrels!  Here's the recipe I used:  zucchini muffins .  Here's another great recipe for too much zucchini:  zucchini pancakes .  The recipe calls for carrots and zucchini, but I used all zucchini - as well as regular onions, since I didn't have any green ones.

Today I took those tomatoes, skinned and cored them, and got them ready for salsa - along with the peppers (cut them up.)  I don't have enough for a batch, so I'll keep them in the fridg until I get some more.  I bagged up most of the rest of the zucchini and cukes and will take them to bridge club tomorrow to pawn off on my friends!