Now that the garden is in full swing we are in the process of deciding what to do with everything that we have grown.  This week we bottled peppers, and tomatoes.  It’s only our second time bottling and our first time with our own stuff.  It’s been an interesting learning process,  reading, buying items and reading some more.  I’m not sure if bottling is any cheaper than just buying can goods.  The initial investment it’s that bad but it does take time and energy to produce a bottle of tomatoes and big can of tomatoes at Costco is so cheap.  The real test will be it they taste any better than the can tomatoes.

Today I decided to use a bunch of the tomatoes to make what we call tomato cook down,  I also made jalapeno cheddar bread.  I just bought a new enamel dutch oven to try baking it in and it work out really well.  The only issue with the dutch oven is that I had to remove the handle to the lid.  The handle can only be heated to 350 degrees which is a problem when you are baking bread at 450.  I can understand having a plastic handle when cooking on the stove top way less likely to burn your hand but for me it doesn’t work.  After some research on the internet It appears that a lot of other people have had to same problem.  The dutch oven that I purchased was only $55,  prices for the oven range from 50-70 depending on the store that it is purchased at.