Hmmmm...
Well when I last made Annie's Salsa, 2 summers ago..I didn't even peel or seed the tomatoes, just diced them all up..
But since they are being cooked, probably won't hurt them to sit in the fridge prepped over night..certainly the onions and peppers will be fine prepped ahead.

I can't wait for local tomatoes to come in...few more weeks before even the Eastern WA field tomatoes are ready..saw a few heirloom home growns at the Farmers market Tuesday, but by the time I go there..the only ones left were large cherry size.

I don't know what the "experts" will say here, but I know that I often peter out when canning and put the stuff in the fridge to hold it over to the next day. I guess there might be some loss of nutrients due to exposure to air. I know one year I skinned and chopped up all my tomatoes but then had to go out of town so I froze them at that point. I was certain that my salsa would be awful, but it turned out good even made with "thawed" tomatoes. I wouldn't freeze hot peppers though, they loose their zing.

Okay, you've convinced me that I can do part of the chopping today. It will save me time tomorrow and stretch my energy level. It's all the standing in one spot that wears on me.

Oh I definately agree about the standing in one spot thing!

I also prefer to can all my goodies at once..those pots of simmering stuff and boiling water can heat the heck up out of the house...

Makes sense to prep as much as you can ahead!

Like Annie says you can do mthe whole shabang tonight, refregirate and finish tomorrow. No problemo!

I agree. Prep everything and it will be fine.

I haven't noticed hot peppers losing their "zing" frozen. I freeze hot peppers all the time.

Carol

That's very interesting Carol, because I have a bunch of peppers (jalepeno and hot hungarian) right now that I'd like to freeze for a future batch of salsa. I dunno, maybe my peppers never had that much zing to begin with? Maybe I read it somewhere? Anyway, it may be like the tomato thing, I was sure you couldn't freeze them, they would loose quality, but since it was a cooked salsa it didn't seem to matter. Plus I had in essence "blanched" them to peel them.

I ran out of steam after cleaning house. I'll be doing it all today anyway! I'll have a friend helper, I think, so that will be good.

My kitchen time will be interrupted by a trip to get Alice from the fair. The FFA kids loaded their goats up at 1 am this morning. They pitched a tent and slept there since they needed to be up at 7 a.m. I hope she does well, she really put in the time this year to work with her goat. She didn't get a great looking fella, she drew last pick when they went to buy baby goats. But he got quite large, larger than last year's goat. She's hoping to get a good price at auction. She sent out letters to local businesses "marketing" her goat with a photo enclosed. She didn't do this last year.

Onward to salsa making! I'm looking forward to trying the green tomato salsa. I have some little yellow tomatoes to include.

Late to the game (as usual!) I often "can" over the course of two nights because of time constraints. I'll prep all the veggies or fruit one night, refrigerate, then cook down & can the next night. No problems.

Good luck with canning!

I read in one of the early comments that said, “you can even cook your salsa and then reheat it for canning.” That part is a no no. Do not reheat your salsa! Unfortunately, once it has been heated, you must finish your canning process. It will cause some chemical reaction that will cause the liquid to separate from your tomatoes!

Happy canning!

Dennae, I'm the author of the "Annie's Salsa" recipe and I sometimes reheat my salsa and do not seem to have any problem with the liquid separating from my tomatoes. Possibly because I squeeze out some of the "goo" or drain the tomatoes before using them, or maybe it's due to the addition of the tomato paste, but I just don't seem to have that problem.

I first made this recipe when I was still a single mother and working full time and didn't always have time to do everything in the evening after work, sometimes the canning process had to stretch over two days. It has always worked for me.

If there is a concern for you, however, feel free to prepare everything and mix it up the night before, then give it the 10 minute cook time the next day before canning. I've found that I'm not really saving that much time by cooking the night before anyway, as I have to give it time to cool a little before refrigerating it anyway. It's just as fast to simply combine the prepared ingredients and cook/can the next day.

Annie