Busy Saturday!

My husband surprised us all and took Friday off.  We had only seen each other about an hour a day all week.  So it was nice to have that extra day with him.  We were blessed with MANY tomatoes from our dog groomer.  She had so many grow in her garden and remembered us telling her our garden was eaten by the deer. 

My husband and I picked the tomatoes up last night.  We had 4 bushels of roma tomatoes which are great for sauce. So we cut them into quarters and cooked them until they became soft.   Once they were soft I ran them through my food mill I have that attaches to my kitchen aid stand mixer.  Then we fill a couple of crockpots and let them cook on low all day (about 6 hours).

This is the easiest way to make sauce that I have found.  Especially since I don't have to peel each tomato.  My food mill does it all for me. 

Fill the jars with the sauce, leaving about a half inch headspace.  Seal the jar and process for 40 minutes.  I add lemon juice to each jar to make sure there is enough acid for water bath canning. 

Tomorrow we will be canning tomato juice and making Tomato Apple Jam.  The jam may wait until I get home from work on Monday.  The Tomato Jam recipe came from my friend Sandra over at Full Bellies, Happy Kids about 4 years ago.  I've been making it ever since.  It is SO good.  I know the sound of tomatoes and apples together doesn't really sound good.  But trust me it is SO good, especially on a warm homemade biscuit.  I've also added a jar into tomato sauce for a twist on sloppy joes.

How was your Saturday?  Have a blessed Lord's Day tomorrow.