canning tomato sauce

Michael was up at 6 AM for golf on Monday (8/21), and I joined him shortly afterwards to get ready for Loree.  I sliced, cored and seeded my roma tomatoes

washed and awaiting my knife

on an oiled cookie sheet, ready to go into a 425 degree oven for an hour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and roasted them in the oven.  I was ready to go when she came at 9 AM to show me how to can my sauce.  I added in a mixture of olive oil/basil/garlic/balsamic vinegar and got the sauce into jars.  Here’s Loree, explaining how to use the pressure cooker:

 

After 20 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure, we turned it off and let it cool.  I only got 3 pints of sauce from my roma tomatoes…but Loree brought me a PECK of the last of the tomatoes from her garden!!!!!  She stayed to help me slice, core and de-seed, then we put them on the stove top to cook down.  I told her she might as well head for home, as I was going to cook them for at least another hour.  I got them all cooked down, and bottled up into EIGHT more pints of sauce.  After 3 separate phone calls to make sure I was doing it right….voila:

Eleven pint jars of sauce, and 2 extra cups in fridge that we will eat Tuesday night for dinner.  I was finally finished at 2 PM (Michael was already home…the second nine got rained out) and I was just exhausted, so I put my feet up and read my book (and maybe slipped a small nap in there  :- ) before we went to a new Asian place (Ming Fu at the end of Jim Wilson) for dinner.  I had an egg roll while Michael had a spring roll, then we split sizzling shrimp and scallops for dinner…yum!  When we got home, I sewed for just a bit before heading upstairs to be with my honey.