Chrome....book & out of control garden produce!

You all probably know that Trace Adkins is one of my favorite musical artists...and I love his song, "Chrome." Yah, look up the lyrics. If you know me, it's all about me...' hell, I wanna drive'. Ha ha! I do love pure country music...

So I recently faced the decision to replace my laptop since it was...old....slow...and painfully frustrating to use. Kevin was sick of listening to me complain about its limitations- well, it was a 6 year old emachine...so I kind of expected to get a newer one during the past couple of years, but I kept using it and waiting until I HAD to switch.

Anyhow, back to 'Chrome'. So, I decided that a cool new laptop/tablet would be the perfect thing for me. I researched the Surface and finally bought one...and I hated it. Fortunately, I had a 14 day return policy (thanks, Staples!) and traded it after MORE research for a Chromebook. And I still love 'Chrome'.

It is very easy to use; has all the features I need; and best of all, is totally a Google product! So- Drive, Calendar, Gmail, Google + and Blogger all work wonderfully well with it!

So, I've been loading all of my pictures from my iphone into the Google+ photo feature....I'm still figuring it out, but I am sure I'll get the hang of it eventually.

Our garden has been EXPLODING lately. I've been donating 25-35 lbs. of produce a week (well, mostly zucchini, yellow squash and pattypan squash) since July but now it's really taking off!

I'm keeping all the corn, green beans, pickling cucumbers, jalepenos and cayenne peppers since we eat every bit of those veggies and we are also keeping all of the large tomatoes for canning and just slicing and making a meal out of them...like this dinner last night...

but today, I started my favorite type of cooking of all time...

CANNING!!!
I can't tell you how much I love to can home grown produce!
Today, I canned 4 pints of Kosher Dill pickles and 5 pints of crushed tomatoes. Today, I used the Cherokee Purple tomatoes (nice and meaty and beautifully purple-y color) but I still have a stock pile for this weekend.

I know you are all jealous. I'll use these tomatoes for soups, stews, spaghetti sauce, maque choux sauce, Mexican dishes, Italian dishes, Moroccan dishes and more throughout the winter! Pat & Melissa gave me a pressure canner for my birthday and boy, did it get a workout today! I am anticipating using it at least twice a week for the next few weeks!

I'm thinking that I'll be canning spicy green beans this weekend....to use as a crunchy spicy stir stick in a Bloody Mary...along with some cayenne peppers in there!

Raspberries and Cherry tomatoes (sweet one millions) are also bursting at the seams- we have been eating raspberry sauce on homemade waffles and cherry tomatoes...pretty much every day at most meals!