How to Feel Like Superwomen in 3 Easy Steps

1. Grow tomatoes
2. Pick 25 pounds of them
3. Peel them, cook them into spaghetti sauce and can them



I know, I know, people can tomatoes everyday.  In fact there is probably someone down the street from me doing it right now and thinking nothing of it.  I really shouldn't feel so triumphant about it.  But I do. I really do.  I have been looking at recipes for making and canning tomato/spaghetti sauce for about three years now.  It is something I have been wanting to do so badly because it feels so much closer to making a meal then say, canning pickles.  But I always end up being overwhelmed by it all- the peeling alone was enough to intimidate me.  But this year, with a fairly good tomato crop in the garden, I finally got up the courage to do it.  Sitting alone in my kitchen (Nora napping, Grace at a friends, and Jackson at the park with my mom) with pots boiling on the stove and tomatoes spilling out of baskets in front of me- I was in complete heaven.  I used the recipe from this book with just a few changes which I will note for next year (or maybe next week...)

~ I doubled the recipe which made 7 jars of sauce- 3 quarts and 4 pints
~ I simmered the sauce for 45 minutes but in hind site I wish I would have cooked it longer, I think we would prefer it just a bit thicker
~ I added fresh basil
~ I used some sort of net thing (I think it is suppose to be for washing dedicates in the washing machine) to put the tomatoes in for the boiling water and ice water when I was peeling them.  It worked really well.
~ The whole process took about 4 hours

Next up... enchilada sauce.